build Tarshish ships (for the word, see pp. 105f) for the voyage to Ophir is expanded in 2Ch 20:36-37, where we learn that Jehoshaphat had allied himself with Ahaziah of Israel for this purpose, and that the prophet Eliezer predicted the destruction of his ships on account of this alliance. When the ships had been broken in pieces in Eziongeber, no doubt by a storm, Ahaziah made this fresh proposal to him: “Let my people sail with thy people;” but Jehoshaphat would not. Ahaziah evidently wanted to persuade Jehoshaphat to make another attempt, after the destruction of the ships which were first built; but Jehoshaphat did not agree to it any more, because it was impossible for him, after the fulfilment of Eliezer's prediction, to expect a more favourable result. Thus the two accounts can be harmonized in a very simple manner, with the exception of the words “to go to Tarshish,” which we find in the Chronicles in the place of “to go to Ophir,” the reading in our text, and which sprang from an erroneous interpretation of the expression “ships of Tarshish” (see above, pp. 105f). The Chethîb עשׂר is an error of the pen for עשׂה (Keri); but נשׁבּרה (Chethîb) is not to be altered into נשׁבּרוּ, since the construction of a singular verb with the subject following in the plural is by no means rare (vid., Ewald, §317, a.). On Eziongeber and Ophir, see at 1Ki 9:26 and 1Ki 9:28.
Verse 51
Reign of Ahaziah of Israel. - 1Ki 22:51. For the datum “in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat,” see at 2Ki 1:17.
Verses 52-53
Ahaziah walked in the way of his father and his mother, who had introduced the worship of Baal into the kingdom, and in the way of Jeroboam, who had set up the calves (cf. 1Ki 16:30-33). - In 1Ki 22:53 it is again expressly added, that he adored and worshipped Baal, as in 1Ki 16:31. - With this general description of his character not only is the chapter brought to a close, but the first book of Kings also, - very unsuitably, however, since the further account of Ahaziah's reign and of his death is given in 2 Kings 1 of the following book. It would have been incomparably more suitable to commence a fresh chapter with 1Ki 22:52, and indeed to commence the second book there also.
