Chronology of Melakhim II 14-15/2

Chronology of Melakhim II 14-15

Exegetical Approaches

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Reinterpreting the verse

Sources:Seder Olam, Radak

"בִּשְׁנַת עֶשְׂרִים וָשֶׁבַע שָׁנָה לְיָרׇבְעָם מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל מָלַךְ עֲזַרְיָה" – The commentators suggest two ways of rereading the verse:

• Radak reads the verse as twenty-seven years from the end of Yerovam's reign.  Since Yerovam reigned for forty-one years, twenty-seven years from the end is fourteen years, which is when Amatzyah died and Uziyahu replaced him.
• Seder Olam Rabbah suggests that the verse is not referring to the actual coronation of Uziyahu, rather the verse is counting his years from the time at which he got leprosy.  Uziyahu had been king for twenty-seven years¹ before he got leprosy.

"בִּשְׁנַת שְׁלֹשִׁים וּשְׁמֹנֶה שָׁנָה לַעֲזַרְיָהוּ מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה מָלַךְ זְכַרְיָהוּ"

• According to Radak, Yerovam's forty-first year was the twenty-seventh year of Uziyahu.  Thus, we would have expected Zecharyahu to begin his reign in that same year.  However, the verse above indicates that he was coronated only in the thirty-eighth year of Uziyahu, leaving a gap of eleven years.  Radak fills the gap by saying that there was a coregency,² and Zecharyahu overlapped with Yerovam for eleven years, leaving only six months in which Zecharyahu reigned alone.
• According to Seder Olam,³ Yerovam began to reign three years before Uziyahu.  Therefore, the thirty-eighth year of Uziyahu was the forty-first year of Yerovam, and Zecharyahu began to reign as soon as Yerovam died.  This is assuming there is a coregency of three years between Yerovam and Yoash.  The last three years of Yoash's reign, Yerovam reigned together with him.

Coregency between Amatzyahu and Uziyahu – Seder Olam explains the need for the language "אַחֲרֵי שְׁכַב־הַמֶּלֶךְ עִם־אֲבֹתָיו" (Melakhim II 14:22), to emphasize that Uziyahu built Eilat once he began to reign alone, after Amatzyahu's death.

Republic

R. Moshe Ehrenreich

"בִּשְׁנַת שְׁלֹשִׁים וּשְׁמֹנֶה"

¹

According to Seder Olam, Uziyahu began to reign three years after Yerovam, because they say there was a coregency between Uziyahu and Amatzyahu for the last fifteen years of Amatzyahu's reign.  Therefore, at the twenty-seventh year of Yerovam, Uziyahu had been king for already twenty-seven years and not only fifteen years.

² These eleven years are not counted in Yerovam's sum of forty-one years, nor in Zecharyahu's sum of six months.

³ There are different versions of the Seder Olam.  The GR"A has a version of the Seder Olam which says that Yerovam coreigned with Yoash for three years.
Alternatively, Radak fills the three years gap in a coregency between Yerovam and Zecharyahu, suggesting that Zecharyahu reigned for three years together with Yerovam, and alone for only six months.