OCHOZIAS (JOACHAZ). - King of Judah, son of Jehoram (v.) and Athaliah; he reigned only one year (842 B.C.). He was among the few members of the royal family who escaped deportation in the terrible incursion of the Philistines and Edomites into the territory of Judah during the reign of Jehoram (II Par. 21, 16-17). Having ascended the throne at the age of twenty-two, he followed in his father's footsteps, shaping his policy along anti-Yahwist lines, after the example of the house of Ahab, to which he was related.
The influence of Queen Athaliah, daughter of Ahab king of Israel, was baneful for him as it had already been for his father. "He too walked in the way of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor in doing evil" (II Par. 22, 3; cf. II Reg. 8, 27). Together with Jehoram his uncle, king of Israel, he took part in the expedition against Hazael king of Damascus for the reconquest of Ramoth-gilead. But having gone to Jezreel to visit Jehoram, who had been wounded in the battle, both were surprised by the new king of Israel, Jehu (v.), who, after killing Jehoram, wished to do away with O. as well, because he was the son of Ahab's daughter (II Reg. 8, 28 ff.). Pursued and wounded on the ascent of Gur not far from Ibleam (present-day Bel'ameh, 2 km. south of Jenin), O. was put to death by order of Jehu near Megiddo (ibid. 9, 27; in Samaria according to II Par. 22, 9: the geographical discrepancy can be resolved by supposing that the chronicler limited himself to a generic indication of the region without specifying, as II Kings does, the precise place; or one must posit a copyist's error in one of the two accounts).
His death had disastrous consequences for the kingdom of Judah. The cruel Queen Athaliah, his mother, having been left as arbiter, massacred all the descendants of the royal line: of O.'s sons only a one-year-old child, Joash (v.), the future king of Judah, could be saved.