OCHOZIAS (Joachaz). — King of Judah, son of Joram (v.) and Athaliah; he reigned for only one year (842 B.C.). He was among the few members of the royal family who escaped deportation during the terrible incursion of the Philistines and Edomites into the territory of Judah during the reign of Joram (2 Chron. 21:16-17). Having ascended the throne at the age of twenty-two, he followed in his father’s footsteps, pursuing a policy opposed to the house of Jehoshaphat, in imitation of the house of Ahab, to which he was related by marriage.
Upon him, as upon his father, the baleful influence of Queen Athaliah, daughter of Ahab, king of Israel, was exercised. “He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly” (2 Chron. 22:3; cf. 2 Kings 8:27). He joined with Joram, his uncle, king of Israel, in the expedition against Hazael, king of Damascus, to retake Ramoth-gilead. But when he went to Jezreel to visit the wounded Joram, IEHU (v.), the new king of Israel, who, after killing Joram, sought also to destroy O., because he was the son of the daughter of Ahab (2 Kings 8:28 ff.). Pursued and wounded in the ascent of Gur near Ibleam (modern Bel’amah, 2 km south of Jenin), O. was put to death by Jehu’s order at Megiddo (ibid. 9:27; in Samaria, according to 2 Chron. 22:9: the geographical discrepancy may be resolved by supposing that the chronicler limited himself to a general indication of the region without specifying, as 2 Kings does, the precise place; or one must suppose a copyist’s error in one of the two versions).
His death had disastrous consequences for the kingdom of Judah. With the cruel Queen Athaliah, his mother, left in control, she carried out a massacre of all the descendants of the royal line: of O.’s sons, only a child of one year, Joash (v.), future king of Judah, was saved.