Ahaziah, son of Jehoram and Athaliah, reigned over Judah only one year. His short reign continued his father's: he walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the LORD, because as son-in-law of the house of Ahab he came under its counsel (II Kings 8:26-27). His grandmother was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, so the wicked influence of Israel's royal house, joined to Judah through Athaliah's marriage to Jehoram, shaped him as it had shaped his father. After his death, his mother Athaliah had the male heirs killed and unlawfully made herself queen. Ahaziah's sister hid his son Jehoash in the Temple, and he remained there six years while Athaliah ruled. Ahaziah's evil legacy, together with that of Jehoram, left behind high places built under the influence of Israel's kings, which his son Jehoash, though a more moral king, failed to destroy.

Ahaziah, king of Israel, fell through a lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria and became sick. Instead of turning to the God of Israel, he sent messengers to enquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, whether he would recover. His error was not in seeking help for his injury, since there would have been nothing sinful in seeking a physician's counsel and perhaps even treatment. His sin was leaving God out of the picture entirely. The angel of the Lord sent Elijah to intercept the messengers with a rebuke: was it because there was no God in Israel that the king went to inquire of a false god? God then declared that Ahaziah would not come down from the bed he had gone up on, but would surely die. His example, like King Asa's, who sought the physicians and not the Lord, reinforces the principle that no part of life, including sickness, is to be lived apart from God. Seeking God comes first, and human help is not forbidden but must never replace Him.