Bible Strands
1 Kings 22:40
And Ahab rested with his fathers, and his son Ahaziah reigned in his place.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator records the conclusion of Ahab’s reign and the immediate accession of his son Ahaziah over the northern kingdom. This statement functions as a dynastic transition marker following the account of Ahab’s death.
The words — וַיִּשְׁכַּב (va-yish-kav) literally means “he lay down,” and וַיִּמְלֹךְ (va-yim-lokh) means “he became king.” These paired verbs structurally separate the end of one ruler’s life from the start of another’s.
The thread — The idiom “rested with his fathers” appears in Deuteronomy 31:16, 2 Samuel 7:12, and 1 Kings 2:10 as a conventional formula for royal death and burial. It tracks the administrative and genealogical continuity of Israelite and Judahite dynasties.
Why it lands — The text states the factual transfer of power without offering moral evaluation or prophetic commentary. It requires the reader to observe how the narrative treats succession as a historical mechanism rather than an immediate theological verdict.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
So Ahab slept with his fathers; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 31:16 And the LORD said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them.
- 2 Samuel 7:12 And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.
- 1 Kings 2:10 Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David.
- 1 Kings 11:21 When Hadad heard in Egypt that David had rested with his fathers and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead, he said to Pharaoh, “Let me go, that I may return to my own country.”
- 1 Kings 14:31 And Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David; his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. And his son Abijam reigned in his place.
- 1 Kings 22:51 In the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat’s reign over Judah, Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria two years.
- 2 Kings 1:2 Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers and instructed them: “Go inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this injury.”
- 2 Kings 1:17 So Ahaziah died according to the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken. And since he had no son, Jehoram succeeded him in the second year of the reign of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat over Judah.
- 2 Chronicles 20:35 Later, Jehoshaphat king of Judah made an alliance with Ahaziah king of Israel, who acted wickedly.