Matthew Poole and continuators on 2 Kings 18:2

2 Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign , and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem: his mothers name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.

How is this credible? For then Ahaz, who lived but Six and Thirty years, chap. 16. 2. must beget Hezekiah at the Eleventh year of his Age. Ans. 1. There are some like instances mentioned by credible Authors; which these very men will not deny, who are so ready to quarrel with the holy Scriptures for such matters. 2. This being the confessed custom of sacred, and other Writers, in the numbring of years, sometimes to omit, and sometimes to add those which are imperfect, or unfinished: And so Ahaz might be near One and twenty years old when he began to reign, and near Seventeen years older when he died: And on the other side, Hezekiah, when he began to reign, might be onely Four and Twenty years old compleat, and but entred into his Five and Twentieth year.—And thus Ahaz might be between Thirteen and Fourteen years old, when he got Hezechiah; which is not at all strange, especially in that Nation to which God had promised a singular degree of Fruitfulness, and in that House of David to which God had made so many, and such great Promises. 3. It is not certain that Ahaz lived onely Thirty six years, for those Sixteen Years which he Reigned, Chap. 16. 2. may be computed, not from the first beginning of his Reign, when he Reigned with his Father; (of which, see the notes on Chap. 15. 30.) which was at the Twentieth Year of his Age, but from the beginning of his Reign alone. 4. Some affirm, That Hezekiah was not the Natural, but onely the Legal Son and Successor of Ahaz: for the name of Son is given in Scripture to such Persons; as 1 Chron. 3. 16. comp. with 2 King. 24. 17. Matt. 1. 12. compared with Ier. 22. 30. and to Adopted Sons, Act. 7. 21. Heb. 11. 24. And to Sons in Law, 1 Sam. 24. 16. and 26. 17. Luk. 3. 23. Any of these Solutions are far more credible to any man of common prudence, than that these Sacred Books, whose Divine Original hath been so fully Evidenced both by God and Men, are but the Fictions and Contrivances of a base Impostor. And if none of these Solutions were sufficient, it is absurd to conclude, That a true Resolution [illegible: 1 word] be found, because it is not yet found; because it is [illegible: 1 word]. That many difficulties both in Scripture, and in [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] were formerly judged Insoluble, have been [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word]: and therefore we may justly expect [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] Difficulties, which may be thought [illegible: 1 word] Explained.

c Or, Abiah, 2 Chron. 29. 1.