This verse is a postscript to the record of Ahaziah’s reign, the final item of which is recorded in the previous verse. In presenting the record of a king, the first detail to be given is the year in which he came to the throne, in terms of the year of reign of the ruling monarch in the neighboring nation, and that is given in ch. 8:25. There, however, the beginning of Ahaziah’s reign is given as the 12th year of Joram’s reign in Israel, and here it is the 11th year. The difference in these two figures is explained on the assumption that at this period Judah, in its policy of cooperation with the northern kingdom, adopted Israel’s system of chronological reckoning, which was different from Judah’s by one year. The record of ch. 8:25 is evidently given according to the new system, by which the year in which a king came to the throne was called his first year. The 12th year of Joram would be the 11th year according to the system previously in use, by which a king’s “first year” was his first full calendar year, that following the one in which he ascended the throne (see pp. 138, 139; cf. p. 148).