Alternate Names for Judean Kings in the OT Bible?

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hmikell7

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The following are five Bible verses from 2 Kings in the NRSV-CE:

2 Kings 15:8 “In the thirty-eighth year of Azari’ah king of Judah Zechari’ah the son of Jerobo’am reigned over Israel in Samar’ia six months.”

2 Kings 15:10 “Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him (Zechari’ah), and struck him (Zechari’ah) down at Ibleam, and killed him, and reigned in his stead.”

2 Kings 15:13-14 “Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of Uzzi’ah king of Judah, and he reigned one month in Samar’ia. Then Men’ahem the son of Gadi came up from Tirzah and came to Samar’ia, and he struck down Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samar’ia and slew him, and reigned in his stead.”

2 Kings 15:17 “In the thirty-ninth year of Azari’ah king of Judah Men’ahem the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel, and he reigned ten years in Samar’ia.”

So if you’ve already read the above verses, you may have realized a discrepancy between them like I did. Namely that for some reason between year 38 of the reign of King Azari’ah of Judah (2 Kings 15:8) and year 39 of his reign (2 Kings 15:17), we somehow find ourselves thrown into the 39th year of King Uzzi’ah of Judah’s reign (2 Kings 15:13-14). This despite the fact that there should only be a 7 month gap between 2 Kings 15:8 and 2 Kings 15:17.

Several verses later Jotham the son of Uzzi’ah is mentioned, which was also the name of Azari’ah’s son, which more or less tells me that they’re the same person. My only remaining question is why the all the back and forth between names???

EDIT: I’ve verified that the discrepancy exists in other translations besides this one as well
 
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They are the same person, like you said, but why he is called two different things I don’t know. It might be that one is a nickname, and the other is his real name, and it is switched up for some literary reason that doesn’t translate.
 
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