Joahaz is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Joahaz is mentioned only once in the King James Bible, in 2 Chronicles 34:8. According to the source note, Joahaz was another name for Jehoahaz, a king of Judah who reigned briefly after the death of his father Josiah. This identifies him as a member of the royal line of Judah during one of the most turbulent periods in the nation’s history—the closing decades before Jerusalem fell to Babylon.
The single scriptural reference to the name Joahaz appears not in a narrative about the king himself, but in a genealogical note attached to a much different event. In the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, after he had purged the land and the house of the LORD, Josiah sent a delegation to repair the temple. That delegation included Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder. Here the name Joahaz appears as the father of Joah, the recorder—one of the officials entrusted with overseeing the restoration of the LORD’s house.
So the Joahaz of this verse is identified by the source note with King Jehoahaz, yet in the text he appears only as a patronymic link: the father of a temple official serving under Josiah. Scripture records nothing further of him in this passage—no words, no deeds, no evaluation of his reign. He is named once, in passing, as part of the family line behind a man who helped repair the house of God. The verse itself says nothing more about Joahaz than that he was the father of Joah.
The Name
The name Joahaz (also rendered Jehoahaz) is a Hebrew compound name. It is commonly understood to mean something like “Yahweh has grasped” or “Yahweh holds,” combining a shortened form of the divine name with a verb meaning to seize, hold, or take possession. This meaning is well established among standard Hebrew name studies. It is worth noting, however, that the name appears in the KJV only in this shortened form, and the text itself offers no explanation of its meaning.
A Closing Thought
Joahaz’s single appearance in Scripture is easy to overlook—a name tucked inside a list of officials sent to repair the temple. Yet his life reminds us that faithfulness is often remembered not in grand deeds but in the legacy we pass on. His son Joah served the LORD’s house in a time of reform. Whatever Joahaz’s own reign was like, his name is preserved in connection with work done for God. Quiet faithfulness in one generation can bear fruit in the next, even when no one notices at the time.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: Old
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- 2 Chronicles 34:8 — Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.