King Jehoram
21
📚Now Jehoshaphat slept 📖 with his ancestors, and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. And Jehoram his son reigned in his place. 2 📚And he had brothers, Jehoshaphat’s sons Azaryahu and Jehiel and Zechariah and Azariah and Michael and Shephatiah. All these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king of Israel 📖. 3 📚And their father gave them great gifts of silver and of gold and of precious things, with fortified cities in Judah, but he gave the kingdom to Jehoram, because he was the firstborn.21:3 Here is another mistake of Jehoshaphat – Jehoram was the worst of his sons (v 13), but he chose Jehoram as his successor simply because he was his firstborn. In this he did not follow his great ancestor David, and because he did not he brought great trouble on Judah.⚜
4 📚Now when Jehoram took over the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself and killed all his brothers with the sword, and also some of the leaders of Israel. 5 📚Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 6 📚And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like the house of Ahab did, for he had Ahab’s 📖 daughter as his wife, and he did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD.
21:4-6 Here we see part of the sad fruit of Jehoshaphat’s blunder in arranging for his son to marry the daughter of Ahab. The son rejected all his father stood for and followed all his father hated.⚜
7 📚However the LORD would not destroy the house of David 📖, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and since he promised to give a light 📖 to him and to his sons forever.
8 📚In his days the Edomites revolted against the rule of Judah, and made a king for themselves. 9 Then Jehoram went out with his princes, and all his chariots with him, and he got up at night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots. 10 📚So the Edomites have revolted against the rule of Judah to this day. At the same time Libnah also revolted against his rule, because he had forsaken the LORD God of his fathers.
21:8-10 Part of the penalty for Jehoram’s wickedness.⚜
11 📚Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves 📖, and led Judah astray.
A letter from Elijah
12 📚And a letter came to him from Elijah 📖 the prophet, saying, “Thus says the LORD God of your father David 📖: ‘Because you have not walked in the ways of your father Jehoshaphat, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, 13 📚but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab prostituted itself, and also have killed your brothers, of your own father’s house, who were better than yourself, 14 📚look, the LORD will strike 📖 your people and your children and your wives and all your possessions with a great plague. 15 📚And you will have a severe illness through a disease of your bowels, day by day, until your bowels fall out because of the illness.’ ”
16 📚Moreover, the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and of the Arabians, who were near the Ethiopians, 17 📚and they came up to Judah and invaded it, and carried away all the possessions that were found in the king’s house, and his sons and his wives also, so that there was no son left to him, except Jehoahaz 📖, the youngest of his sons.
21:16-17 War was often the penalty for disobedience to God’s covenant – note at 12:2.⚜
18 📚And after all this the LORD struck him in his bowels with an incurable disease. 19 📚And it came about in process of time, at the end of two years, that his bowels fell out because of his sickness; so he died of severe diseases. And his people lit no fire for him, like the fire 📖 for his fathers.
20 📚He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and passed away to no one’s regret 📖. However they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.