JEHORAM JORAM (יְהﯴרָ֥ם, יֹֽורָם whom Jehovah has exalted, LXX ̓Ιωράμ, G2732, Josephus ̓Ιωραμος). This is the name of the ninth king of Israel who reigned for twelve years shortly after the middle of the 9th cent. b.c. and of the seventh king of the Davidic dynasty in Judah who reigned eight years, all synchronously with Jehoram of Israel. The varying methods of counting regnal years, and, other chronological problems render precise dates and precisely adjusted lengths of reign impossible apart from some general theory and assessment of the whole of the chronology of the kings of Judah and Israel. There is not as yet any universally accepted chronology though the chief systems are not far apart. See articles on Chronology of the Old Testament. Holding in mind that Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, allied his family with the house of Omri by marrying his son, Jehoram, to a daughter of Ahab, son of Omri, and of his wife Jezebel, a Phoen. princess, the following text completes the picture of the relations familial and diplomatic between these two Jehorams: “In the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign. He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife” (2 Kings 8:16-18). This wife of the Davidic Jehoram became a “second Jezebel,” as she is sometimes called, being responsible not only for introducing vile paganism to the house of David, but also for the murder, in her old age, of all male members of the line of David save one (see Joash, Athaliah).

I. Jehoram the son of Ahab. Owing to the fact that a number of stories in connection with the marvelous deeds of Elijah and Elisha refer to “the king” of Israel without mentioning his name and, inasmuch as the pecise chronological connections of the Elijah-Elisha narratives are seldom clarified, it is hard to know for certain just how many of those in which “the king” figures in some way are related to King Jehoram of Israel. Elijah must have survived at least until the sixth year of Jehoram’s reign (cf. 2 Chron 21:12), while Elisha began his remarkable ministry during Jehoram’s reign. The seven years of famine foretold to the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 8:1) and which must be the same as that referred to at 4:38 (note the “had said” of 8:1), would have begun no later than the fifth or sixth year of Jehoram since King Jehoram seems still to have been alive seven years later. Likely, then, the many exploits of Elisha detailed in 2 Kings 3-9 took place during Jehoram of Israel’s reign. If ever a Jewish king was witness to miracles enough to encourage faith, Jehoram was he.

Throughout his reign the two Jewish kingdoms were allied. Upon his accession almost at once he was joined by Judah under Jehoshaphat and Edom (tributary to Judah) in a war against the Moabites in an effort to recover the submission of Moab, under its King Mesha (q.v.). The combined expedition came to near disaster from want of water near the frontier of Edom and Moab. It was Jehoshaphat’s truly pious reliance on genuine prophecy that saved them all, for Elisha (q.v.) was brought forward from the ranks and through his function as prophet a life-saving miracle brought both water and military victory (3:4-27). This alliance ended with the destruction of the house of Ahab by Jehoram’s successor, Jehu. After that, enmity between the two Heb. kingdoms was renewed.

Though a venal and weak man he was not without some good, for he at least diminished Baal worship early in his reign (3:2) though he did not end the divisive and perverse worship of the calves’ images at Bethel and Dan (3:3; cf. 1 Kings 12:25-33). Baal worship was thoroughly prosperous when Jehu destroyed it scarcely a decade later (2 Kings 10:15-28). Though in a moment of desperation he once sought to kill Elisha (6:24-7:20, esp. 6:31, 32) Jehoram did on occasion give heed to Elisha’s wise and frequently friendly advice (viz. 6:20-23; 3:13ff.). Yet when the Syrian raids diminished he seems to have begun to resent Elisha’s advice and admonition (6:23). He quickly relapsed to worse idolatry. Divine judgment in the form of siege and famine were not slow to follow (6:24ff.). It was at this juncture that Jehoram (for he is surely “the king”), in despair, sought to kill Elisha (6:31, 32).

Jehoram was the last king of the line of Omri. His mother Jezebel and he both were killed by the rampaging Jehu who also exterminated all members of the family and all officials of the Baal cult (2 Kings 9; 10). The two long chapters devoted to the extermination of the house of Ahab indicates what a terrible peril they were to the ongoing of the messianic nation and thereby the divinely revealed Mosaic faith. Through the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel the line of Ahab may have passed into the ancestral line of the Lord Jesus Christ (viz. Matt 1:8); at least the NT records (Matt 1; Luke 3) are capable of this interpretation.

II. Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat. Scripture portions relating to this man are chiefly an entire ch. in Chronicles (2 Chron 21), but only four vv. in Kings (2 Kings 8:16-19). Except for a few months when his son Ahaziah reigned after him, his reign corresponds with the last eight years of the reign of the northern Jehoram. His life and reign make up one of the saddest and most to be regretted pages of the history of the Davidic dynasty.

His personal and domestic life were tragically wrong. His wife, Athaliah, brought with her the corruption of the Baalism (fertility cult religion) of her mother’s Phoen. ancestors (viz. Jezebel). As a result, Jehoram “walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done; for the daughter of Ahab was his wife” (2 Chron 21:6). Less than a year after his decease his widow, the unspeakable Athaliah, engineered the assassination of all Jehoram’s offspring save one grandson (2 Kings 11:1ff.). We can hardly doubt that it was she who had previously engineered the assassination of his six brothers and other “princes of Israel” (2 Chron 21:4, cf. v. 1). The motive may have been either to gain their wealth with which the prosperous father Jehoshaphat had richly endowed them, or because they opposed his ruinous political and religious policies. At any rate, the direct line of the reigning family was in consequence reduced to one male descendant (2 Chron 21:16, 17) during his reign, as it was again shortly after his death when the bloodthirsty Athaliah, his mother, superintended the slaughter of all Jehoram’s grandsons except Joash (q.v.). Everything recorded of this man indicates complete religious and moral apostasy, even worse than that of the Baal-worshiping heathen of his time. Apostates usually find themselves in complete reaction against the holy faith and practice of the Biblical religion.

The expected consequence of such apostasy would have been destruction of the dynasty and transfer of the regnal power to another leading family. This is how the house of Jeroboam I had been punished for apostasy (1 Kings 14:10ff.), as likewise the house of Baasha (1 Kings 16:1-4), of Ahab (21:20-26) of the northern kingdom and of Saul (1 Sam 13:13, 14; 15:22-26). The promises of God, however, guaranteed that such would not be the case with the now ancient dynasty of David (2 Kings 8:19). Specifically the terms of the “covenant” were: “I will raise up your offspring after you...and I will establish his kingdom...when he commits iniquity, I will chasten him...but I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul...and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever...” (2 Sam 7:12-16). This covenant is specifically related to Jehoram’s case, viz.: “Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for the sake of David his servant, since he promised to give a lamp to him, and to his sons for ever” (2 Kings 8:19; cf. 16-18). This perpetual “light” is mentioned also in 1 Kings 15:4 and 2 Chronicles 21:7. The figure is apparently a popular one drawn from the custom of reserving the home fire perpetually by a pilot light in an oil burning lamp viz. “Her lamp does not go out at night” (Prov 31:18, viz. “The Household Lamps of Palestine in Old Testament Times,” Robert Houston Smith, in The Biblical Archaeologist [Feb., 1964], p. 7). This “promise doctrine,” so eminently illustrated in Jehoram’s case is the great theme of the Samuel-Kings narrative.

Nor was the chastening promised for departure from the faith withheld. There was first a revolt of Edom since David’s time under tributary kings with only brief interruptions (2 Kings 8:20; cf. 2 Sam 8:14; 1 Kings 11:14-16; cf. 2 Kings 3:8ff.). From now on throughout OT times the Edomites will have a “king over themselves” who owes neither fealty nor tribute to Judah (note Isaac’s prophecy of this revolt, Gen 27:40). Not only so, a southwestern area with center at Libnah also successfully revolted (2 Kings 8:22). Further chastening came through successful inroads by rampaging Philistines and Arabs (2 Chron 21:16, 17). Not for generations was there significant recovery of this lost ground. The climax of these judgments to Jehoram himself was the particularly horrible manner in which he died (21:15, “disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out”) after living to see God’s judgment on all his sons save one, loss of his harem and all his goods. His sons had joined in destruction of the Lord’s worship as “seed royal” in a manner lesser citizens would not have dared to do (24:7) and therefore were destroyed, according to the word of Elijah, sent by letter to the miserable apostate king (21:12-17).

What horrible consequences from a bad marriage arranged by an otherwise wise and godly parent!

Note: The report of Elijah’s letter at this late point of time and addressed to a king of Judah is of great significance. It shows that Elijah’s attention was not confined to the affairs of the northern kingdom only, but looked beyond its borders, and sought to check the progress of idolatry in Judah. It proves also that Elijah was still upon the earth after the death of Jehoshaphat. Hence it may certainly be inferred that the account of the translation of Elijah in 1 Kings is out of chronological order and that Elisha, Eliajh’s prophetic successor, began his public ministry long before Elijah’s translation.