Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in David’s city, and Jehoram his son reigned in his place.
Parallel Translations
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Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in David’s city, and Jehoram his son reigned in his place.
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Now Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And Jehoram his son reigned in his stead.
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And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Jehoram his son reigned in his stead.
Cross-references (5)
Passages linked to 2 Chronicles 21:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Kings 22:50 Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in his father David’s city. Jehoram his son reigned in his place.
- 2 Kings 8:16-17 In the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being king of Judah then, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign. He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign. He reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
- 2 Chronicles 9:31 Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in his father David’s city: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.
- 2 Chronicles 12:16 Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in David’s city; and Abijah his son reigned in his place.
- 2 Chronicles 21:20 He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He departed without being missed; and they buried him in David’s city, but not in the tombs of the kings.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2Ch 21:1 Now Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and…
2Ch 21:1 Now Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And Jehoram his son reigned in his stead.
Ver. 1. And Jehoram his son reigned.] Than whom a worse could hardly be found: but as the Constantinopolitans were told, that for their wickedness they were justly plagued with a Phocas; so were these perverse Hierosolymitans with a Jehoram.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain We find here,
We find here,
I. That Jehoshaphat was a very careful indulgent father to Jehoram. He had many sons, who are here named (Ch2 21:2), and it is said (Ch2 21:13) that they were better than Jehoram, had a great deal more wisdom and virtue, and lived up to their education, which he went counter to. They were very hopeful, and any of them more fit for the crown than he; and yet, because he was the first-born (Ch2 21:3), his father secured the kingdom to him, and portioned his brethren and disposed of them so as that they would be easy and give him no disturbance; as Abraham, when he made Isaac his heir, dismissed his other children with gifts. Herein Jehoshaphat was very kind and fair to his son, which might have obliged him to be respectful to him, and tread in the steps of so good a father. But it is no new thing for the children that have been most indulged by their parents to be least dutiful to them. Whether in doing this he acted wisely and well for his people, and was just to them, I cannot say. His birthright entitled him to a double portion of his father's estate, Deu 21:17. But if he appeared utterly unfit for government (the end of which is the good of the people), and likely to undo all that his father had done, it would have been better perhaps to have set him aside, and taken the next that was hopeful, and not inclined as he was to idolatry. Power is a sacred thing, with which men may either do much good or much hurt; and therefore Detur digniori - Let him that deserves it have it. Salus populi suprema lex - The security of the people is the first consideration.
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II. That Jehoram was a most barbarous brother to his father's sons. As soon as he had settled himself in the throne he slew all his brethren with the sword, either by false accusation, under colour of law, or rather by assassination. By some wicked hand or other he got them all murdered, pretending (it is likely) that he could not think himself safe in the government till they were taken out of the way. Those that mean ill themselves are commonly, without cause, jealous of those about them. The wicked fear where no fear is, or pretend to do so, in order to conceal their malice. Jehoram, it is likely, hated his brethren and slew them for the same reason that Cain hated Abel and slew him, because their piety condemned his impiety and won them that esteem with the people which he had lost. With them he slew divers of the princes of Israel, who adhered to them, or were likely to avenge their death. The princes of Judah, those who had taught the good knowledge of the Lord (Ch2 17:7), are here called princes of Israel, as before fathers of Israel (Ch2 19:8), because they were Israelites indeed, men of integrity. The sword which the good father had put into their hands this wicked son sheathed in their bowels. Woe unto him that thus foundeth a kingdom in blood (Hab 2:12); it will prove a foundation that will sink the superstructure.
III. That Jehoram was a most wicked king, who corrupted and debauched his kingdom, and ruined the reformation that his good father and grandfather had carried on: He walked in the way of the house of Ahab (Ch2 21:6), made high places, which the people were of themselves too forward to make, and did his utmost to set up idolatry again, Ch2 21:11. 1. As for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, where he kept his court, he easily drew them into his spiritual whoredom: He caused them to commit fornication, seducing them to eat things sacrificed to idols, Rev 2:20. 2. The country people seem to have been brought to it with more difficulty; but those that would not be corrupted by flatteries were driven by force to partake in his abominable idolatries: He compelled Judah thereto. He used that power for the destruction of the church which was given him for the edification of it.
IV. That when he forsook God and his worship his subjects withdrew from their allegiance to him. 1. Some of the provinces abroad that were tributaries to him did so. The Edomites revolted (Ch2 21:8), and, though he chastised them (Ch2 21:9), yet he could not reduce them, Ch2 21:10. 2. One of the cities of his own kingdom did so. Libnah revolted (Ch2 21:10) and set up for a free state, as of old it had a king of its own, Jos 12:15. And the reason is here given, not only why God permitted it, but why they did it; they shook off his government because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers, had become an idolater and a worshipper of false gods, and they could not continue subject to him without some danger of being themselves also drawn away from God and their duty. While he adhered to God they adhered to him; but, when he cast God off, they cast him off. Whether this reason will justify them in their revolt of no, it will justify God's providence which ordered it so.
V. That yet God was tender of his covenant with the house of David, and therefore would not destroy the royal family, though it was so wretchedly corrupted and degenerated, Ch2 21:7. These things we had before, Kg2 8:19-22. The tenour of the covenant was that David's seed should be visited for their transgressions, but the covenant should never be broken, Psa 89:30, etc.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Now Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers,.... See Gill on…
Now Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers,.... See Gill on Kg1 22:50.
.
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2 Chronicles 21:2
ch2 21:2
ch2 21:2
ch2 21:2And he had brethren, the sons of Jehoshaphat,.... That is, Jehoram had, who succeeded him: their names follow:
Azariah, and Jehiel, and Zechariah, and Azariah, and Michael, and Shephatiah; two of them were of the same name; though it may be observed, that in the Hebrew text they are somewhat distinguished, the latter is called Azariah; Jehiel is said, by the Jews (x), to be the same with Hiel that rebuilt Jericho; indeed it was rebuilt in the times of Jehoshaphat, and was a city of the tribe of Benjamin, Jos 18:21 which was under his jurisdiction; but it can never be thought that he would ever suffer a son of his to rebuild it; besides, he is expressly said to be a Bethelite, Kg1 16:34,
all these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king of Israel; which generally, since the division of the kingdom, designs the ten tribes, but cannot be the meaning here, because Jehoshaphat was only king of two tribes, Judah and Benjamin; they were tribes of Israel indeed, and so he was king of a part of Israel; and besides, many out of the ten tribes came and settled in his kingdom, and were under his government; though some think he is so called, because he concerned himself so much for the kingdom of Israel, and more than for his own; but the Vulgate Latin, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, all read king of Judah; wherefore some are of opinion that Israel is a mistake of the transcriber; but this need not be supposed, since he was of right king of Israel, and was in fact king of two tribes that belonged to Israel.
(x) T. Hieros. Sanhedrin, fol. 29. 4.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Jehoram succeeds, ver. 1-3. His wickedness, ver. 4-7. Edom…
Jehoram succeeds, ver. 1-3. His wickedness, ver. 4-7. Edom and Libnah revolt and Jehoram is still more wicked, ver. 8-11. The prophecy of Elijah against him, ver. 12-15. The success of his enemies, ver. 16, 17. His sickness and death, ver. 18-20.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Jehoram succeeds his father Jehoshaphat; and commences his
CHAPTER XXI
Jehoram succeeds his father Jehoshaphat; and commences his
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reign with the murder of his brethren, and of several of
the princes of Israel, 1-5.
He walks in the way of Ahab, whose bad daughter, Athaliah,
he had married, 6.
God remembers his covenant with David, and does not destroy
the nation, 7.
The Edomites revolt, 8-10.
Jehoram restores the high places in the mountains of Judah,
and greatly corrupts the morals of the people, 11.
A letter comes to him from Elijah, 12-15.
The Philistines and Arabians come up against him, pillage his
house, and take away his wives, with all his sons except
Jehoahaz, 16, 17.
He is smitten with an incurable disease in his bowels; of
which, in two years, he dies miserably, after a profligate
reign of eight years, 18-20.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXI
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Jehoram’s sole reign now began. (See 2Ki 8:16 note).…
Jehoram’s sole reign now began. (See 2Ki 8:16 note). His eight years 2Ch 21:5 must be counted from the time of his association, in his father’s 23rd year.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain e. Joram: The Letter of the Prophet Elijah.—Ch. 21
e. Joram: The Letter of the Prophet Elijah.—Ch. 21
2Ch_21:1.And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Joram his son reigned in his stead.
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2And he had brethren, sons of Jehoshaphat, Azariah and Jehiel, and Zechariah and Azariah, and Michael and Shephatiah: all these were sons of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. 3And their father gave them many gifts of silver and of gold and of precious things, with fenced cities in Judah; but 4the kingdom gave he to Joram, because he was the first-born. And Joram went up to the kingdom of his father, and strengthened himself, and slew all his brethren with the sword, and also some of the princes of Israel.
5Joram was thirty and two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 6And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab did; for he had a daughter of Ahab to wife: and he 7did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord. And the Lord would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that He had made with David, and as He had promised to give a light to him and his sons for ever.—8In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made themselves 9a king. And Joram went over with his princes, and all the chariots with him; and he rose up by night, and smote Edom, who compassed him, 10and the captains of the chariots. And Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. Then Libnah revolted at that time from under his 11hand, because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers. He also made high places in the mountains1 of Judah, and he debauched the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and perverted Judah.
12And there came to him a writing from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah. 13And didst walk in the way of the kings of Israel, and didst debauch Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem after the whoredom of the house of Ahab; and hast also slain thy brethren, the house of thy father, who were better 14than thou. Behold, the Lord will bring a great plague on thy people, and thy sons, and thy wives, and all thy goods. 15And thou shalt be in great sickness by disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out from the sickness in a year and a day.
16And the Lord stirred up against Joram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabs, that were near the Ethiopians. 17And they came up into Judah, and brake into it, and took away all the substance that was found in the king’s house, and his sons, and his wives; and not a son was left him but Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons. 18And after all this the Lord smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease. 19And it came to pass after many days, namely, about the time of the end of two years, his bowels fell out with his sickness, and he died with sore pains; and his people made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers. 20Thirty and two years old was he when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem; and he departed without regret;2 and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.
f. Ahaziah.—2Ch_22:1-9
2Ch_22:1.And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his stead; for the troop that came with the Arabs to the camp had slain all the eldest: and Ahaziah son of Joram king of Judah became king. 2Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he became king;3 and he reigned one year in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Athaliah, daughter of Omri. 3He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab; for his mother 4was his counsellor to do wickedly. And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, like the house of Ahab; for they were his counsellors after the death of his 5father, to his destruction. He also walked in their counsel, and went with Joram son of Ahab king of Israel to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead: and the Syrians smote Joram. 6And he returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds4 which they had given him at Ramah, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria: and Ahaziah5 son of Joram king of Judah 7went down to see Joram son of Ahab at Jezreel; for he was sick. And the downfall of Ahaziah was from God, in coming to Joram; and when he came, he went out with Joram against Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab. 8And it came to pass, when Jehu executed judgment upon the house of Ahab, he found also the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren6 of Ahaziah, that ministered to Ahaziah, and slew them. 9And he sought Ahaziah; and they caught him when he was hiding in Samaria, and brought him to Jehu, and slew him, and buried him; for they said, He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his heart: and the house of Ahaziah had none to retain strength for the kingdom.
g. Athaliah’s Reign and Fall—Ch 22:10–23:20
10And Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, and she 11arose and destroyed7 all the seed of the kingdom of the house of Judah. And Jehoshabath daughter of the king took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bed - chamber: and Jehoshabath, daughter of King Joram, wife of Jehoiada the priest,—for she was Ahaziah’s sister,—hid him from the sight of Athaliah: and she slew him not. 12And he was with them in the house of God hidden six years; and Athaliah reigned over the land.
2Ch_23:1.And in the seventh year Jehoiada was encouraged, and took the captains of hundreds, Azariah son of Jeroham, and Ishmael son of Johanan, and Azariah son of Oded, and Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri, into covenant with him. 2And they went about in Judah, and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the chiefs of the fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. 3And all the congregation made a covenant in the house of God with the king; and he said unto them, Behold, the king’s son shall reign, as the Lord hath spoken of the sons of David. 4This is the thing that ye shall do: a third of you, who enter on the sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be porters at the thresholds. 5And a third shall be at the king’s house; and a third at the gate Jesod; and all the 6people shall be in the courts of the house of the Lord. And none shall enter the house of the Lord, but the priests, and they that minister of the Levites; they may go in, for they are holy; and all the people shall keep the ward of the Lord. 7And the Levites shall surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand: and whosoever goeth into the house shall be put to death; and ye shall be with the king, when he goeth in and when he cometh 8out. And the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded, and took every one his men that went in on the sabbath with those that came out on the sabbath: for Jehoiada the priest had not dismissed 9the courses. And Jehoiada the priest gave to the captains of hundreds spears and shields and arms, that had been King David’s, which were in the house of God. 10And he set all the people, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the right to the left side of the house, by the altar and by the 11house, round about the king. And they brought out the king’s son, and gave unto him the crown and the testimony, and made him king: and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, Long live the king.
12And Athaliah heard the cry of the people running and praising the king, and she came to the people to the house of the Lord. 13And she looked, and, behold, the king stood at his place in the entrance, and the princes and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land were glad, and blew on the trumpets; and the singers with instruments of song, and the leaders of praise: and Athaliah rent her clothes, and said, Conspiracy, 14conspiracy! And Jehoiada the priest brought out8 the captains of hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Bring her out from within the ranges, and whoso followeth her shall be slain with the sword: for the priest 15had said, Slay her not in the house of the Lord. And they gave her space, and she went to the entrance of the horse gate9 by the king’s house, and they slew her there.
16And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, and between all the 17people, and between the king, that they should be the Lord’s people. And all the people went to the house of Baal, and pulled it down, and brake its altars and its images; and Matthan the priest of Baal they slew before the 18altars. And Jehoiada appointed the offices of the house of the Lord by the hand of the priests, the Levites, whom David had distributed in the house of the Lord, to offer the burnt-offerings of the Lord, as it is written in the law of Moses, with gladness and with song, in the manner of David. 19And he set the porters at the gates of the house of the Lord, that the unclean might not enter. 20And he took the captains of hundreds, and the nobles, and the rulers of the people, and all people of the land, and brought down the king from the house of the Lord: and they went through the high gate into the king’s house, and set the king on the royal throne. 21And all the people of the land were glad; and the city was quiet, and they had put Athaliah to death by the sword.
EXEGETICAL
Irrespective of the letter of the prophet Elijah (and its accompanying notices concerning the punishment of Joram therein predicted, 21:12–19), we are here presented with parallel texts to the accounts of the book of Kings, but certainly parallels to which the special Levitical standpoint of the narrator has often, especially in the description of the fall of Athaliah by the conspiracy conducted by the high priest Jehoiada, imparted a characteristic colouring, involving many deviations from the older text.
1. Joram: a. His Beginnings, and his Misgovernment: 2Ch_21:1-11.—And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers. This report of Jehoshaphat’s death and burial is carried, according to the usual division of chapters, to the history of Joram, because the first deed of Joram, the general murder of his kindred, is closely connected with the decease of his father, and serves to soil with blood the solemn rites of his funeral (his being “buried with his fathers”), a mode of division corresponding well with the pragmatical turn of the Chronist.
2Ch_21:2-4. Joram’s Sixfold Fratricide.—Azariah and Jehiel, etc. It is against the identity, asserted by Jewish expositors, of Jehiel with the Hiel mentioned in 1Ki_16:34, that the latter, who is called a Bethelite (an inhabitant of Bethel), was neither a king’s son nor a member of the southern kingdom.—All these were sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel. On the designation of the southern kingdom by the name of Israel, comp. 12:1, 6, also 2Ch_21:4; 2Ch_28:19; 2Ch_28:27, etc.
2Ch_21:3. And their father gave them many gifts. Comp. what Rehoboam did to his sons, 11:22 f.
2Ch_21:4. And Joram went up; comp. Exo_1:8, and on the following phrase, “strengthened himself,” 2Ch_1:1. That the chief motive for the murder of his brothers was their non-concurrence with Joram’s and his mother’s idolatry, is clear from 2Ch_21:13, where they are said to be better than he: this must have applied also to the “princes of Israel” who fell with them as victims in the massacre. Moreover, oriental rulers are wont still in modern times to inaugurate the beginning of their reign with such general murder of their kindred; and Abimelech had already acted the tyrant by the practice of a similar but still more wicked slaughter, Jdg_9:5. –2Ch_21:5-11 agree in all essentials with 2Ki_8:17-22.
2Ch_21:6. For he had a daughter of Ahab to wife. This quite definite statement excludes the hypothesis of Hitzig, based upon 2Ki_8:26 and 2Ch_22:2, that Athaliah was rather the sister of Ahab. She is there called Omri’s daughter, because the spirit of Omri, the founder of the dynasty, displayed itself most characteristically and powerfully in this his grand-daughter. Grandsons and grand-daughters are not seldom called children of their grandfather, especially if he was celebrated and influential; comp. for example, 11:20, Maachah the daughter (grand-daughter) of Absalom.
2Ch_21:7. And the Lord would not destroy the house of David. Somewhat different, but coinciding in sense with the present passage, is 2Ki_8:19 (see Bähr). In particular, “To give him a light for his sons” (or “in his sons”) stands there, for which here: “to give a light to him and his sons.” The ו of our author, inserted before לְבָנָיו, appears, moreover, to be neither superfluous nor. unsuitable, if it be taken explicatively = “and certainly” (so correctly Keil, against Berth.).
2Ch_21:8. In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, changed the condition of vassalage to Judah, in which it was held from David to Jehoshaphat (comp. 1Ki_22:48 and above on 2Ch_20:35), into that of a fully independent state.
2Ch_21:9. And Joram went over with his princes. עִם שָׂרָיו is possibly corrupted from שֵׂעִירָה, “to Seir” (as should be read 2Ki_8:21, instead of צְעִירָה). At the end of the verse are wanting the words there forming the close: “and the people fled to their tents,” from which it is evident that the battle was not particularly fortunate for the Jewish king, but simply consisted in cutting his way through the surrounding force.
2Ch_21:10. Unto this day, that is, merely unto the time of the older narrator, used as a source by the Chronist (comp. Introd. § 5, II. p. 19). But this is to be regarded as a writer belonging to the period immediately before the captivity; and therefore it is to be presumed that the re-conquest of the Edomites by Amaziah, 25:14 f., was only transient.—Then Libnah revolted at that time, probably the present Tell es Safieh (not far from Eleutheropolis, Robinson, Pal. ii. 622). The neighbouring Philistines took an essential part in rending it from Joram, in which they were aided also by the Phœnicians (according to Hitzig, Gesch. p. 201); comp. Joel 4:4 f.; Amo_1:9.—Because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers,—a pragmatic reflection of the Chronist, which is wanting in 2 Kings.
2Ch_21:11. He also made high places, which Asa and Jehoshaphat had removed, 14:2 ff., 17:6. The following phrase: “debauched,” is to be understood of the spiritual whoredom of the worship of Baal; comp. 2Ch_21:13. On וַיַּדַּח, “and perverted,” comp. Deu_13:6; Deu_13:11; Deu_13:14, and Pro_7:21.
2. b. The Letter of the Prophet Elijah, and the Fulfilment of its Evil Forebodings: 2Ch_21:12-19.—And there came to him a writing from Elijah the prophet, saying (or “containing,” לֵאמֹר). מִכְתָּב is not properly a letter, but a writing, a threatening prophecy in a written form; whether written or at least dictated by Elijah is, from the indefiniteness of the phrase מֵאֱלִיָּהוּ, doubtful; a merely indirect origin from Elijah is obviously reconcilable with this phrase; and as, according to 2Ki_2:1 ff; 2Ki_3:11, Elijah appears to have been no longer in the land of the living in the reign of Joram (for the inquiry of Jehoshaphat after a prophet during the campaign against Mesha, 2Ki_3:11, is answered by pointing, not to Elijah, but only to Elisha, who poured water on the hands of Elijah), it is most natural to suppose the oracle to have been spoken by Elijah against Joram, or rather against Athaliah and her idolatrous house, but first noted down and reduced to its present form by a scholar of Elijah. Comp. Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 2.
2Ch_21:13. After the whoredom of the house of Ahab; comp. on 2Ch_21:11.—And hast also slain thy brethren; comp. on 2Ch_21:4. Even this reference to the murderous deed practised on his not idolatrously disposed brothers, may Elijah have uttered by virtue of his divinely-illuminated prophetic sagacity, at a time when Joram was not yet king, in connection with the other thoughts of the present prediction.
2Ch_21:14. Behold, the Lord will bring a great plague, the devastating invasion of the Philistines and the Arabs, 2Ch_21:16 f.
2Ch_21:15. Until thy bowels fall out from the sickness in a year and a day, literally, “days upon days,” that is, during many days; comp. שָׁנָה עַל שָׁנָה, Isa_29:1 and Psa_61:7; Jdg_17:10. The present determination of time is popular and proverbial, but indefinite. he duration of the malady is given more exactly, 2Ch_21:19, in the account of the fulfilment of the oracle.
2Ch_21:16. And the Lord stirred up, in conformity with the prediction communicated. On את רוח העיר, comp. 1Ch_5:26. The Arabs that were near the Ethiopians are naturally tribes of Southern Arabia (as the Sabæans, Job_1:15; see on this passage). We know nothing of the causes which lay at the ground of the combination of these tribes with the Philistines to lay waste Judea. Moreover, the Arabs mentioned 22:1 are the same as those here designated.
2Ch_21:17. And brake into it, literally, “cleft it,” “forced their way into it”; comp. 32:1; 2Sa_23:16; 2Ki_25:4.—And took away all the substance that was found in the king’s house. According to this, Jerusalem must have been conquered by these plundering hordes; yet לְבֵית־הַמֶּלֶךְ may also be rendered “belonging to the king’s house” (royal domains), as נִמְצָא לְ certainly signifies something else than נִמְצָא בְ, namely, “possessed by” (comp. Deu_21:17; Jos_17:16), and, besides, the absence of any mention of plundering the temple or its treasures must seem trange, if Jerusalem had been actually taken. We learn, moreover, from the later reference to the occurrence here mentioned, 22:1, that only the royal camp was surprised and plundered, not the royal palace in Jerusalem. Comp. Kuhlmey, Alttestamentl. Studien (Zeitschrift für luth. Theologie und Kirche, 1844, iii. 82 ff.), as well as Keil on this passage.—And not a son was left him but Jehoahaz. Not merely capture, but also slaughter, of all the older sons is recorded 22:1. The only remaining one is here called Jehoahaz, but there Ahaziah, a name perhaps assumed on ascending the throne; see on this passage.
2Ch_21:18. Smote him (נְגָפוֹ, corresponding to the נֹגֵךָ מַגֵּפָה, 2Ch_21:14) in his bowels with an incurable, disease, literally, a disease with no healing; comp. 20:21, 25, 36:16.
2Ch_21:19. And it came to pass after many days, literally, “to days from days,” for which is usual the briefer “from days” (מִיָּמִים), Jdg_11:4; Jdg_14:8. The next words: “namely, about the time of the end of two years,” fix more exactly this somewhat indefinite date. יָמִים stands here, as in 2Ch_21:15, in the sense of “year”; the indefinite phrase, denoting properly, “times, periods,” receives through the context the same meaning as the Chald. עִדָּנִין עִדָּן, often in Daniel; for example, Dan_4:13; Dan_4:20; Dan_4:22; Dan_7:25; comp. also Vulg. and Syr., which render it directly: “years.” Unnecessary and yielding too harsh a sense is Keil’s proposal, to take the words צֵאת הַקֵּץ by themselves, and render: “about the time of the end (of his life), about two days (before death).”—His bowels fell out with his sickness. עִם, during his painful malady (see the close: “and he died with sore pains”). The disease consisted probably in a very violent dysentery or chronic diarrhœa, whereby the nerve-cuticle of the whole great gut was inflamed, and parts of the mucous tunicle occasionally came off in the form of gut or pipe (resembling a falling out of the bowels); comp. Trusen, Sitten, Gebräuche und Krankheiten der alten Hebräer, p. 212, and Friedreich, Zur Bibel, p. 270 (where also other literature).—And his people made no burning for him, gave him not the honour of a magnificent funeral; comp. 16:14. The same is indicated by that which is related in the following verse, that “he departed without regret,” בְּלֹא חֶמְדָּה (sine desiderio, a nemine desideratus), and that he was not buried in the sepulchres of the kings; comp. 24:25, 26:23. On Luther’s and the Vulgate’s conception of וַיֵּלֶךְ בְּלֹא חֶמְדָּה, see Crit. Note.
3. Ahaziah’s Reign: 2Ch_22:1-9; comp. 2Ki_8:26-29, and with regard to the downfall of Ahaziah, 9, 10, a copious narrative of the revolution effected by Jehu, of which only a brief abstract (2Ch_22:6-9) is given here, omitting all that refers to the extirpation of the lsraelitish branch of the house of Ahab.—And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king, the same who was called, 21:17, Jehoahaz (in the Sept. cod. Al. even as here: ’Οχοζίας ). That he was made king by the inhabitants of Jerusalem, indicates that the succession to the throne was disputed, and therefore that a party (the Levites and priests under Jehoiada) was opposed to him, but without prevailing at first against the adherents of Athaliah.—Had slain all the eldest. Comp. the remarks on 21:17; for this refers to no other fact than that there described.
2Ch_22:2. Forty and two years old was Ahaziah; obviously an erroneous statement, apparently arising from the exchange of the numeral letters ב and מ; twenty-two must certainly be read for forty-two, for Joram was thirty-two years old when he ascended the throne, and reigned in all only eight years: he could not have a son forty-two years old: indeed, as the youngest son of Joram, Ahaziah could not well be over twenty-two years of age, as his father must have begotten him in his eighteenth year, and his elder brothers at a still earlier age, against which assumption no serious objection arises, as it was the well-known custom of the East to marry in early youth, and as a king’s son, he will have had no small number of concubines. Only we need not fix the number of his elder brothers at forty-two, to which 2Ki_10:13 rightly understood does not bind us; see on 2Ch_22:8. For the last words: “Athaliah daughter of Omri,” comp. on 21:6.
2Ch_22:3. For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly, in her devotion to the idolatry of the house of Ahab; comp. 20:35, 21:6 ff.
2Ch_22:4. Like the house of Ahab; for they, the members of this house. At the close: “to his destruction,” as in 20:23.
2Ch_22:5. Walked in their counsel, and went with Joram, Psa_1:1; these words are wanting in 2Ki_8:28. On Hazael, Benhadad’s former general, and then successor, see Bähr on 2Ki_8:8 ff.—And the Syrians smote Joram; הָרַמִּים, contracted for הָֽאֲרמִּים, 2Ki_8:28 (as הָסוּרִים, Ecc_4:14, from הָֽאֲסוּרִים; comp. also Eze_20:30).
2Ch_22:6. And he returned to be healed … of the wounds. So it is to be read instead of: “for the wounds,” which is unmeaning, and only to be cured by explanatory additions; see Crit. Note.—And Ahaziah . . . (see Crit. Note) went down to see Joram … in Jezreel. This going down was probably from Ramoth, not from Jerusalem; comp. 2Ki_9:14 f. (from which, however, nothing very certain on this point is to be inferred).
2Ch_22:7. And the downfall of Ahaziah was from God; “the down-treading” (תְּבוּסָה, occurring only here; comp. מְבוּסָה, Isa_22:5). Instead of “against Jehu,” the text has properly: “to Jehu” (אֶל), 2Ki_9:21, more definitely “to meet Jehu” (לִקִרָאת); and for “son of Nimshi,” Jehu is there (2Ki_9:2) more precisely called “son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi.” With the history of Jehu’s call and anointment by Elijah and Elisha (1Ki_19:16; 2Ki_9:2 ff.) our author here proves himself to be acquainted, but does not enter into particulars, because the fate of the Jewish royal house was his immediate concern.
2Ch_22:8. When Jehu executed judgment; נִשְׁפַּט, execute judgment,—otherwise with אֵת (Eze_17:20; Eze_38:22) or with ל (Jer_25:31), here with עִם; comp. Joel 4:2.—Sons of the brethren of Ahaziah. As the brethren of Ahaziah named in 2Ki_10:12 ff. from their great number (42) could only be his brethren in the wider sense (kinsmen, cousins), so the Sept. is wrong in making “brethren” out of these brethren’s sons; and it is not less wrong in Bertheau to affirm two different traditions concerning the fact, according to one of which the Jewish princes put to death between Jezreel and Samaria, at Jehu’s command, were brothers; according to the other, brothers’ sons of Ahaziah; see, on the contrary, Mov. p. 258, Ew. in Der Isr. Gesch.; also Bähr, and especially Keil, who sees no difficulty in the partly very youthful age (between five and eight or nine years) of these princes.—That ministered to Ahaziah, were invested with offices in his court, the youngest as pages, as, for example, Daniel and his friends in the court of the Babylonish king, Dan_1:4 ff.
2Ch_22:6. And he sought Ahaziah. The fuller accounts of the death of Ahaziah in 2Ki_9:27-28 deviate in several respects, in which Ahaziah is mortally wounded, not in Samaria, but in fleeing from Jezreel to Megiddo, and dies at Megiddo. See Bähr on the passage, who rightly rejects Keil’s attempt to make up the difference of the two accounts as too artificial.—And the house of Ahaziah had none to retain strength for the kingdomְ לַֽעֲצֹר כֹּחַ, as in 13:20: “to be fit for the kingdom.” On the whole sentence, comp. Dan_9:26 (וְאֵין לוֹ).
4. Athaliah’s Reign of Six Years; Deliverance of Joash: 2Ch_22:10-12; comp. 2Ki_11:1-3.—And Athaliah . . . destroyed all the seed. On the emendation necessary here, according to 2 Kings, see Crit. Note. The “seed of the kingdom of the house of Judah” (the royal seed) embraces naturally the cousins and other remote kinsmen of Ahaziah, the male descendants of Jehoshaphat yet surviving after the catastrophes already mentioned (21:17, 22:8).
2Ch_22:11. Jehoshabath daughter of the king; in 2 Kings with name slightly changed: Jehosheba; according to the close of our verse, a sister of Ahaziah, a daughter of Joram, perhaps, by another wife than Athaliah. That Jehoiada the husband of Jehoshabath was perhaps only a priest, not the high priest, see on 23:8.—That were slain, or that should have been slain (הַמּוּמָתִים).
2Ch_22:12. And he was with them in the house of God hidden. Thither was he brought from his first hiding-place, the bed-chamber of the royal palace, as soon as the first favourable opportunity presented itself. “With them,” with Jehoshabath, her priestly spouse and his nurse (2Ch_22:11). For אִתָּם is, moreover, in 2Ki_11:3, the simpler אִתָּהּ, “with her.” Comp. for the rest, Bähr on the parallel passage.
5. Athaliah’s Fall through the Revolution effected by Jehoiada: 2 Chronicles 23.—According to the parallel in 2Ki_11:4-20, Jehoiada employed in his enterprise the royal “runners” or guards, according to our passage, the Levites and priests, without, however, excluding the former (for in 2Ch_23:1, five captains of hundreds, that is, of the life-guards, are expressly named), or betraying any design to transform the narrative of the author of Kings into his Levitical sense in an unhistorical way. He stands much more (as is immediately evident from 2Ch_23:1) on independent older reports, which he takes in the main from the same sources from which 2Ki_11:4-20 is derived; only that he finds these sources richer, and by the addition of still other reports, produces a more complete account of the fact, filling up the parallel in various ways, and even deviating from it in some respects. Here and there his statements are less clear than those of the older texts, and show plainly enough the peculiar colouring of his Levitical standpoint, but without warranting the charge of biassed invention, which de Wette, Thenius, Bertheau, Hitzig (p. 204 ff.), and nearly Movers (p. 307 ff.), here bring against the Chronist. Comp. Bähr on Kings, p. 343, and Keil, pp. 305–310; also Neteler, p. 236 ff.—In the seventh year Jehoiada . . . took the captains of hundreds, the centurions of the royal life-guards, as appears from 2Ki_11:4 ff. Five of these captains are then named, a guarantee of the well-grounded accuracy of the present narrative. Before the first three of these names stands the introductory לְ (as 17:7; 1Ch_5:26), and before the last two וְאֶת.
2Ch_23:2. And they went about in Judah, וַיּסֹבּוּ, as 17:9; comp. Son_3:3; on the following רָאשֵׁי אָבוֹת, “tribechiefs,” “heads of families,” for בֵית א׳ר׳, comp. 1Ch_8:6.
2Ch_23:3. And all the congregation made a covenant. כָּל־הַקָּהָל means, not the whole Israelitish community (Berth.), but according to the context, the congregation of Levites and heads of families appointed by Jehoiada at Jerusalem in the temple. What is related of “the covenant made with the king,” the young Joash, is merely completive of the report in 2Ki_11:4, not contradictory (against Berth., etc., comp. Bahr on this passage).—As the Lord hath spoken of the sons of David, in the oracle of Nathan, 2 Samuel 7. (comp. 21:7).
2Ch_23:4. A third of you (properly, “the third part of you,” 2Ch_27:1) who enter on the Sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites. According to this, the first of the three posts is to be occupied by persons “who enter on the Sabbath” (בָּאֵי הַשַּׁבָּת), who are expressly described as belonging to the priests and Levites. In 2Ki_11:5 also the first third is so designated, which seems to indicate that there also priests and Levites are regarded as standing under the command of the five captains of hundreds; comp. moreover, the corresponding “coming out on the Sabbath,” 2Ch_23:7; 2Ch_23:9. Keil justly observes (Apol. Vers. p. 362 ff., and Comm. p. 309 f.), “that the priests and Levites in courses performed the temple service from one Sabbath to another” is known from Luk_1:5; comp. with 1 Chronicles 24; whereas nothing is said of such an arrangement on the part of the prætorians, so that by the phrases: entering on the Sabbath (resuming service), and coming out on the Sabbath (retiring from it), we must understand the Levites. If the prætorians (life-guards) were thus intended in 2 Kings 11 this should have been clearly affirmed. From the words spoken of the centurions of the life-guards: “the third part of you,” this no more follows than from the fact that in 2Ki_11:11 the appointed posts are called הָרָצִים, “the runners, guards.” If we assume that for this extraordinary occasion the Levitical attendants were placed under the command of some centurions of the royal guards who were in concert with the high priest, the designation of the men whom they commanded as רָצִים, guards, is fully explained, after these men (on account of the priestly and Levitical elements assigned to them) were described as those “entering and coming out on the Sabbath.” Accordingly, if 2 Kings and Chronicles agree in this, that they presuppose the troops employed by Jehoiada to be composed of Levites, life-guards, and other Jews, they do not essentially differ with regard to the localities which the three divisions of the troops had to occupy. For, according to 2Ki_11:5-6, the first third was to take “the watch of the king’s house,” the second that at “the gate of Sur,” the third that at “the gate behind the runners;” besides, those coming out on the Sabbath were to occupy the temple in two divisions, and so protect the young king (2Ch_23:7-8). According to our verses, on the contrary, the first third was to be porters at the thresholds, and so (1Ch_9:19; 1Ch_9:22) guard the entrance to the temple, the second, was to stand (2Ch_23:5) in the house of the king, the third at the gate Jesod, while “all the people” were to fill the court of the house of God. Two of these statements appear quite reconcilable; for the occupying of the king’s house is by both texts assigned to a third, and the gate Jesod (foundation-gate) should be the same as the gate סוּר (the latter is probably miswritten for the former, or it denotes “a gate of retreat,” a side gate [?]; comp. Bähr). But with regard to the third, an incurable contradiction appears to exist between the two texts; the “gate behind the runners” must apparently, according to 2Ki_11:19, be sought not in the temple but in the royal palace, whereas our author assigns to the corresponding division its post, not here, at one of the palace gates, but at the thresholds of the temple gate. The only possible arrangement would be that proposed as a hint by Keil, that the runners’ gate was placed where the passage, mentioned 1Ki_10:5, 2Ki_16:18, from the palace to the temple was situated, and therefore the division in question was conceived to be guarding at the same time the palace and the temple. It is easier to reconcile that which is said in both passages concerning the employment of the rest of the armed men (in our text, 2Ch_23:5 : “all the people”) to occupy the temple (or in particular its court). Yet here also in the two reporters somewhat diverse conceptions of the event seem to have existed, and in such a way that the author of 2 Kings conceived and represented the whole as a military, the Chronist as a Levitical, measure. Comp. especially in this respect, 2Ch_23:6-8.
2Ch_23:6 And all the people shall keep the ward of the Lord, behave in a legal manner, and beware of entering the inner temple chambers, the proper sanctuary. For the phrase, comp. 13:11.
2Ch_23:7. And the Levites shall surround the king, not form a dense and close circle around him, but occupy all the entrances to the temple around the chamber of the king.
2Ch_23:8. And the Levites and all Judah. For this 2 Kings has: “and the captains of hundreds.” But this is not a real contradiction; in 2 Kings the commanders are named, in our passage the commanded, as the executors of Jehoiada’s directions.—All that Jehoiada the priest commanded. Neither here nor 22:11, nor generally in the accounts of the Chronist, does Jehoiada bear the title of high priest; but even in the book of Kings he is not so called, but either simply Jehoiada, without addition, or “Jehoiada the priest” (2Ki_11:15; 2Ki_12:3; 2Ki_12:8; 2Ki_12:10); that he is identical with the הַכֹּהֵן הַגָּדוֹל named 2Ki_12:11 is as improbable as that in the parallel 2Ch_24:6; 2Ch_24:11 (see on the passage) the designation כֹּהֵן הָרֹאשׁ refers to him as high priest. Contrary, therefore, to the usual view, which makes Jehoiada high priest, Neteler appears justly to assume that he was the leading chief of the priesthood (הָרֹאשׁ), but not the high priest proper, but that one of his sons was invested with this dignity; with which assumption the absence of Jehoiada’s name in the list of the high priests, 1 Chron. 5:30 ff., admirably agrees. That the Azariah named 1 Chron. 5:36, the son of Johanan, who ministered as priest in the house built by Solomon, was the son of our Jehoiada, and thus the high priest acting in his time and under his paternal guidance (2Ki_12:11), is a wholly arbitrary conjecture of this learned man, which fails on this account, that, 1 Chron. 5:37, an Amariah is named as son of this Azariah, who can scarcely be different from the high priest Amariah named, 2Ch_19:11, as the contemporary of Jehoshaphat.—For Jehoiada the priest had not dismissed the courses. הַמַּחְלְקוֹת, the priestly divisions for performing the temple service according to the order made by David, 1 Chronicles 24-26. The dismissal (פטר) of these divisions as well as their summoning was the business of the high priest, 1Ch_24:6; 1Ch_24:19; but Jehoiada may have acted for his son (possibly a minor), just as if he had been high priest himself; comp. as a New Testament parallel, the relation of Annas to his son-in-law Caiaphas, Luk_3:2; Joh_18:12 ff.
2Ch_23:9. And Jehoiada the priest gave … spears, and shields, and arms.שְׁלָטִים, here probably in the more general sense of weapons, arms, as in Son_4:4, where, likewise, מָגֵן precedes; yet it might also signify targets (along with shields of another kind); comp. 2Ki_11:10 and 2Sa_8:7; Eze_27:11 On the captured arms deposited by David as a dedicated gift in the house of God, comp. 1Ch_18:7 ff. and 2Ch_9:24; 2Ch_12:10.
2Ch_23:10. Every man with his weapon in his hand. שִׁלְחוֹ, properly, his missile; comp. 32:5; Job_33:18. The “setting round about the king” is to be understood as the surrounding (2Ch_23:7).
2Ch_23:11. And they brought out the king’s son. This account of the crowning of Joash agrees in substance with 2Ki_11:12, only that the clapping of the hands as the outward expression of the people’s joy is here omitted as unessential.
2Ch_23:12 ff. Athaliah’s Execution, the Renewal of the Covenant, and the Solemn Procession of the King to his Palace,—all this related essentially as in 2Ki_11:13-20.
2Ch_23:13. And the singers with instruments of song. This more copious description, corresponding with the favourite manner of the Chronist, of the musical demonstrations of the joyful multitude (comp. 1Ch_15:16; 1Ch_16:42) is wanting in 2 Kings.
2Ch_23:14. Brought out; comp. the Crit. Note.
2Ch_23:15. And she went to the entrance of the horse gate. For this is in 2 Kings: “And she went the way in which the horses entered the king’s house.” The redundant שַׁעַר of our passage, beside מְבוֹא, which the old versions do not express, came into the text perhaps by an unsuitable reference to Neh_3:28. The horse gate there mentioned, which was a city gate, is not to he thought of here, although Josephus here confuses them.
2Ch_23:16. And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and between all the people. Instead of “between himself” (בֵּינוֹ) stands in 2 Kings: “between Jehovah,” an unimportant difference, for the priest causing the covenant to be made represented Jehovah. That he was the high priest in particular follows no more from this than from 2Ch_23:8; comp. on 24:11.
2Ch_23:17. And all the people went to the house of Baal. On the conjectural site of this temple of Baal, comp. Bähr on 2Ki_11:18.
2Ch_23:18-19 form an enlargement peculiar to our author of the brief statement in 2 Kings: “And the priest appointed officers (offices) over the house of the Lord,” wherein, again, the singers and the porters are specially mentioned.—Whom David had distributed, had determined to minister before God in certain regularly succeeding divisions; comp. 1Ch_23:6, and for the following, Ezr_3:2; Ezr_3:10.—And he set the porters at the gates, properly, “over the gates”; comp. 1Ch_9:23.—That the unclean might not enter, literally, “one unclean in respect of anything”; comp. Lev_5:2-3; Isa_35:8.
2Ch_23:20. And he took the captains of hundreds, and the nobles (הָאַדִּירִים, Jer_14:3, Psa_16:3), and the rulers of the people (literally, “those ruling among the people”; comp. Isa_28:14). Instead of this, in 2 Kings: “the captains of hundreds, and the life-guards, and the runners.” In the following part also, our author with singular constancy avoids the mention of the runners; for instead of: “and came by the way of the gate of the runners to the king’s house” (2Ki_11:19), he puts: “and went through the high gate,” etc. This high gate appears from 27:3 (comp. also 2Ki_15:35) to have been a gate in the temple, not, as probably the runners’ gate, in the king’s house; but as it might have been situated over against the royal palace (perhaps over the bridge leading from Moriah to Zion), its name involves neither a topographical impossibility nor a contradiction of 2 Kings (comp. Keil on 2 Kings, p. 271).
evangelical and ethical reflections and apologetic remarks, on Ch. 21–23
1. The bad seed sown by Jehoshaphat through the unfortunate affinity with the house of Ahab springs up only too soon, and bears corrupt fruit to the royal house and people of Judah. With the malignity of a fury or a demon, Athaliah the daughter of Jezebel proceeds, during the two reigns of her husband Joram and her son Ahaziah that were guided by her, and during the six years of her sole sovereignty, to gloat over the blood of every, member of the unfortunate house of David from which the least resistance to her idolatrous course might be apprehended. The all too close connection, no longer, as with Solomon and Hiram, amounting to mere friendship, with the Tyrian princely family, into which Judah, also following the bad example of the house of Omri, had thoughtlessly entered, fearfully avenges itself. The worst Sultanism is transplanted thence into the royal castle on Zion.10 And as the severe punishment inflicted by Jehu on the house of Omri took place in Jezreel, and swept away at the same time the Jewish king Ahaziah and his male kinsmen in the northern kingdom (884 according to the usual reckoning, 880 according to Hitzig; according to Schrader and Neteler, certainly after 850, as follows from the synchronism of the Assyrian history; see under), the cruel scourge is not yet taken from Judah’s back, but continues to lacerate it full six years more. And to all this is added for this kingdom the humiliating and disgraceful circumstance that it is a woman, and even a foreign woman, who usurps the sole sovereignty, and maintains it for those years by the forcible setting aside of the male heir of the house of David. So much the more beneficent appears the manner in which the reform, rendered necessary by this temporary degeneracy of the Jewish royal house and state, was finally executed. No blood-dripping Jehu, spreading terror and amazement around, no tempestuous desolating form of the fanatical zealots in Roman or Herodian times, proves necessary to effect the return from the worship of Baal to that of Jehovah, and the restoration of the theocratic character of the community. The mild, not terrible, but venerable form of a pious priest, closely related by family ties to the royal house of David, accomplishes almost without blood the necessary revolution. The single sacrifice that is needed for this end is the tyrannical and idolatrous stranger who has been the origin of the evil that has broken over the land for the last twenty years. With the slaying, or rather execution, for nothing is said of wild revenge or tumultuary massacre, of her and her Baal-priest Matthan, the judgment on the disturbers of the theocratic order seems to be executed, and peace restored. That our author, by his peculiar mode of elevating the Levitical and priestly element into the factors of the revolution, places in a peculiarly clear light this eminently peaceful course of the same; that he, in harmony, again, with his often otherwise manifested historical tendency, represents the whole in some measure as a revolution carried on with music and song, as a transference, accomplished with ringing notes and flying banners, of the whole people into the camp of the legitimate party (comp. 2Ch_23:13; 2Ch_23:18),—this lends to his representation a peculiar charm, in contrast with the more concise and jejune description, only relating that which is of political or military importance, in the book of Kings. In this narrative, also, the circumstance that the whole people of Judah and Benjamin rises up as one man to shake off the long enough borne and already sufficiently hated foreign yoke by one powerful movement of its neck, stands forth conspicuous in the light of day. It is shown more clearly than in the parallel account of the older history, how slightly the foreign and idolatrous lust had struck its roots into the consciousness and life of the people, and with what comparative rapidity and ease it could be set aside again. A conjecture, to which we must have come on receiving exclusively the narrative of the book of Kings, that a prominent part in the revolution effected by Jehoiada must have been due to the numerically strong Levitical element in the population of the Jewish state,—this conjecture is strikingly confirmed by the Chronist’s narrative, with its emphatic marking of the priestly and Levitical character of the catastrophe, and its almost unseemly depreciation of the share of the runners in it (comp. especially on 2Ch_23:20 f.), without being under the necessity of charging the narrator with any bias in moulding the narrative after his Levitical standpoint. For it would be strange if an event such as this shrewd and bold political stroke of the priest Jehoiada were conducted in so exclusively political and military a way, and with so little participation of the clergy, as appears in 2 Kings.
2. In an apologetic respect, with regard to the account of the fall of Athaliah by means of Jehoiada, we have to refer partly to what has been just observed, and partly to the detail of the exposition. On the contrary, the ill-foreboding writing of Elijah to Joram (2Ch_21:12-15) needs a more special elucidation in the evangelical and apologetic interest. This remarkable document, the only definite proof of the acquaintance of our author with the existence of the greatest and most powerful prophet of the time of the divided kingdom, presents to the expositor the not unimportant chronological difficulty, that, if actually composed by Elijah, and addressed to Joram as already reigning king of Judah, it necessitates the assumption of an extension of the activity of Elijah far into the twelve years of the reign of the Israelitish Joram (896–884 in the usual reckoning, 857–846 in that of Schrader and Neteler), whereas, according to 2 Kings 2, the taking up of the prophet into heaven seems to have occurred at the latest in the beginning of this reign, thus all events under Jehoshaphat († 890 or 889 in the usual chronology, 850 or 849 in the modern Assyriologic chronology). Various ways have been taken of removing this difficulty. Older Jewish and Roman Catholic expositors (of the latter, for example, Estius, Malvenda, Tirinus, Calmet), and some evangelical moderns (especially Menken, and Dächsel in his Bibelw.), make Elijah write after his ascent into paradise, and send it by an angel to Elisha, or a still surviving disciple of the prophet, to forward to Joram. This overstrained supra-naturalistic solution of the problem is equally void of exegetical warrant11 with the superficial purely natural assumption, that the writer of the letter was not Elijah the Tishbite, but another prophet of the same name (Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. on Luk_1:17, or with the no less arbitrary and text-defying attempt to change the name Elijah (2Ch_21:12) into that of Elisha (Cleric, Saurin, disc. tom. ii. p. 344) Joram (890 or 889–884), that he might thus have directed the writing shortly before his departure to the latter king as his contemporary (Seb. Schmid, Lightf. Op. t. i. p. 85; Usher, Mai, Burmann, etc., and recently Keil, p. 298, at least tentatively), could only be maintained with difficulty, and only by the assumption of an inaccurate statement on the part of the author of the book of Kings, as the position of that which is related, 2Ki_2:1 ff., of the ascension of Elijah is such that it appears to have happened either under the reign of Ahaziah of Israel, the predecessor of Joram, or immediately after his death (896, or eventually 857). There remains after all this only the twofold possibility, that either—1. Elijah wrote the letter some time before his ascension, and left it behind him to one of his disciples, with the charge to hand it to the later King Joram of Judah (Starke, Buddeus, Rambach, etc., and recently Keil, as well as Hengstenberg, Gesch. ii. 2, 243), or that, 2. Elijah merely made over by word of mouth the contents of the letter some time before his ascension to one of his disciples, perhaps to Elisha, with the charge to make it known to Joram by a writing composed in his name (Witsius, Gürtler, Hackspan, Not. philol. on 2 Chronicles 21; S. Schmid, De literis Eliœ ad Joramum, Argentor. 1717; Wilisch, etc.). The latter assumption, or that of an only ideal authorship of Elijah in relation to the writing, a composition of it ἐν πνεύματι καὶ δυνάμει ‛Ηλίου (Luk_1:17), but certainly on the ground of an actual prediction of Elijah, has most in its favour. It avoids the inherently improbable supposition, that Elijah wrote with his own hand a letter, which he knew could only be delivered in the course of at least five or six years after his ascension to God (for the writing appears directed to the king, not to the crown prince). On the other hand, it is reconcilable with the indefinite designation of the writing as coming from Elijah (see on 2Ch_21:12), and excludes the suspicion of pseudepigraphic fiction after the manner of so many apocryphal writings of later times, bearing the names of celebrated sages or men of God.12 It recognises the genuine prophetic content and character of the writing; for it discerns actual prediction, true action of prophetic foresight in it, without overlooking the difference between the author of this prophetic kernel, and the later composer or redactor. Comp. on the possibility or even probability of a divine disclosure being made to Elijah of the future destiny of Joram, the husband of the daughter of Jezebel, as well as of a charge to Elisha to announce afterwards the contents of such a revelation to Joram, on the one hand, Hengstenberg as quoted: “Elijah had (1 Kings 19) foreseen the elevation of Jehu to the throne of Israel, and the extirpation of the family of Ahab by him; also the accession of Hazael, and the heavy misfortune brought by him on the kingdom of Israel. If the future was in this respect disclosed to him, the greatest of all the prophets of the Old Testament, why might not this also have been revealed to him, that Joram, who had already before his decease connected himself with the abominable Athaliah, will, by his grievous sins, bring upon himself the judgment of the Lord?” on the other hand, Keil, p. 299: “To whom God revealed the elevation of Jehu to the throne of Israel, the accession of Hazael, etc., events which took place after the death of Joram of Judah, to whom God already, under Ahab, committed the anointing of Jehu to be king of Israel (1Ki_19:16), which, fourteen years after the death of Ahab, Elisha performed by a scholar of the prophet’s (2Ki_9:1 ff.)—to him the Lord might also in the second year of Ahaziah of Israel, when he announced to this king his death, about seven years before Jehoshaphat’s death, reveal the wickedness of his successor Joram, and commit the announcement of the divine punishment. But if Elijah made over the anointing as well of Hazael as of Jehu to his servant Elisha, why might he not also have entrusted to him the handing of the written prediction of woe to Joram?” We find this statement so far completely suitable and convincing, but cannot agree with the two learned men from whom it proceeds in this, that they hold Elijah to be the writer (composer) of the letter in its extant form. We find it much more satisfactory for the establishment of the essential authenticity of the document, if the mediate origin of it from Elijah (the powerful “prophet of deed,” who was no man of the pen, and of whose action as a writer nothing is said) is maintained. With this also agree the generally acknowledged contents and tone of the writing, quite irrespective of the personal position of the prophet, which, however, is not on this .account to be held (with Berth, and other recent critics) to be an idealizing composition of a later historian; for in that case it would be different only in degree (as a pseudepigraphon within the canon) from the products of the post-canonical literature, above which it seems exalted by its genuine prophetic contents.
Footnotes:
[1]For בְּהָרֵי, “on the mountains,” the Sept. and Vulg. read בְּעָרֵי, “in the cities.”
[2] בְּלֹא חֶמְדָה the Sept. translates οὐχ ἐν ἐταίω̣; but the Vulg: non recte (ambulavitque non recte). So Luther: “and walked as was not right.”
[3]Instead of forty-two, not only the parallel 2Ki_8:26, but also the Syr. and Arab. versions (as well as some later mss. and the Ald. edit. of the Sept.), give “twenty-two years”; but the Vulg., as the Masoretic text and Sept. (Al and vat.): εἴχοσιν ἐτῶν.
[4]For בִּי הַמַּבִּים is to be read, with various better MSS., also with the Sept. and 2Ki_8:29 : מִן המַּבִּים, Peculiar is the decision of Neteler (p 325): בִּי is to be retained and rendered by “puncture” (puncture of the wounds).
[5]This is certainly to be read instead of וַֽעֲזַרְיָהוּ, which seems to be simply an error of the pen.
[6]Instead of “sons of the brethren,” בְּנֵי אֲחֵי, the Sept., in accordance with 2Ki_10:12 : ἀδελφούς. But see the Exeg. Expl.
[7] וַתְּדַבֵּר is without doubt, according to 2Ki_9:1, to be changed into וַתּאַבֵּד. (Sept.: ἀπώλεσεν; Vulg: interfecit.)
[8] וַיּוֹצֵא is possibly a mistake for וַֽיְצַו (2Ki_11:15), which latter the Syr. and Arab. also read in our passage.
[9] שַׁעַר, besides being superfluous after מְבוֹא, is wanting as well in 2Ki_11:6 as in all old versions of our passage, and should be erased.
[10]Compare the remark of J. H. Michaelis: “Tyrian, Israelitish, Jewish history here coincide. Tyre brought by marriage her then prevalent spirit and misfortune into the Israelitish history. Contemporary with Joram is Pygmalion king of Tyre, who murdered the husband of his sister Dido merely to possess himself of his treasure. Joram likewise after Jehoshaphat’s death (2 Chronicles 21) murdered all his brothers, as it appears, for no other cause (?) but to possess himself of the treasures which their father had bequeathed to them (?),” etc. This latter assumption, though one-sided and exegetically unfounded (comp. on 21:4), is yet on the whole very striking.
[11]And theological warrant; for as A. Calov. aptly says: Non triumphantium in cœlis est erudire out ad pœnitentiam revocare mortales in terra. Habent Mosen et prophetas; si illos non audiant, neque si quis ex mortuis resurrexerit, nedum si quis ex cœlis literas perscripserit, credent (Luk_14:31) Likewise J. J. Rambach on our passage, who declares it inconceivable: Deum in gratiam impii regis ejusmodi quid fecisse, cujus nullum aliud exemplum extat immo quod nec necessarium erat. quum plures aliæ essent rationes, quibus Deus volutatem suam ei manifestare poterat (Luk_14:27; Luk_14:29). Comp. also the remarks of Keil, p. 298, against Menken.
[12]The Apocrypha of Jewish-Hellenistic literature bearing the name of Elijah belong to a pretty late period, as the Apocalypsis Eliæ, from which, according to Origen and the Church-fathers, the quotation in 1Co_2:9 is to be taken; comp. Fabr. Cod pseudepigr. V T. vol. i. p. 1072. Concerning the Elias of the Jewish-Christian fables or legends, comp. the reports of Epiphanius. Dorotheus of Tyre, Isidore of Seville, and in the Talmud. There are still Mahommedan or Christian (at least half-Christian) nations in the East, for example in the Caucasus, who worship in Elias (on account of 1Ki_17:1 f.) a kind of run-god or Jupiter pluvius (see Ausland, 1872, No. 29. p. 679). What a contrast between this Elijah of the fable and that of Old Testament history, as well, according to 1 and 2 Kings, as our documents preserved in Chronicles!
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain Ch. 2Ch_21:1 (= 1Ki_22:50). Jehoshaphat succeeded by Jehoram
Ch. 2Ch_21:1 (= 1Ki_22:50). Jehoshaphat succeeded by Jehoram
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Now.—And.
XXI.
(1) Now.—And.
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Slept.—Lay down. The verse is literally the same as 1Ki_22:50.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The matter of this chapter may be divided into…
The matter of this chapter may be divided into four parts. The death and burial of Jehoshaphat, and the number, names, and position of his sons (vers. 1-3). The accession and wicked course of Jehoram, the eldest son (vers. 4-11). The written warning and denunciation of Elijah, and the very practical warning of the Philistines, etc. (vers. 12-17). The disease, death, and burial of Jehoram (vers. 18-20).
The parallel for this verse is 1Ki_22:50; and, with the exception of one word, it is an exact parallel. To understand the questions set in motion by the last clause of the verse, comparison must be made of 2Ki_1:17 2Ki_3:1 2Ki_8:16. For anything that appears here, we should take for granted that Jehoram now first began to exercise any royal authority and enjoy any royal dignity. But the first of the just-quoted passages says Jehoram (of Israel) succeeded his wicked brother Ahaziah in the second year of Jehoram (of Judah), son of Jehoshaphat. In the second of the above-quoted passages, however, we are told that the same Jehoram (of Israel) succeeded to the throne in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat, which date tallies with our parallel of last chapter, (1Ki_22:41) to the effect that Jehoshaphat himself began to reign in Ahab"s fourth year, and Ahaziah in Jeho-saphat"s seventeenth year. While, lastly, the third of the above-quoted references says that in the fifth year of Joram (of Israel), "Jehoshaphat being then King of Judah" (which, however, is itself an unfaithful rendering of what must be a corrupt text), his son Jehoram "began to reign." It has therefore been conjectured that the royal name was given Jehoram (of Judah) by his father in his father"s sixteenth year, and that in his twenty-third year he further invested him with some royal power (our ver. 3 gives some plausibility to this conjecture), from which last date Jehoram"s "eight years" (2Ki_8:17; 2Ch_21:5, 2Ch_21:20) must be reckoned; this was not less than two years before the death of Jehoshaphat. Were it not for the countenance that our third verse (describing the cut-and-dried arrangements that the father made for his sons) gives to the tenableness of the above conjectures, we should prefer the conjecture that the passages commented upon are so much corrupt text.
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HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1-20.
A reign of unmitigated shame.
To the career of Jehoshaphat of almost exemplary excellence, that of Jehoram, his son, forms a contrast most humiliating-Obviously it is not the least painful feature of this latter that it so inevitably forces into our memory the parental fault, which, if it were not the cause and very foundation of an eldest son s abandoned character and course of conduct, could not fail to have given opportunity for it, and could not fail to incur the responsibility before all the world of having lent the occasion. This chapter teaches us significantly
I THE RARE VANITY OF HUMAN ENDEAVOUR TO PROVIDE BY ANY CONTRIVANCES AGAINST THE CONSEQUENCES OF ITS OWN FAULTS AND SINS. No disposition in his will, no disposition of the gifts of his property on the part of Jehoshaphat, sufficed to avert these in this instance (vers. 3, 4).
II THE IMMENSE ADDITION OF PAIN AND PUNISHMENT FOR SIN THAT ARE INVOLVED HEREIN IN EVEN SUCH POOR MEASURE OF FORESIGHT AS BELONGS TO HUMAN NATURE. This is an indication of the great mercy that lies in the limited measure of the powers of human nature. To be hunted and goaded by the forces of memory from behind, and at the same time terrified by the only too just apparitions of anticipation, and the pictures of what awaits us in front, even in this life, how dreadfully might they at times add to the misery of life! How often might they induce remorse, and the despair that comes of remorse!
III THE SPECIAL ROYAL HUMILIATION AND PUNISHMENT WHICH CONSIST IN VICTORY, POSSIBLY VICTORY ON VICTORY, WITHOUT CONQUEST. (Vers. 8, 10, 16, 17.) It is the Sisyphus of kings and rulers and nations, and Jehoram was the Sisyphus of this time and history. But it involves also misery and a scourge for the nation cursed with such rulers.
IV THE ACCUMULATION OF RETRIBUTION THAT COVERED AND CROWDED THE END FOR JEHORAM. Forewarned by the great Prophet Elijah, perhaps the very last, certainly among the very last, of the acts of his ministry, a horror of a bodily disease; a plague for his people, his children, his wives, and his goods; the slaughter of all his sons save one the one necessary to carrying on the line of Judah; an unhonoured death, and the forfeiting of a place in the ancestral sepulchres of the kings; these were "the portion of his cup," and the filling up of its bitterness the retribution of an iniquitous and godless career, apparently unrelieved by a single virtue or single good deed! It was impossible, indeed, that his father could learn from notice and experience of the son; but "all these things were written for our admonition" for all succeeding generations, and tell their gravest lessons, and offer their most fearful warnings for many another father.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-11.
A life spent in undoing.
For the quarter of a century Jehoshaphat spent all his individual power and devoted all the weight of his royal office to the work of establishing piety, justice, and (in consequence) real prosperity throughout his kingdom. And right well he succeeded. When he died he left Judah much purer, stronger, and richer than he found it. Then came his firstborn son in succession to him. And what came with him? What else but a baneful and lamentable undoing of all that he himself had done all, at least, that his son had it in his power to overturn?
I THE COURSE OF ONE EVIL LIFE.
1. Jehoram"s reign began in selfish cruelty. To secure his own position, he murdered his six brethren; to avert a contingent evil to himself, he wrought the last and worst evil to his own mother"s sons (ver. 4).
2. It went on to personal apostasy. (Ver. 6.) He turned away from the God of his fathers, from the worship of the God to whom he might and, indeed, must have known that his throne was due, to serve Baal; and in so doing he forsook the way of wisdom and of purity for paths of error and iniquity.
3. It led down to the abuse of royal power. For he not only made Jerusalem to be partaker of his sin, but he tyrannically compelled Judah to do the same (ver. 11). He employed his royal authority (and probably his standing army) to constrain his people to depart from the way of holiness, from spiritual and moral integrity.
4. It issued in national disaster. In the loss of the Divine favour; in the consequent defeat of his troops and loss of a dependency; in the revolt of an important city (vers. 8-11).
5. It closed in an early and miserable death.
II ITS MOST STRIKING CHARACTERISTIC. It went far to undo all that a long and devoted life, all that a useful and brilliant reign, had done. It pulled down a large part of that which had been so carefully, so laboriously, so wisely constructed. How easily, and in how short a time, can a bad man undo what his predecessor, with infinite effort, has accomplished! The striking and the holding of a lucifer match may bring the stateliest structure to a heap of ruin. The deflection from the way of rectitude on the part of one prominent life, the wandering from God of one strong human spirit, may have the effect of bringing to nought the labour of more than one lifetime. How true the proverb, "One sinner destroyeth much good"! There are amongst us the names of men who have reached that poor and most pitiful notoriety of not having attempted to do any good, but of having dragged down with themselves their family, their Church, their community, to a dark depth of shame and ruin.
III THE EXPLANATION OF IT. Two factors were concerned in it and account for it.
1. The unwisdom of his father. Jehoshaphat made one of his serious mistakes and he made more than one when he married his son to Ahab"s daughter. (2Ch_18:1; ver. 6) He could not conceivably have taken a more dangerous step; it was the very last thing a faithful servant of Jehovah should have done. What was likely to happen when the daughter of Jezebel was presiding at the court of Jerusalem? Thus Jehoram"s father, with a fatuity at which we can but wonder, introduced a blighting influence into the home and so into the heart of his son.
2. His own evil choice. These two things unhealthy forces acting uponus from without and our own false resolves determine our character, our course, our destiny. Let us be thankful for all holy influences; let us be most solicitous to bring all and only good ones to bear on those for whom we care. Let those who are young set before them the honourable ambition of confirming the good work of their fathers; let them beware lest a bad and selfish commencement lead down to a miserable and disgraceful end. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain 2 Chronicles 21-23
JEHORAM, AHAZIAH, AND ATHALIAH: THE CONSEQUENCES OF A FOREIGN MARRIAGE
2 Chronicles 21-23
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THE accession of Jehoram is one of the instances in which a wicked son succeeded to a conspicuously pious father, but in this case there is no difficulty in explaining the phenomenon: the depraved character and evil deeds of Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah are at once accounted for when we remember that they were respectively the son-in-law, grandson, and daughter of Ahab, and possibly of Jezebel. If, however, Jezebel were really the mother of Athaliah, it is difficult to believe that the chronicler understood or at any rate realized the fact. In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah the chronicler lays great stress upon the iniquity and inexpediency of marriage with strange wives, and he has been careful to insert a note into the history of Jehoshaphat to call attention to the fact that the king of Judah had joined affinity with Ahab. If he had understood that this implied joining affinity with a Phoenician devotee of Baal, this significant fact would not have been passed over in silence. Moreover, the names Athaliah and Ahaziah are both compounded with the sacred name Jehovah. A Phoenician Baal-worshipper may very well have been sufficiently eclectic to make such use of the name sacred to the family into which she married, but on the whole those names rather tell against the descent of their owners from Jezebel and her Zidonian ancestors.
We have seen that, after giving the concluding formula for the reign of Jehoshaphat, the chronicler adds a postscript narrating an incident discreditable to the king. Similarly he prefaces the introductory formula for the reign of Jehoram by inserting a cruel deed of the new king. Before telling us Jehorams age at his accession and the length of his reign, the chronicler relates the steps taken by Jehoram to secure himself upon his throne. Jehoshaphat, like Rehoboam, had disposed of his numerous sons in the fenced cities of Judah, and had sought to make them quiet and contented by providing largely for their material welfare: "Their father gave them great gifts: silver, gold, and precious things, with fenced cities in Judah." The sanguine judgment of paternal affection might expect that these gifts would make his younger sons loyal and devoted subjects of their elder brother; but Jehoram, not without reason, feared that treasure and cities might supply the means for a revolt, or that Judah might be split up into a number of small principalities. Accordingly when he had strengthened himself he slew all his brethren with the sword, and with them those princes of Israel whom he suspected of attachment to his other victims. He was following the precedent set by Solomon when he ordered the execution of Adonijah; and, indeed, the slaughter by a new sovereign of all those near relations who might possibly dispute his claim to the throne has usually been considered in the East to be a painful but necessary and perfectly justifiable act, being, in fact, regarded in much the same light as the drowning of superfluous kittens in domestic circles. Probably this episode is placed before the introductory formula for the reign because until these possible rivals were removed Jehorams tenure of the throne was altogether unsafe.
For the next few verses {2Ch_21:5-10; Cf. 2Ki_8:17-22} the narrative follows the book of Kings with scarcely any alteration, and states the evil character of the new reign, accounting for Jehorams depravity by his marriage with a daughter of Ahab. The successful revolt of Edom from Judah is next given, and the chronicler adds a note of his own to the effect that Jehoram experienced these reverses because he had forsaken Jehovah, the God of his fathers.
Then the chronicler proceeds to describe further sins and misfortunes of Jehoram. He mentions definitely, what is doubtless implied by the book of Kings, that Jehoram made high places in the cities of Judah and seduced the people into taking part in a corrupt worship. The Divine condemnation of the kings wrong-doing came from an unexpected quarter and in an unusual fashion. The other prophetic messages specially recorded by the chronicler were uttered by prophets of Judah, some apparently receiving their inspiration for one particular occasion. The prophet who rebuked Jehoram was no less distinguished a personage than the great Israelite Elijah, who, according to the book of Kings, had long since been translated to heaven. In the older narrative Elijahs work is exclusively confined to the Northern Kingdom. But the chronicler entirely ignores Elijah, except when his history becomes connected for a moment with that of the house of David.
The other prophets of Judah delivered their messages by word of mouth, but this communication is made by means of "a writing." This, however, is not without parallel: Jeremiah sent a letter to the captives in Babylon, and also sent a written collection of his prophecies to Jehoiakim. {Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah 36} In the latter case, however, the prophecies had been originally promulgated by word of mouth.
Elijah writes in the name of Jehovah, the God of David, and condemns Jehoram because he was not walking in the ways of Asa and Jehoshaphat, but in the ways of the kings of Israel and the house of Ahab. It is pleasant to find that, in spite of the sins which marked the latter days of Asa and Jehoshaphat, their "ways" were as a whole such as could be held up as an example by the prophet of Jehovah. Here and elsewhere God appeals to the better feelings that spring from pride of birth. Noblesse oblige. Jehoram held his throne as representative of the house of David, and was proud to trace his descent to the founder of the Israelite monarchy and to inherit the glory of the great reigns of Asa and Jehoshaphat; but this pride of race implied that to depart from their ways was dishonorable apostasy. There is no more pitiful spectacle than an effeminate libertine pluming himself on his noble ancestry.
Elijah further rebukes Jehoram for the massacre of his brethren, who were better than himself. They had all grown up at their fathers court, and till the other brethren were put in possession of their fenced cities had been under the same influences. It is the husband of Ahabs daughter who is worse than all the rest; the influence of an unsuitable marriage has already begun to show itself. Indeed, in view of Athaliahs subsequent history, we do her no injustice by supposing that, like Jezebel and Lady Macbeth, she had suggested her husbands crime. The fact that Jerohams brethren were better men than himself adds to his guilt morally, but this undesirable superiority of the other princes of the blood to the reigning sovereign would seem to Jehoram and his advisers an additional reason for putting them out of the way; the massacre was an urgent political necessity.-
"Truly the tender mercies of the weak, As of the wicked, are but cruel."
There is nothing so cruel as the terror of a selfish man. The Inquisition is the measure not only of the inhumanity, but also of the weakness, of the mediaeval Church; and the massacre of St. Bartholomew was due to the feebleness of Charles IX, as well as to the "revenge or the blind instinct of self-preservation" of Mary de Medici.
The chroniclers condemnation of Jehorams massacre marks the superiority of the standard of later Judaism to the current Oriental morality. For his sins Jehoram was to be punished by sore disease and by a great "plague" which would fall upon his people, and his wives, and his children, and all his substance. From the following verses we see that "plague," here as in the case of some of the plagues of Egypt, has the sense of calamity generally, and not the narrower meaning of pestilence. This plague took the form of an invasion of the Philistines and of the Arabians "which are beside the Ethiopians." Divine inspiration prompted them to attack Judah; Jehovah stirred up their spirit against Jehoram. Probably here, as in the story of Zerah, the term Ethiopians is used loosely for the Egyptians, in which case the Arabs in question would be inhabitants of the desert between the south of Palestine and Egypt, and would thus be neighbors of their Philistine allies.
These marauding bands succeeded where the huge hosts of Zerah had failed; they broke into Judah, and carried off all the kings treasure, together with his sons and his wives, only leaving him his youngest son: Jehoahaz or Ahaziah. They afterwards slew the princes they had taken captive. The common people would scarcely suffer less severely than their king. Jehoram himself was reserved for special personal punishment: Jehovah smote him with a sore disease; and, like Asa, he lingered for two years and then died. The people were so impressed by his wickedness that "they made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers," whereas they had made a very great burning for Asa.
The chroniclers account of the reign of Ahaziah does not differ materially from that given by the book of Kings, though it is considerably abridged, and there are other minor alterations. The chronicler sets forth even more emphatically than the earlier history the evil influence of Athaliah and her Israelite kinsfolk over Ahaziahs short reign of one year. The story of his visit to Jehoram, king of Israel, and the murder of the two kings by Jehu, is very much abridged. The chronicler carefully omits all reference to Elisha, according to his usual principle of ignoring the religions life of Northern Israel; but he expressly tells us that, like Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah suffered for consorting with the house of Omri: "His destruction or treading down was of God in that he went unto Jehoram." Our English versions have carefully reproduced an ambiguity in the original; but it seems probable that the chronicler does not mean that visiting Jehoram in his illness was a flagrant offense which God punished with death, but rather that, to punish Ahaziah for his imitation of the evil-doings of the house of Omri. God allowed him to visit Jehoram in order that he might share the fate of the Israelite king.
The book of Kings had stated that Jehu slew forty-two brethren of Ahaziah. It is, of course, perfectly allowable to take "brethren" in the general sense of "kinsmen"; but as the chronicler had recently mentioned the massacre of all Ahaziahs brethren, he avoids even the appearance of a contradiction by substituting "sons of the brethren of Ahaziah" for brethren. This alteration introduces new difficulties, but these difficulties simply illustrate the general confusion of numbers and ages which characterizes the narrative at this point. In connection with the burial of Ahaziah, it may be noted that the popular recollection of Jehoshaphat endorsed the favorable judgment contained in the "writing of Elijah": "They said" of Ahaziah, "he is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought Jehovah with all his heart." The chronicler next narrates Athaliahs murder of the seed royal of Judah and her usurpation of the throne of David, in terms almost identical with those of the narrative in the book of Kings. But his previous additions and modifications are hard to reconcile with the account he here borrows from his ancient authority. According to the chronicler, Jehoram had massacred all the other sons of Jehoshaphat, and the Arabians had slain all Jehorams sons except Ahaziah, and Jehu had slain their sons; so that Ahaziah was the only living descendant in the male line of his grandfather Jehoshaphat; he himself apparently died at the age of twenty-three. It is intelligible enough that he should have a son Joash and possibly other sons; but still it is difficult to understand where Athaliah found "all the seed royal" and "the kings sons" whom she put to death. It is at any rate clear that Jehorams slaughter of his brethren met with an appropriate punishment: all his own sons and grandsons were similarly slain, except the child Joash. The chroniclers narrative of the revolution by which Athaliah was slain, and the throne recovered for the house of David in the person of Joash, follows substantially the earlier history, the chief difference being, as we have already noticed, that the chronicler substitutes the Levitical guard of the second Temple for the bodyguard of foreign mercenaries who were the actual agents in this revolution. A distinguished authority on European history is fond of pointing to the evil effects of royal marriages as one of the chief drawbacks to the monarchical system of government. A crown may at any time devolve upon a woman, and by her marriage with a powerful reigning prince her country may virtually be subjected to a foreign yoke. If it happens that the new sovereign professes a different religion from that of his wifes subjects, the evils arising from the marriage are seriously aggravated. Some such fate befell the Netherlands as the result of the marriage of Mary of Burgundy with the Emperor Maximilian, and England was only saved from the danger of transference to Catholic dominion by the caution and patriotism of Queen Elizabeth. Athaliahs usurpation was a bold attempt to reverse the usual process and transfer the husbands dominions to the authority and faith of the wifes family. It is probable that Athaliahs permanent success would have led to the absorption of Judah in the Northern Kingdom. This last misfortune was averted by the energy and courage of Jehoiada, but in the meantime the half-heathen queen had succeeded in causing untold harm and suffering to her adopted country. Our own history furnishes numerous illustrations of the evil influences that come in the train of foreign queens. Edward II suffered grievously at the hands of his French queen; Henry VIs wife, Margaret of Anjou, contributed considerably to the prolonged bitterness of the struggle between York and Lancaster; and to Henry VIIIs marriage with Catherine of Aragon the country owed the miseries and persecutions inflicted by Mary Tudor. But, on the other hand, many of the foreign princesses who have shared the English throne have won the lasting gratitude of the nation. A French queen of Kent, for instance, opened the way for Augustines mission to England.
But no foreign queen of England has had the opportunities for mischief that were enjoyed and fully utilized by Athaliah. She corrupted her husband and her son, and she was probably at once the instigator of their crimes and the instrument of their punishment. By corrupting the rulers of Judah and by her own misgovernment, she exercised an evil influence over the nation; and as the people suffered, not for their sins only, but also for those of their kings, Athaliah brought misfortunes and calamity upon Judah. Unfortunately such experiences are not confined to royal families; the peace and honor, and prosperity of godly families in all ranks of life have been disturbed and often destroyed by the marriage of one of their members with a woman of alien spirit and temperament. Here is a very general and practical application of the chroniclers objection to intercourse with the house of Omri.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain CRITICAL NOTES.] This chapter corresponds with 2Ki_8:16-24; contains Jehoshaphat’s…
CRITICAL NOTES.] This chapter corresponds with 2Ki_8:16-24; contains Jehoshaphat’s family arrangements (2Ch_21:1-4); beginning and character of Jehoram’s reign (2Ch_21:5-11); the writing of Elijah to Jehoram (2Ch_21:12-15); the end of Jehoram’s reign (2Ch_21:16-20).
2Ch_21:1-4.—Family arrangements of J. Six sons, towards whom he pursued the same policy as Rehoboam (ch. 2Ch_11:23). This probably provoked the jealousy of Jehoram and induced him to put them to death. J. firstborn (2Ch_21:3), whose natural right to succeed was carried out (Deu_21:15). Divers, Jehoram’s brothers, supported by some chief men in country; or suspected of disloyalty.
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2Ch_21:5-11.—Character of J.’s reign. 2Ch_21:5. Eight years. According to 2Ki_8:16, began in fifth year of Joram, K. of Isa., therefore in twenty-second year of Jehoshaphat. Four of his eight years coincided nearly with the last four years of his father’s reign, and after his father’s death he reigned four years [cf. Murphy]. 2Ch_21:6. Daughter, i.e., the grand-daughter of Omri (2Ki_8:26). 2Ch_21:7. The promise to David and an explanation of God’s patience to Jehoram. 2Ch_21:8. Edom. Flourishing kingdom of Jehoshaphat dwindling away. Edomites governed since time of David (1Ki_22:47; 2Ki_3:9) revolted. Defeated in first, they made another attempt, succeeded, and Libnah, on south frontier towards Edom, followed example. 2Ch_21:11. Fornication, signifying unfaithfulness in following other gods (cf. 2Ki_9:22).
2Ch_21:12-15.—Elijah’s writing to J. The document in question is not called a letter (iggereth or sepher), but a writing (micetab), Words. The only notice of E. in Chronicles. As prophet of northern kingdom, natural that he should engage but slightly the historian of southern one. Notice one of considerable interest. Shows that E. did not confine attention to affairs of his own state, but looked beyond its borders, to check progress of idolatry in Judah. It proves that the prophet was upon earth after the death of Jehoshaphat (2Ch_21:13), whence it follows
(1) that the account of his translation occurs in Kings out of its chronological order, and that
(2) Elisha, who prophesied in the time of Jehoshaphat (2Ki_3:11-19), commenced his public ministry before his master’s translation [Speak. Com.]. Some think this was not E. the Tishbite, but one distinct from him; others that this should be Elisha. 2Ch_21:13. Way, extreme measures which dishonoured God; better, not idolators, as thou art. 2Ch_21:14. Plague, stroke, invasion of Philistines (2Ch_21:16-17). 2Ch_21:15. Disease, a chronic and incurable dysentery. 2Ch_21:17. Brake, i.e., “wasted it” (Vulg., vastaverunt), applied to cities (cf. ch. 2Ch_22:1; Jer_29:2; Eze_30:16).
2Ch_21:18-20.—End of Jehoram’s reign. Out off by his malady in two years. No burning, not honoured by his subjects; desired, unregretted. Custom of giving or withholding funeral honours introduced from Egypt into Judæa.
HOMILETICS
THE SUCCESSION OF JEHORAM.—2Ch_21:1-20
I. The cruelty by which he entered upon his reign. “Slew all his brethren”. In covetousness for their positions, or jealous at their authority. Pretending he was not secure, or under false accusation. Grievous sin to cut off kindred because better than ourselves (2Ch_21:13). Fratricide common. Kings filled with “maliciousness, envy, murder” (Rom_1:29).
“Base envy withers at another’s joy,
And hates the excellence it cannot reach” [Thomson].
II. The wickedness which dishonoured his reign. He began wrong and went on to worse.
1. He walked in idolatrous ways. “Like as did the house of Ahab” (2Ch_21:6). The husband of a wicked woman, he became corrupt, idolatrous, and vile.
2. He drew his people into the same snare. He encouraged whoredom in high places. By counsel and example, by force and penalties, “compelled Judah thereto” (2Ch_21:11). In a land where the true God resided, the sad spectacle beheld of king and people forsaking his service and giving themselves to excesses and abominations of heathen gods!
III. The calamities to which wickedness exposed his reign. God forsaken, subjects withdrew allegiance, no defence.
1. Tributary provinces rebelled. Edom revolted and made themselves a king (2Ch_21:8). Lebnah, a city in his own kingdom, threw off his yoke (2Ch_21:10). Arabians encouraged to rebellion (2Ch_21:16). Thus,
2. The kingdom almost politically extinguished. By destruction of his army, capture of Jerusalem, and plunder of royal palace; by devastation of the country and deportation of royal family (2Ch_21:17). Wicked men insecure in business, position, and prospects. “A man shall not be established by wickedness.”
IV. The sad events which terminated his reign through wickedness. Sins great and retribution grievous, “a great stroke” (2Ch_21:14).
1. Loathsome disease in his person.
2. Unregretted in his life.
3. Dishonoured in death. At the early age of 40 smitten with disease, a nuisance to himself and others. The palace turned into a hospital and a tomb. Not loved in life, not lamented in death. Denied a royal, sepulchre, and only out of respect allowed interment in the city of David! Sad picture, awful moral!
JEHOSHAPHAT’S FAMILY ARRANGEMENTS.—2Ch_21:1-4
I. Prudent in plan. The eldest son appointed to succeed, the others governors of cities and enriched with “gifts of silver and of gold”. This very arrangement might provoke jealousy. Look further than time and higher than worldly prudence.
II. Difficult in execution. Jehoram not established without struggle; slew his brothers, with princes attached to their interest or ready to avenge their deaths. Thus he disappointed the good intentions of his father, and, like many, founded his kingdom in blood (Hab_2:12).
III. Frustrated in purpose. We arrange, others upset. “Things excellently designed,” says Cicero, “have often a very ill event”. Often special trial to leave the fruits of labour, the treasures of home and empire, “unto the man that shall be after us”. Will they be devoted to perpetuate a godly name or desecrated to the world? “And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?” (Ecc_2:18-19; cf. Psa_49:10; Psa_39:6).
THE LAMP OF DAVID’S HOUSE.—2Ch_21:7
Apostasy would have led to entire extinction of royal family, but for the divine promise to David “to give alway a light (candle or lamp) to his children “(2Ki_8:24).
I. How the lamp was kindled. A divine “gift”. All rights from God. None can create a family, build a kingdom without him. “I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed”.
II. How the lamp was preserved from extinction. The same power that lit, kept the light burning. Wickedness of the king, abominations of the people and surrounding darkness of idolatry almost destroyed it. God remembered and fulfilled his promise. “For thou wilt light my lamp; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness” (Psa_18:29).
III. How the lamp will permanently shine. The dynasty of David the source of light to all generations—raised from degradation and persecution to honour and prosperity. The past a pledge for future. In Christ the light shall shine for ever, can never be darkened nor extinguished. “Unto his (Solomon’s) son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light (lamp) alway before me in Jerusalem?” (1Ki_11:36).
JEHORAM A WARNING HISTORY
I. In marriage neutralising effect of religious education. Good influences and pious training of early days neutralised. Association with wicked made him an idolator, worldling, and profligate. A wedding-day may be a wrong start and turn the joy of life into mourning.
II. In Conduct entailing sufferings upon himself and descendants. His example pernicious, transmitted poison to successive generations, brought terrible retribution upon himself and his kingdom. Achan “perished not alone in his iniquity”.
III. In life a fearful warning to all. To parents not to marry their children for policy or profit; to guard their associations, friendships, and alliances; above all, to set a good example, lest folly in them becomes sin in their offspring. To young people to shun evil companions and never forget the claims of truth and God. “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed”.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
2Ch_21:6-11. The unfaithful king. Calamities which befel Jehoram appended “because he had forsaken the Lord God of his father”.
1. Seduced by his wife. Athaliah, daughter of Ahab, a worshipper of Baal. “There needs no more than a bad wife to undo a family” (Bp. Patrick).
2. Encouraged idolatrous practice. Established altars in high places; set up groves, images, and pillars, and filled the country with heathen abominations.
3. Forced the people to follow his example. “Compelled Judah” (2Ch_21:11). “This was the worse, because in Jerusalem, the holy city; and because he caused them to do it, partly by his allurements and partly by affrightments, as did Julian also the apostate, qui persudendo persectus est” [Trapp].
2Ch_21:12-15. Elijah’s writing. When written? how sent? for what purpose? Learn the word of God sent to correct, if despised may become our worst enemy. This letter foretold the doom of the king, but unheeded and sad prediction fulfilled. “Why is he not then better believed? If some astrologer had once or twice prognosticated, and it proved true, he should be much carried up and credited. And shall not God’s prophets be so?’ Believe the prophets and ye shall prosper.’ But many believe them no otherwise than they do the predictions of an almanack, if so much” [Trapp].
2Ch_21:19-20. No burning. Dishonoured by his subjects. On account of
(1) sins he committed,
(2) calamities of his reign,
(3) humiliating nature of his death. J. died in bloom of manhood, but lived long enough to teach that “he that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain 2Ch 21:20
2Ch 21:20
I. Notice, first, a lesson for parents, which is this: Folly in fathers may become sin in their sons. The pious king Jehoshaphat showed his children a good example, so far as we know, in everything but his love for the society of the ungodly and worldly. He was friendly with Ahab. The children of Jehoshaphat did not leave off where their father did. As Jehoram was not content to be merely on visiting terms with Ahab, but married his daughter, so, if we are not careful, we may take our children where they may choose to stop, instead of going back with us.
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II. Another lesson taught by the history of this bad man is this: Our wedding day may be the worst day’s work we ever did. It was so with Jehoram. "He had the daughter of Ahab to wife." We cannot marry the houses of Jehoshaphat and Ahab together without bringing new sorrows into the world.
III. He who rebels against God must expect his inferiors to rebel against him. Jehoram died in the bloom of manhood, but he lived long enough to see that "he that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity."
IV. The word of God may become our worst enemy. Elijah wrote a letter to the king, in which he foretold his doom. The sermon we have heard and despised may knot the lash which conscience uses to whip the heart.
T. Champness, New Coins from Old Gold, p. 128.
References: 2Ch 21:20.—A. K. H. B., Towards the Sunset, p. 67. 2Ch 24:2.—E. H. Plumptre, King’s College Sermons, p. 20.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Reign of Jehokam
Reign of Jehokam
This chapter in part reproduces 2Ki_8:17-22 but adds several particulars respecting the judgments brought upon Jehoram.
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2. Azariah.. Azariah] One of the names is probably an error, perhaps for 'Ahaziah': cp. the mistake in 2Ch_22:6.
3. And their father] cp. 2Ch_11:23
10. So the Edomites revolted] The writer omits the final sentence in 2Ki_8:21 which accounts for the successful revolt of the Edomites: see note there.
11. Fornication] A figure for religious infidelity.
12. A writing.. from Elijah] If this mention of Elijah as living in the reign of Jehoram is to be reconciled with 2Ki_3:11, which relates that Elisha (Elijah's successor) prophesied in the reign of Jehoshaphat, it must be supposed that Elisha entered upon his ministry before Elijah was translated; and that 2 Kings 2 is out of its proper chronological order. The incident here described is the only instance of Elijah having concerned himself with the affairs of Judah.
14. A great plague] i.e. the great blow inflicted by the invasion described in 2Ch_21:16.
16. The lord stirred up] The invaders, though pursuing designs of their own, were really agents of the divine judgment: cp. 1Ch_5:26; Isa_10:5-7; Isa_37:24-29. The Arabians.. Ethiopians] These Arabians came from the W. coast . of Arabia, facing Ethiopia across the Red Sea.
17. In the king's house] better, 'belonging to the king's house.' It is not meant that the invaders assaulted Jerusalem, but that they carried off the royal property in the country districts. Jehoahaz] called in 2Ch_22:1; 'Ahaziah.'
19. Made no burning, etc.] i.e. they did not use the same quantity of spices as were burnt at the funeral rites of former kings.
20. Departed.. desired] i.e. he died unregretted. But some (following LXX) render 'he walked (i.e. lived) in an undesirable way.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Jehoram reigned for a time as co-king with his…
Jehoram
Jehoram reigned for a time as co-king with his father. 2Ki 8:16.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain 3. Decline and Apostasy under Jehoram, Ahaziah and Athaliah
3. Decline and Apostasy under Jehoram, Ahaziah and Athaliah
CHAPTER 21 The Reign of Jehoram
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1. Jehoram’s wicked reign (2Ch 21:1-7)
2. Revolt of Edom (2Ch 21:8-9)
3. Revolt of Libnah (2Ch 21:10-11)
4. The message of Elijah (2Ch 21:12-15)
5. Judah invaded (2Ch 21:16-17)
6. Jehoram’s sickness and death (2Ch 21:18-20)
Jehoram was Jehoshaphat’s firstborn. Jehoshaphat had six other sons to whom he gave great riches, but the kingdom was given to Jehoram. He walked in wickedness. “For he had the daughter of Ahab to wife and he wrought that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.” When Jehoram was in power, he slew all his brethren with the sword and also princes in Israel. The daughter of the murderer Ahab may have instigated the horrible crime. Jehoshaphat had joined affinity with Ahab (2Ch 18:1), and married his son Jehoram to Athaliah. “What a man sows that will he reap.” His unholy alliance began to bear fruit. And how often have Christian parents seen their children depart from God and follow altogether the wicked ways of the world, because they themselves had set the example. Then the enemies of Judah came and different revolts took place.
The writing which came to Jehoram from the prophet Elijah is interesting and presents some difficulties. Elijah had been translated a number of years before. To solve the difficulty some say that the name Elijah should be Elisha, who was then living and ministering in connection with Samaria. There is no need of doing this. It does not say that Elijah sent that writing, but it says: “There came a writing from Elijah the prophet.” Elijah knew Jehoshaphat and he knew his son Jehoram, who was for several years the co-regent of his father. The Lord showed him beforehand the evil course Jehoram would take, and how he would follow the wicked ways of Ahab, Elijah knew so well. Then he received the message exposing the wickedness of Jehoram, “like to the whoredoms of Ahab,” and announcing the judgment to come upon Jehoram. This message was probably intrusted by Elijah to Elisha, and when the proper moment had come this man of God delivered the writing to Jehoram, telling him at the same time that it was from Elijah.
Fearful was the end of this murderous and idolatrous king. He died of sore diseases, unrepenting, and thus as a lost soul passed into the blackness of darkness forever (Jud 1:13). And his people made no burning for him (burning incense) like the burning of his fathers; neither was he buried in the sepulchres of the kings.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Wickedness of Jehoram
The Wickedness of Jehoram
v. 1. Now, Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David, in the tombs of the kings. And Jehoram, his son, son-in-law of the wicked Ahab of Israel, reigned in his stead. He may have been coregent with his father for a while before this.
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v. 2. And he had brethren, the sons of Jehoshaphat, Azariah, and Jehiel, and Zechariah, and Azariah (Hebrew, Azariahu), and Michael, and Shephatiah; all these were the sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel, the word in this instance being the designation of the southern kingdom.
v. 3. And their father gave them, had given them before he died, great gifts of silver and of gold and of precious things with fenced cities in Judah, thus assuring to each one an independent income and at least a subordinate position in the kingdom as commandants of fortified cities; but the kingdom gave he to Jehoram, because he was the first-born, he was designated as the crown prince of the realm and the successor of Jehoshaphat, and this decision was accepted without opposition by the other princes.
v. 4. Now, when Jehoram was risen up to the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself, he summoned all his energy, and slew all his brethren with the sword and divers also of the princes of Israel, such as he suspected of a loyal interest in the princes and liable to avenge their death. It was an unwarranted act of tyrannical cruelty, a tragedy showing the wickedness of Jehoram.
v. 5. Jehoram was thirty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
v. 6. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, in all their idolatry and unexampled wickedness, like as did the house of Ahab, whose evil spirit was Jezebel, the wife of Ahab; for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife; and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, thus completely obliterating the effect of the splendid example of his father, since he encouraged the introduction of every idolatrous custom connected with the worship of the heathen deities.
v. 7. Howbeit, the Lord would not destroy the house of David, richly as Jehoram’s behavior merited such a fate, because of the covenant that He had made with David, 2 Samuel 1, and as He promised to give a light to him and to his sons forever, to keep the descendants of David on the throne of Judah and thus to keep his family alive.
v. 8. In his days the Edomites, who had been overthrown by David, 2Sa 8:14, revolted from under the dominion of Judah and made themselves a king, once more proclaiming themselves an independent state.
v. 9. Then Jehoram went forth with his princes, the generals of his army, and all his chariots with him, the strongest division of his army; and he rose up by night, when he found himself surrounded by the enemy’s forces, and smote the Edomites which compassed him in, and the captains of the chariots, thereby succeeding merely in effecting his escape, while his army promptly fled to the security of their homes.
v. 10. So the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day, the time when the original account was written from which the inspired writer drew, for the victory of Amaziah over the Edomites, 2Ch 25:14-16, seems to have had no lasting effects. The same time also did Libnah revolt from under his hand, this being a city with its surrounding territory on the southwestern border, both Philistines and Phenicians aiding them in their rebellion, because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers.
v. 11. Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah, altars on the summits of the mountains dedicated to idolatry, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, spiritual adultery in rejecting Jehovah and in serving false gods, and compelled Judah thereto. The history of Jehoram shows how quickly wicked rulers can undo the reform work of many years. Unbelief, idolatry, false doctrine, is accepted much more readily than the true worship of God.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 slept with his ancestors
slept with his ancestors
Jehoshaphat dying is spoken of as if he had fallen asleep. AT: "died" (See: Euphemism)
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city of David
This is the city of Jerusalem. (See: Idiom)
Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariahu, Michael, and Shephatiah
These are names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)
Jehoshaphat, king of Israel
The southern kingdom was technically called "Judah," but the writer of this book apparently wanted to make the point that the southern kingdom was, in its obedience to God, the true Israel.
large gifts
"gifts of large amounts"
he gave the kingdom to Jehoram
The kingdom is spoken of as if it were a physical object that Jehoshaphat gave to Jehoram. AT: "he made Jehoram king"
translationWords
David
Jehoram
king
Azariah
Israel
silver
gold
Judah
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.