2 Chronicles / Jehoram's Wicked Reign, Revolts, and Judgment

Jehoram's Wicked Reign, Revolts, and Judgment

2 Chronicles 21:4-20

Chapter 21

⁴ Jehoram arose over his father's kingdom and strengthened himself and killed all his brothers with the sword, and also Israel's chiefs. ⁵ Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. ⁶ And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel just as the house of Ahab had done, for a daughter of Ahab was his wife, and he did evil in the eyes of the LORD. ⁷ And the LORD was not willing to destroy the house of David because of the covenant that he had made with David, and as he had promised to give him a lamp for his sons always. ⁸ In his days Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah, and they made a king over them. ⁹ And Jehoram crossed over with his commanders and all his chariots. He set out by night and struck the Edomites, who had surrounded him, and the commanders of the chariots. ¹⁰ Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah until this day. Then Libnah revolted at that time from under his hand, because he had abandoned the LORD God of his fathers. ¹¹ He also made high places in the mountains of Judah. He made the inhabitants of Jerusalem prostitute themselves and led Judah astray. ¹² And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet saying, "Thus says the LORD God of David your father, 'Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father and in the ways of Asa king of Judah.'" ¹³ And you have walked in the way of the kings of Israel. You have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem prostitute themselves, like the prostitution of the house of Ahab. And you have also killed your brothers of the house of your father, who were better than you. ¹⁴ Look, the LORD has struck a great plague on your people, your sons, your wives, and all your possessions. ¹⁵ And you, with many sicknesses, with a sickness of your bowels, until your bowels come out, day after day, because of the sickness. ¹⁶ The LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabs who were neighbors to the Cushites. ¹⁷ They invaded Judah and plundered it. They carried away all the property found in the king's house, as well as his sons and his wives, and no son was left to him except Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons. ¹⁸ After all this, the LORD struck his bowels with a sickness for which there was no healing. ¹⁹ And it was after some days, and now at the end of two years his entrails came out with his disease and he died in great pain, and his people did not make for him a burnt offering like the burnt offering of his fathers. ²⁰ He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he departed unlamented, and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.