The next king of Judah was Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram (II Chronicles 21:1), with his name sometimes shortened to Joram (II Kings 8:16-23). Keeping track of the kings of Judah and Israel is often pretty confusing, since many of the kings have names that are difficult; it’s especially challenging in this case, because there was also a King Jehoram / Joram of Israel (II Kings 3:1, 8:16).

During the reign of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, two previously-conquered territories, Edom and Libnah, broke away from Judah. Jehoram took his chariots to Edom to suppress the rebellion, probably expecting that this show of force would be sufficient. But the Edomites were not intimidated. Although they only had infantry, they had a lot of it: they were able to surround Jehoram’s chariots and force them to withdraw. Yet though the Chronicler acknowledges that the Edomite rebellion succeeded for this military reason, he also points to a theological reason: it happened because Jehoram “had forsaken the Lord” and had “made high places in the hill country of Judah, and led the inhabitants of Jerusalem into unfaithfulness, and made Judah go astray” (II Chronicles 21:10-11).

We have noted several times that as the Chronicler was assembling his history here, he closely followed the text of II Kings; but right at this point he inserted a letter from the prophet Elijah which we otherwise would not know about (21:12-15). The chronology of this letter is difficult; according to II Kings Elijah went to heaven several years before Jehoram became king of Judah (II Kings 2:1-11, 8:16). At any rate, the prophetic letter declared that because Jehoram had been so wicked, killing his own brothers (II Chronicles 21:4, 13) and leading Judah into apostasy, the Lord would bring a great calamity on Jehoram and his house, including a severe intestinal disease in his own body (21:15).

And so it happened. The Philistines and the Arabs invaded, plundering the king’s palace and carrying off all his wives and sons except for one, the youngest, Jehoahaz; and after two years of an incurable disease of the bowels, Jehoram died in acute pain, passing away “unlamented” (21:18-20).

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We are grateful, O Lord, that you have been merciful to us, again and again. Yet we are slow to learn to live in obedience: instead we presume upon your grace, as if you owed us forgiveness. Teach us repentance, O God: lest we too end up under terrible judgment for having forsaken you.