Jehoram (Joram)

* 1\. King of Israel (852-842 B.C.); son of Ahab and Jezebel; brother and successor of Ahaziah. Like his predecessors, Jehoram worshiped Baal. With Jehoshaphat and the King of Edom, Jehoram attacked Mesha, King of Moab. In the war between Syria and Israel, Elisha befriended Jehoram, revealing to him the plans of the enemy. Subsequently, when Ben-hadad besieged Samaria, reducing the city almost to starvation, Jehoram sought to kill the prophet. The latter, however, foretold a period of plenty, which quickly came, and the old relation between the king and the prophet was restored. When Hazael revolted in Damascus, as Elisha had predicted (II Kings viii. 12), Jehoram made an alliance with his nephew Ahaziah, King of Judah, the two kings going forth to take Ramoth-gilead from Syria. The project failed; Jehoram was wounded, and he withdrew to Jezreel to recover. Attacked by Jehu, the commander of the army in rebellion against Jehoram, he fell pierced by an arrow (see Jehu). With the death of Jehoram the dynasty of Omri became extinct.E. G. H. B. P.
  * 2\. Fifth king of Judah; son of Jehoshaphat and grandson of Asa. He was first named as regent in 854 B.C., when his father went with Ahab to fight the Assyrians at Karkar (comp. II Kings i. 17, iii. 1, viii. 16). He was entrusted with the full reins of government in the twenty-third year (849 B.C.) of his father's reign, and he ruled eight years. The records of his reign are given in II Kings viii. 16-24, 27; and II Chron. xxi. After his father died, and he had secured himself in power, he slew his six brothers (to whom his father had given fenced cities and great wealth) and certain other influential men in Israel (II Chron. xxi. 2-4).Jehoram took to wife Athaliah, daughter of Ahab of Israel, "and he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab" (II Kings viii. 18, 27). His wickedness would have brought his people to destruction, except for the promise to David "to give him always a light, and to his children" (ib. viii. 19; comp. I Kings xi. 36, xv. 4). The Edomites, who apparently had been subservient to Judah since David's day (II Sam. viii. 14), revolted. Jehoram's attempt to force them to submit almost resulted in fatal disaster to his own troops. His army was surrounded, but under cover of night succeeded in cutting its way out and retreating to its own territory. About the same time Libnah revolted, and the Philistines and Arabians invaded the land of Judah, captured and sacked Jerusalem, and carried off all the royal household except Jehoahaz (Ahaziah; II Chron. xxi. 16, 17). During this time the king received a letter of warning from Elijah (ib. 12-15).Jehoram's idolatry, viciousness, and general wickedness brought upon him an incurable disease. At the end of two years of intense suffering he died, unmourned, and despised by his own people. They "made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers," and "they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings" (ib. xxi. 19, 20).Bibliography: Commentaries on Kings and Chronicles; histories of Israel by Stade, Guthe, Winckler and others; J. F. McCurdy, History, Prophecy, and the Monuments; Price, Monuments and Old Testament.E. G. H. I. M. P.