2 Chronicles 21
New American Standard Bible
Jehoram Succeeds Jehoshaphat in Judah
21 (A)Then Jehoshaphat [a]lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and his son Jehoram became king in his place. 2 He had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, [b]Azaryahu, Michael, and Shephatiah. All these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king (B)of Israel. 3 Their father gave them many gifts of silver, gold, and precious things, (C)with fortified cities in Judah; but he gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was the firstborn.
4 Now when Jehoram had [c]taken over the kingdom of his father and gathered courage, he (D)killed all his brothers with the sword, and some of the leaders of Israel as well. 5 (E)Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem. 6 (F)He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, (G)for Ahab’s daughter was his wife; and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. 7 Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David because of the covenant which He had made with David, (H)and because He had promised to give a lamp to him and his sons forever.
Revolt against Judah
8 In his days (I)Edom broke away [d]from the rule of Judah, and appointed a king over themselves. 9 Then Jehoram crossed over with his commanders and all his chariots with him. And he got up at night and struck and killed the Edomites who were surrounding him, and the commanders of the chariots. 10 So Edom revolted [e]against Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time [f]against his rule because he had abandoned the Lord God of his fathers. 11 Furthermore, (J)he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem (K)to be unfaithful, and led Judah astray.
12 Then a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, “This is what the Lord, the God of your father David says: ‘Because (L)you have not walked in the ways of your father Jehoshaphat (M)and the ways of Asa king of Judah, 13 but (N)have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to be unfaithful (O)as the house of Ahab was unfaithful, and you (P)have also killed your brothers, [g]your own family, who were better than you, 14 behold, the Lord is going to strike your people, your sons, your wives, and all your possessions with a great plague; 15 and (Q)you will suffer [h]severe sickness, a disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out because of the sickness, day by day.’”
16 Then (R)the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and (S)the Arabs who [i]bordered the Ethiopians; 17 and they came against Judah and invaded it, and carried away all the possessions found in the king’s house together with his sons and his wives, so that no son was left to him except [j](T)Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.
18 So after all this the Lord struck him (U)in his intestines with an incurable sickness. 19 Now it came about in the course of time, at the end of two years, that his bowels came out because of his sickness, and he died in great pain. And his people did not make a funeral fire for him like (V)the fire for his fathers. 20 He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eight years; and he departed [k](W)with no one’s regret, and they buried him in the city of David, (X)but not in the tombs of the kings.
Footnotes
- 2 Chronicles 21:1 I.e., died
- 2 Chronicles 21:2 Or Azariah
- 2 Chronicles 21:4 Lit risen
- 2 Chronicles 21:8 Lit from under the hand of
- 2 Chronicles 21:10 Lit from under the hand of
- 2 Chronicles 21:10 Lit from under his hand
- 2 Chronicles 21:13 Lit your father’s house
- 2 Chronicles 21:15 Lit in many sicknesses
- 2 Chronicles 21:16 Lit were at the hand of
- 2 Chronicles 21:17 In 2 Chr 22:1, Ahaziah
- 2 Chronicles 21:20 Lit without desire
2 Chronicles 21
Contemporary English Version
21 Jehoshaphat died and was buried beside his ancestors in Jerusalem, and his son Jehoram became king.
King Jehoram of Judah
(2 Kings 8.16-24)
2 King Jehoshaphat had seven sons: Jehoram, Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah. 3 Jehoshaphat gave each of them silver and gold, as well as other valuable gifts. He also put them in charge of the fortified cities in Judah, but he had chosen his oldest son Jehoram to succeed him as king.
4 After Jehoram had taken control of Judah, he had his brothers killed, as well as some of the nation's leaders. 5 He was 32 years old when he became king, and he ruled eight years from Jerusalem.
6 Jehoram married Ahab's daughter and followed the sinful example of Ahab's family and the other kings of Israel. He disobeyed the Lord by doing wrong, 7 (A) but because the Lord had made a solemn promise to King David that someone from his family would always rule in Judah, he refused to wipe out David's descendants.
8 (B) While Jehoram was king, the people of Edom rebelled and chose their own king. 9 Jehoram, his officers, and his cavalry marched to Edom, where the Edomite army surrounded them. He escaped during the night, 10 but Judah was never able to regain control of Edom. Even the town of Libnah[a] rebelled at that time.
Those things happened because Jehoram had turned away from the Lord, the God his ancestors had worshiped. 11 Jehoram even built local shrines[b] in the hills of Judah and let the people sin against the Lord by worshiping foreign gods.
12 One day, Jehoram received a letter from Elijah the prophet that said:
I have a message for you from the Lord God your ancestor David worshiped. He knows that you have not followed the example of Jehoshaphat your father or Asa your grandfather. 13 Instead you have acted like those sinful kings of Israel and have encouraged the people of Judah to stop worshiping the Lord, just as Ahab and his descendants did. You even murdered your own brothers, who were better men than you.
14 Because you have done these terrible things, the Lord will severely punish the people in your kingdom, including your own family, and he will destroy everything you own. 15 You will be struck with a painful stomach disease and suffer until you die.
16 The Lord later caused the Philistines and the Arabs who lived near the Ethiopians[c] to become angry with Jehoram. 17 They invaded Judah and stole the royal property from the palace, and they led Jehoram's wives and sons away as prisoners. The only one left behind was Ahaziah,[d] his youngest son.
18 After this happened, the Lord struck Jehoram with an incurable stomach disease. 19 About two years later, Jehoram died in terrible pain. No bonfire was built to honor him, even though the people had done this for his ancestors.
20 Jehoram was 32 years old when he became king, and he ruled 8 years from Jerusalem. He died, and no one even felt sad. He was buried in Jerusalem, but not in the royal tombs.
Footnotes
- 21.10 Even the town of Libnah: This was a town on the border between Philistia and Judah, which means that Jehoram was facing rebellion on both sides of his kingdom.
- 21.11 local shrines: See the note at 11.15.
- 21.16 Ethiopians: See the note at 12.3.
- 21.17 Ahaziah: The Hebrew text has “Jehoahaz,” another spelling of the name.
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