#jehoram

Queen Athaliah’s ‘game of thrones’ 

Athaliah is the only woman in the Hebrew Bible to rule as a monarch within Judah. After the death of her husband, King Jehoram, their son Ahaziah reigned for a year until his death in a bloody dynastic struggle. 

Seeing her son dead, Athaliah set out to destroy all the royal heirs. She then seized the throne of Judah and managed to rule for six years (842–836 b.c.e.).

In the seventh year, a priest named Jehoiada led a revolt that killed Athaliah and made her seven-year-old grandson the nominal king. (The boy, Joash, had been rescued by his aunt from the slaughter six years earlier.) 

Athaliah’s portrayal in the Bible isn’t exactly fair when you consider the many celebrated male rulers who get away with heinous slaughtering.

“that she managed to sustain her reign for six years can be attributed to her successful use of various sources of power: her royal origins and connections, involvement in her husband’s and son’s reigns, economic independence, personal ability, and political knowledge—all of which are not mentioned, apart from notes on her wicked influence on her husband and son,” writes Athalya Brenner. 

Neal Pollard The “good news” is that Jehoram, the son of Ahab, was not AS BAD as his father and mother (2 Kings 3:2), but that was little consolation. He still “did evil in the sight of the Lord” (2) and “clung to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin; he did not depart from them” (3). Like his older brother, Ahaziah, he had a political and military mess on his hands.…

1 After Ahab’s death, Moab rebelled against Israel. 

2 Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers, saying to them, “Go and consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury.”

3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’ 

4 Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!’” So Elijah went.

5 When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, “Why have you come back?”

6 “A man came to meet us,” they replied. “And he said to us, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, “This is what the Lord says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!”’”

7 The king asked them, “What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?”

8 They replied, “He had a garment of hair and had a leather belt around his waist.”

The king said, “That was Elijah the Tishbite.”

9 Then he sent to Elijah a captain with his company of fifty men. The captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, “Man of God, the king says, ‘Come down!’”

10 Elijah answered the captain, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!” Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men.

11 At this the king sent to Elijah another captain with his fifty men. The captain said to him, “Man of God, this is what the king says, ‘Come down at once!’”

12 “If I am a man of God,” Elijah replied, “may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!” Then the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men.

13 So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. This third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah. “Man of God,” he begged, “please have respect for my life and the lives of these fifty men, your servants!

14 See, fire has fallen from heaven and consumed the first two captains and all their men. But now have respect for my life!”

15 The angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.” So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.

16 He told the king, “This is what the Lord says: Is it because there is no God in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!”

17 So he died, according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken. Because Ahaziah had no son, Joram succeeded him as king in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah.

Neal Pollard Jehoram, son of Ahab, was still king over Israel when Ben-hadad, king of Syria, was able to besiege Israel’s capital city (2 Kings 6:24). This prolonged siege led Samaria to suffer “a great famine” (25). It was so bad that donkey heads and dove dung were sold at exorbitant prices as food (26). There have been famous sieges in history, both ancient and modern, and the details of…

2 Chronicles 21:18-20 18 After all this the Lord struck him in his intestines with an incurable disease. 19 Then it happened in the course of time, after the end of two years, that his intestines came out because of his sickness; so he died in severe pain. And his people made no burning for him, like the burning for his fathers. 20 He was thirty-two years old when he became king. He reigned in…

2 Chronicles 21:1-7 21 And Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. Then Jehoram his son reigned in his place. 2 He had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azaryahu, Michael, and Shephatiah; all these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king of Israel. 3 Their father gave them great gifts of silver and gold and precious things,…

The Reign of Jehoram in Judah

2 Kings 8:16-24 16 Now in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoshaphat having been king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat began to reign as king of Judah. 17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 18 And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his…

Political Situation Under Jehoram

2 Kings 3:4-27 4 Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder, and he regularly paid the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams. 5 But it happened, when Ahab died, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. 6 So King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel. 7 Then he went and sent to Jehoshaphat king of Judah,…