Chapter Twenty-One

1–20. The impious reign of Joram, the 5th king of Judah.

2 Chronicles 21:1. And Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And Joram his son reigned in his place. 2 Chronicles 21:2. And he had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariahu, Michael, and Shephatiah; all these were the sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel. 2 Chronicles 21:3. And their father gave them large gifts of silver, gold, and precious things, together with fortified cities in Judah; but the kingdom he gave to Joram, because he was the firstborn. 2 Chronicles 21:4. And Joram established himself over the kingdom of his father, and he strengthened himself and slew all his brothers with the sword, and also some of the princes of Israel. Verse 1 is a literal repetition of (1 Kgs 22:50) (cf. (2 Kgs 8:16)). The following accounts (vv. 2–4) concerning the sons of Jehoshaphat, their reward by the father, and the fratricide of Joram are found only in 2 Chronicles, as pertaining to the sphere of the family records of the royal house. In rewarding his younger sons with gifts and properties (v. 3), Jehoshaphat could have been guided by the example of Rehoboam (above (2 Chr 11:23)), but, in contrast to the latter and David (1 Kgs 1:32-35), he appointed his firstborn Joram as heir to the throne (v. 3), although the succession to the throne did not necessarily belong to the elder of the king’s sons (cf. “Explanatory Bible,” vol. II, pp. 362–363). In verse 2, according to the Hebrew and Russian texts, Jehoshaphat is called “king of Israel”: he was called thus only in the general sense: Hebrew, but not in the special sense: king of the ten-tribe kingdom. Codices 71, 82, 150 and many others at Kennicott and Rossi, as well as the translations LXX, Vulgate, and the Slavonic, call Jehoshaphat (verse 2) “king of Judah.” The cruel slaughter of all his brothers undertaken by Joram with ambitious and avaricious motives is not unusual in the history of ruling dynasties of the East, ancient and modern: in a similar manner subsequently acted the bloodthirsty wife of Joram, Athaliah (2 Kgs 11:1; 2 Chr 22:10); see “Explanatory Bible,” vol. II, p. 513.

2 Chronicles 21:5. Joram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 21:6. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab did, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife, and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 21:7. Yet the Lord was unwilling to destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever. 2 Chronicles 21:8. In his days Edom revolted from the rule of Judah, and set up their own king. 2 Chronicles 21:9. And Joram went out with his commanders and all his chariots with him. He arose by night and struck the Edomites who had surrounded him and his chariot commanders. 2 Chronicles 21:10. So Edom revolted from the rule of Judah to this day. At that time Libnah also revolted from his rule, because he had abandoned the Lord, the God of his fathers. Literally similar to (2 Kgs 8:17-22), (“Explanatory Bible,” vol. II, pp. 505–509).

2 Chronicles 21:11. Moreover, he made high places in the hills of Judah and led the inhabitants of Jerusalem into unfaithfulness, and seduced Judah. 2 Chronicles 21:12. And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying: Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, 2 Chronicles 21:13. but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel and have led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem into unfaithfulness, as the house of Ahab did, and have killed your brothers, members of your father’s house, who were better than yourself, 2 Chronicles 21:14. behold, the Lord will strike a great blow to your people, your sons, your wives, and all your possessions, 2 Chronicles 21:15. and you yourself shall be struck with a severe disease, a disease of your bowels, so that your bowels will come out because of the disease, day after day. The letter of rebuke from the prophet Elijah to Joram of Judah occasioned much perplexity and gave rise to various exegetical conjectures in view of the fact that, according to the common opinion (though directly unsupported in the biblical text), the rapture of the prophet Elijah to heaven (2 Kgs 2:1-11) occurred while Jehoshaphat was still alive. To remove this apparent inconsistency, ancient rabbis supposed that the letter was sent by the already-deceased prophet from heaven through an angel; others (Kimchi, Buddei, Michaelis, Dereser, Keip) conjectured that the prophet Elijah, still during his lifetime, by foreknowledge wrote a letter of rebuke to Joram and entrusted it for safekeeping to one of his disciples, who in due time sent it to its destination. Grotius, on the contrary, supposed that Joram received the letter from Elijah only in a vision, while Cleric allowed an error in the biblical text of v. 12: the name of Elijah, according to him, was inserted later in place of the original name of Elisha. But in all these rather shaky and risky suppositions there is hardly any real necessity: it is possible that the prophet Elijah was still alive at the very beginning of Joram’s reign in Judah—in the chronology of the latter’s reign this supposition encounters no difficulties (cf. commentary to (2 Kgs 1:17) in “Explanatory Bible,” vol. II, p. 482); the year of the rapture of the prophet Elijah is unknown (see G. K. Vlastov, “Sacred Annals,” vol. four, part II, SPB, 1893, p. 91). That the prophet Elijah does not appear to Joram of Judah personally (as he appeared to the kings of Israel Ahab and Ahaziah), but writes to him, is self-evident: the prophet Elijah lived and worked only in the kingdom of Israel, and even in the moment of persecution against him, he did not move to Judah for any protracted time. As for the content of the letter, the prophet rebukes the king of Judah for two crimes: 1) apostasy from the Lord and leading the people into the sin of idolatry (vv. 12–13, see v. 11), and 2) fratricide (v. 13, see v. 4), and accordingly foretells him and his house and people twofold punishment: 1) a great strike to the people and family of Joram (v. 14) and 2) a terrible, chronic, incurable, fatal disease of the intestines to Joram himself (v. 15). Both parts of the prophecy were fulfilled in full exactness.

2 Chronicles 21:16. And the Lord stirred up against Joram the spirit of the Philistines and of the Arabians who are next to the Ethiopians; 2 Chronicles 21:17. and they came up against Judah and invaded it, and carried away all the possessions found in the king’s house, along with his sons and his wives; so that no son was left to him except Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons. Concerning the raid of the Philistines and Arabians, neighbors of the Ethiopians (according to the context of speech here the Ethiopians—not the African inhabitants or inhabitants of Ethiopia, but the Asiatic—inhabitants of Arabia), on Judah under Joram, 2 Chronicles alone speaks. The enemies captured not only possessions, but almost the entire family of the king, except for his wife (Athaliah) and the youngest son Joahaz, as he is called in the accepted Masoretic text and in the Vulgate, or Ahaziah, as more accurately render the LXX and the Slavonic text. In (2 Chr 22:1) and in the Hebrew text stands the designation Ahaziah (the latter is also read in v. 17 according to codex 332 at Kennicott).

2 Chronicles 21:18. And after all this the Lord smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease. 2 Chronicles 21:19. In the course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels fell out because of the disease, and he died in severe agony; and his people made no fire in his honor, as they had done for his fathers. 2 Chronicles 21:20. He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he departed without being lamented, and was buried in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. The nature and essence of the chronic disease of the bowels that befell Joram (an account of which is found only in 2 Chronicles) can scarcely be determined in the terms of modern medical science. However, the majority of researchers see here a chronic dysentery with general peritonitis and perforation of the intestines, wherein often part of the intestines affected with gangrene becomes separated and issues through the anus (cf. v. 19—on the falling out of the bowels). See T. Popov, “Biblical Data on Various Illnesses and Their Treatment,” Kiev, 1904, p. 102. The biblical view places foremost the perspective that Joram’s disease was a punishment for his impiety. According to the Blessed Jerome, “to waste away from prolonged disease and infirmity is a sign of the wrath of God. Therefore Joram, son of Jehoshaphat, dies from prolonged disease” (Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Russian translation, part 7, ed. 2, Kiev, 1906, p. 347). A manifestation or consequence of God’s judgment upon Joram was also the contempt of him by the people, who did not render to his remains the usual royal honors (vv. 19–20), in a similar manner later Joash (2 Chr 24:24-25) and Jehoiakim (Jer 22:18) were deprived of royal burial; the latter was buried with “the burial of a donkey” (Jer 22:19). Joram died at the age of 40 (v. 20).