Who was King Jehoram / Joram in the Bible?

Son and successor of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah: he reigned eight years, B.C. 892-885. He, as of the seed of David, formed an unholy alliance by marrying Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. He put to death his six brothers, and established Baal worship at Jerusalem. He was punished by the Philistines and Arabians taking possession of his treasures, and carrying his wives and children into captivity. He was warned as to his course by 'a writing' from the prophet Elijah (which was doubtless written some time before, 2 Chr. 21:12), foretelling that God would smite His people with a great plague; the king's disease should be such that his bowels should fall out; and it was thus that he miserably died. 1 Kings 22:50; 2 Kings 1:17; 2 Kings 8:16-29; 2 Kings 11:2; 2 Kings 12:18; 1 Chr. 3:11; 2 Chr. 21:1-20; 2 Chr. 22:1, 11; Matt. 1:8.

Son of Ahab and Jezebel. He succeeded his brother Ahaziah, king of Israel, and reigned twelve years, B.C. 896-884. He wrought evil in the sight of the Lord, but put away the image of Baal that his father had made. The king of Moab revolted against him, and he asked Jehoshaphat king of Judah to go with him to punish the Moabites. These two kings, with the king of Edom, assembled their armies, but there was no water to drink. They then appealed to Elisha for help, but he said that except Jehoshaphat had been there he would not have looked upon Joram. A miracle was wrought and there was abundance of water. God also gave them a great victory over the Moabites, which led the king of Moab to offer his eldest son as a burnt offering to his god, and the Israelites departed.

The time however was approaching for God's judgement on the house of Ahab. Joram and Ahaziah king of Judah went against the Syrians in Ramoth-gilead. There Joram was wounded, and he returned to Jezreel to be healed, leaving his army at Ramoth-gilead. In the meantime a prophet, sent by Elisha, visited the camp and anointed Jehu to be king of Israel, with instructions to smite the house of Ahab totally. Jehu being proclaimed king, he hastily drove to Jezreel to fulfil his mission and Joram, as he fled before Jehu, was killed by an arrow. 2 Kings 1:17; 2 Kings 3:1-25; 2 Kings 8:16-29; 2 Kings 9:14-26, 29; 2 Chr. 22:5-7.

In chapter 1:17 we read, "And Jehoram reigned in his stead (Ahaziah) in the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah." (He was associated with his father in the government of the kingdom. See 2 Kings 8:27; 2 Chronicles 21:6.) There was, therefore, a Jehoram, king over Judah, as well as a king of Israel by the same name. They are also known by the name Joram. Joram and Jehoram are used interchangeably. In 2 Kings 1:17 and 2 Chron. 22:6 both kings are called Jehoram; in 2 Kings 9:15, 17, the King of Israel is called Joram; in 2 Kings 8:21, etc., the King of Judah is called Joram; comparing 2 Kings 8:16 and verse 29 we find these two names inverted. We mention this to clear up a possible difficulty some may find here. Jehoram was another son of Ahab, the brother of Ahaziah. A partial reformation was attempted by him, but he continued in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat (1 Kings 12:25-33).

The full record of Moab's rebellion is now given. Jehoram formed an alliance with Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah and the King of Edom. Jehoshaphat had been in league with Ahab (1 Kings 22) and now we see him in a similar alliance with Ahab's second son. It was an alliance displeasing to the LORD and Jehoshaphat was troubled in his conscience about it. The same question he had put to Ahab, he now puts to Ahab's son, "Is there not here a prophet of the LORD, that we may inquire of the LORD by him?" (cf. 1 Kings 22:7). Jehoshaphat knew the LORD, but was in evil company. When the three kings met in Elisha's tent, the prophet manifests the boldness of Elijah in rebuking the wicked King of Israel. But he honors the King of Judah. "As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the King of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee." But there was also a rebuke for the good King of Judah. The Spirit of God was grieved and Elisha had not the power of prophecy. He needed a minstrel first to calm his own agitated spirit and get into the condition of soul to utter the needed message. How it should have humbled the king, who served Jehovah, that after calling for a prophet of the LORD, the divine mouthpiece was unable to prophesy at once! Unholy alliances hindered the manifestation of the Spirit of God. Such is the case almost everywhere in our days of departure from the truth of God.

The record of the kings of Judah and Israel is now briefly given. All is fast ripening for the long threatened judgment. After the death of Jehoshaphat, his son Jehoram became sole ruler over Judah. He walked in the evil ways of the kings of Israel and the record tells the reason, "for the daughter of Ahab was his wife." After him came his son Ahaziah. Again wicked Athaliah, his mother, is mentioned. (The marginal reading "grand-daughter" is correct. She was Ahab's daughter and Omri's grand-daughter.) His connection with Ahab is made prominent. He did evil also in the sight of the Lord and made an alliance with the son of Ahab, Joram (or Jehoram), who was still king in Israel. Joram was wounded by the Syrians and Ahaziah, King of Judah, visited him in Jezreel. Alas! the unholy alliance of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, with the wicked murderer, Ahab, King of Israel (1 Kings 22) had resulted in the marriage of his son with Athaliah, the wicked daughter of a wicked father. And Jehoram, Jehoshaphat's son, was dragged down by her and she became the ruination of her son Ahaziah. A dreadful harvest!

"So he died according to the word, of the Lord which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram reigned in his stead in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; because he had no son." This Jehoram was another son of Ahab (2 Kings 3:1) and therefore brother of Ahaziah.

Jehoram, another of Ahab's sons, succeeded his brother Ahaziah, who had no son, on the throne of Israel. God notes that he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, but not like his father and his mother. While de-emphasizing Baal-worship, he did not depart from the idolatry introduced by Jeroboam, but persisted in this.

When Ahab died, Moab, which had been subjugated by David nearly 1½ centuries earlier, rebelled against Israel. Nothing had been done against this during Ahaziah's brief reign, but now Jehoram sought the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom, tributary to Judah, to help him fight against Moab. Taking the roundabout route through the Wilderness of Edom, these kings encountered a great problem: no water. Jehoram's response is one typical of him. We shall see it on subsequent occasions also: blame Jehovah! He had asked Jehoshaphat's help, but he now charges Jehovah with bringing the three kings together, as he puts it, to deliver them into the hand of Moab!

Jehoram, Ahab's son, reigned, over Israel 12 years and followed the sinful example of Jereboam, though not doing so wickedly as Ahab, for he got rid of the idolatrous pillar of Baal that Ahab had made.

"Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years. And he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord; but not like his father, and like his mother" — in contrast with his late brother Ahaziah, see 1 Kings 22:52 — "for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom." There is no discrepancy between "the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat," here, and "the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat," as in 2 Kings 1:17. Jehoshaphat made his son joint-king a number of years before his death, (see 2 Kings 8:16, marg.) which readily accounts for the seeming contradictions in the above noted passages.

Jehoram, the son of Ahab, in one sense had shown himself less irreligious than his father. He had removed the idol of Baal set up by his father, yet without destroying his prophets, as one can infer from Elisha's reply in verse 13. Outwardly he gave up this abominable worship, but it troubled him very little to let its spirit remain. What he did not at all give up was the national religion instituted by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which masked a gross form of idolatry under the guise of the religion of the true God.

Elisha is witness to the alliance between Jehoram of Israel and Jehoshaphat against Moab. Jehoram here follows the tradition of the reign of his father who had allied himself with this same Jehoshaphat against the Syrians, but he goes even further than his father in evil. Needing to pass through the territory of Edom to reach Moab (v. 8), he includes this idolatrous nation, well-known for its implacable enmity against the Lord's people, in his alliance. What a picture of the world whose politics do not take God into account at all!

According to man everything is calculated for certain success; the little warlike country of Moab despite its valor would not be able to resist this powerful confederation. But God is there — the only One whom Jehoram should have taken into account and whom he had outrageously left aside.

On the death of Ahaziah, another son of Ahab, Ahaziah's brother Jehoram came to the throne of Israel. He was not as bad as his father and mother, "for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin" (2 Kings 3:2-3). On account of following the sins of Jeroboam, the Lord says of Jehoram, "he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord."

How very sad it is therefore to find the good king Jehoshaphat once more getting entangled with the house of Ahab, for when Jehoram sent to him saying, "The king of Moab hath rebelled against me: wilt thou go with me against Moab to battle?" he replied, "I will co up: I am as thou art, my people as thy people, and my horses as thy horses" (verse 7). Jehoshaphat uses precisely the same words he had spoken to Ahab, when Ahab asked him to go with him to Ramoth-gilead (1 Kings 22:4). Does not this show that this good man had not thoroughly bottomed his failure in associating with Ahab and his house?

Joram, the son of Ahab, had reigned in Israel five years when Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat took the throne of Judah. Instead of following his father's faith, he followed his father's bad example in identifying himself with evil men. He reigned only 8 years. His father had shown friendship with Ahab, and Jehoram married Ahab's daughter Athaliah, a woman as wicked as her mother Jezebel (v.18). In spite of this evil in Judah, the Lord refrained from destroying it, for the sake of His promise to David that He would sustain the kingdom through David's sons (v.19).