CHAPTER 21

¹And Jehoshaphat lay with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David, and Jehoram his son was king in his stead. ²And he had brothers, sons of Jehoshaphat, Azariah and Jehiel and Zechariah and Uzziah and Michael and Shephatiah. All these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. ³And their father gave them many gifts of silver and of gold and of valuables together with the fortified towns in Judah, but the kingship he gave to Jehoram, for he was the firstborn. ⁴And Jehoram rose up over his father’s kingdom and grew strong and killed all his brothers by the sword and also some of the commanders of Israel. ⁵Thirty-two years old was Jehoram when he became king, and eight years he was king in Jerusalem. ⁶And he went in the ways of the kings of Israel as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter was wife to him. And he did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD. ⁷But the LORD did not want to destroy the house of David because of the covenant that He had sealed with David, and as He had said to grant him and his sons a lamp for all time. ⁸In his days did Edom rebel from under the hand of Judah, and they set a king over themselves. ⁹And Jehoram crossed over with his commanders and with all his chariots, and it happened as he arose in the night, the Edomites surrounding him struck him and the chariot commanders. ¹⁰And Edom has rebelled from under the hand of Judah until this day. Then did Libnah rebel at that time from under his hand, for he had forsaken the LORD God of his fathers. ¹¹He also made high places in the hill country of Judah and led the dwellers of Israel to go whoring and made Judah stray. ¹²And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, “Thus said the LORD God of David your father: Because you have not gone in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father and in the ways of Asa king of Judah, ¹³but you went in the ways of the kings of Israel and led the dwellers of Jerusalem to go whoring as the house of Ahab led them to go whoring, and even your brothers of your father’s house, who were better than you, did you kill, ¹⁴the LORD is about to afflict your people and your wives and all your possessions with a great plague. ¹⁵And as for you, you will be stricken with great illnesses, with illness of the bowels, till your bowels come out because of the illness after days upon days.” ¹⁶And the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabs who were alongside the Cushites. ¹⁷And they came up against Judah and breached into it and captured all the possessions that were in the house of the king and also his sons and his wives, and there was left him no son except Jehoahaz the youngest of his sons. ¹⁸And after all this the LORD afflicted him in his bowels with an incurable illness. ¹⁹And it happened as the days passed, at the end of two years, that his bowels came out because of his illness and he died in terrible throes; and they did not light a fire for him like the fire for his fathers. ²⁰Thirty-two years old he was when he became king, and eight years he was king in Jerusalem, and he went off in unseemly fashion, and they buried him in the City of David but not in the tombs of the kings.