2 Kings 8

Jehoram King of Judah (8:16-24)

(2 Chronicles 21:1-20)

16-19 In this section the writer describes the reign of Jehoram, one of Judah’s wickedest kings. According to 2 Chronicles 21:4, one of his first acts as king was to murder all of his brothers, together with other princes of Israel who might pose a threat to his throne. One reason Jehoram did so much evil was because he was married to a daughter of Ahab named Athaliah (verses 18,26). She exerted influence over her husband Jehoram and later over her son Ahaziah in much the same way Jezebel had exerted influence over Ahab (1 Kings 21:25). Indeed, Athaliah nearly became the undoing of the kingdom of Judah: she brought Baal worship into Judah (2 Chronicles 24:7) and she eliminated the entire royal family—the entire line of David—except for one who escaped (2 Kings 11:1-3). But in spite of the evil of Jehoram and his wife Athaliah, God did not immediately destroy Judah, because He remembered His covenant with David (2 Samuel 7:16) and His promise to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever³³ (verse 19).

20-24 Even though the Lord kept Judah from being destroyed during Jehoram’s reign, Judah and Jehoram did experience a number of judgments from the Lord. Three judgments came in the form of military defeats. First Edom rebelled,³⁴ which resulted in Jehoram nearly losing his life (verses 20-21); second, Libnah revolted (verse 22); and third, according to 2 Chronicles 21:16-17, the Philistines and Arabs invaded Judah and carried off all of Jehoram’s sons except Ahaziah, his youngest (verse 25). It was God’s justice that the man who had murdered his brothers should now pay with the loss of his sons.

The final judgment on Jehoram came in the form of an incurable disease of the bowels, from which he died in great pain; the people did not honor him in death³⁵ (2 Chronicles 21:18-19).

Ahaziah King of Judah (8:25-29)

(2 Chronicles 22:1-9)

25-29 Ahaziah was the youngest son of Jehoram and Athaliah the daughter of Ahab (verse 18); all of his older brothers had been killed by raiding Philistines and Arabs (see 2 Chronicles 21:16-17; 22:1). He, too, like his father Jehoram, came under the influence of the wicked Athaliah; as a result, he walked in the ways of the house of Ahab (verse 27).

Just as Ahaziah’s grandfather Jehoshaphat had joined with Ahab in a vain attempt to retake the city of Ramoth Gilead from the Arameans (see 1 Kings 22:1-4), so too did Ahaziah join with Ahab’s son Joram to try again to retake Ramoth Gilead, this time from Hazael, the new king of Aram (verses 15,28). Once again the battle went badly and Joram was wounded. In verse 29, we are told that Ahaziah went from Jerusalem down to Jezreel in Israel to see the wounded Joram; this sets the stage for the next chapter, where we read of the death of both Joram and Ahaziah. God’s judgment against these two kings, son and grandson of Ahab, was but one more step in the fulfillment of God’s word to Elijah that He would cut off every last male among Ahab’s descendants (1 Kings 19:17; 21:20-22).

According to 2 Chronicles 22:7-9, when Ahaziah arrived in Jezreel, he and Joram went out to meet Jehu, whom the Lord had chosen to destroy the house of Ahab (1 Kings 19:16-17; 2 Kings 9:6-10). Jehu not only succeeded in killing the two kings, but he put to death their families as well. Detailed accounts of Jehu’s actions are found in the next two chapters.