6
He imitated Israel's kings and married into the Ahab dynasty. God considered him an evil man.
7
But despite that, because of his covenant with David, God was not yet ready to destroy the descendants of David; he had, after all, promised to keep a light burning for David and his sons.
8
During Jehoram's reign, Edom revolted from Judah's rule and set up their own king.
9
Jehoram responded by setting out with his officers and chariots. Edom surrounded him, but in the middle of the night he and his charioteers broke through the lines and hit Edom hard.
10
Edom continues in revolt against Judah right up to the present. Even little Libnah revolted at that time. The evidence accumulated: Since Jehoram had abandoned God, the God of his ancestors, God was abandoning him.
11
He even went so far as to build pagan sacred shrines in the mountains of Judah. He brazenly led Jerusalem away from God, seducing the whole country.
12
One day he got a letter from Elijah the prophet. It read, "From God, the God of your ancestor David - a message: Because you have not kept to the ways of Jehoshaphat your father and Asa your grandfather, kings of Judah,
13
but have taken up with the ways of the kings of Israel in the north, leading Judah and Jerusalem away from God, going step by step down the apostate path of Ahab and his crew - why, you even killed your own brothers, all of them better men than you! -
14
God is going to afflict your people, your wives, your sons, and everything you have with a terrible plague.
15
And you are going to come down with a terrible disease of the colon, painful and humiliating."
16
The trouble started with an invasion. God incited the Philistines and the Arabs who lived near the Ethiopians to attack Jehoram.