2 Chronicles 21

1 And Josaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with them in the city of David: and Joram his son reigned in his stead.

Then Jehoshaphat died, and was buried where his ancestors were buried in [the part of Jerusalem called] ‘The City of David’. Then his son Jehoram became the king [of Judah].

2 And he had brethren the sons of Josaphat, Azarias, and Jahiel, and Zacharias, and Azaria, and Michael, and Saphatias, all these were the sons of Josaphat king of Juda.

His [younger] brothers were Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah.

3 And their father gave them great gifts of silver, and of gold, and pensions, with strong cities in Juda: but the kingdom he gave to Joram, because he was the eldest.

Before Jehoshaphat died, he gave them gifts of silver and gold and other valuable things. He also appointed them to rule various cities in Judah that had walls around them. But he appointed Jehoram to be the king of Judah, because Jehoram was his oldest son.

4 So Joram rose up over the kingdom of his father: and when he had established himself, he slew all his brethren with the sword, and some of the princes of Israel.

After Jehoram was completely in control of his father’s kingdom, he had all of his [younger] brothers executed, along with some of the leaders of the nation.

5 Joram was two and thirty years old when he began to reign: and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

Jehoram was 32 years old when he became the king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eight years.

6 And he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Achab had done: for his wife was a daughter of Achab, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

But he did many of the [evil] things that the kings of Israel had done. He did many things that Yahweh considers to be evil, things that the family of Ahab had done, because he married one of Ahab’s daughters.

7 But the Lord would not destroy the house of David: because of the covenant which he had made with him: and because he had promised to give a lamp to him, and to his sons for ever.

However, because of the agreement that Yahweh had made with King David, Yahweh did not want to get rid of the descendants of David. He had promised that David’s descendants would always be the ones who ruled Judah.

8 In those days Edom revolted, from being subject to Juda, and made themselves a king.

While Jehoram was ruling, the people of [the] Edom [region] rebelled against [the king of] Judah and appointed their own king.

9 And Joram went over with his princes, and all his cavalry with him, and rose in the night, and defeated the Edomites who had surrounded him, and all the captains of his cavalry.

So Jehoram and his officers and his men in chariots went to Edom. There, the army of Edom surrounded them. Jehoram escaped during the night.

10 However Edom revolted, from being under the dominion of Juda unto this day: at that time Lobna also revolted, from being under his hand. For he had forsaken the Lord the God of his fathers:

But the king of Judah was never able to regain control of Edom, and Edom is still not controlled by Judah. [The people in] Libnah [city between Judah and Philistia] also rebelled against Judah. Those things happened because Jehoram turned away from [obeying] Yahweh, the God whom his ancestors [belonged to].

11 Moreover he built also high places in the cities of Juda, and he made the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and Juda to transgress.

On the hilltops in Judah he had also built shrines [to worship idols], and had caused the people of Judah to stray away from Yahweh by worshiping foreign gods.

12 And there was a letter brought him from Elias the prophet, in which it was written: Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father: Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Josaphat thy father nor in the ways of Asa king of Juda,

One day, Jehoram received a letter from the prophet Elijah. Elijah had written this in the letter: “This is what Yahweh, the God whom your ancestor [King] David [worshiped], says: 'You have not done things that please me like your father Jehoshaphat did or what King Asa did.

13 But hast walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and hast made Juda and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, imitating the fornication of the house of Achab, moreover also thou hast killed thy brethren, the house of thy father, better men than thyself,

Instead, you have continually done the [evil things] that the kings of Israel have done. You have encouraged the people in Jerusalem and other places in Judah to stop worshiping Yahweh, like the descendants of Ahab did. You have also murdered your own brothers, who were more righteous men than you are.

14 Behold the Lord will strike thee with a great plague, with all thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy substance.

So now Yahweh is about to very severely punish the people in your kingdom and even your own children and your wives and everything that you own.

15 And thou shalt be sick of a very grievous disease of thy bowels, till thy vital parts come out by little and little every day.

And you yourself will have an intestinal disease that will continue to become worse, and you will suffer from it until you die.'”

16 And the Lord stirred up against Joram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians, who border on the Ethiopians.

Then Yahweh caused some men from the Philistia people-group and some Arabs who lived near the coast [of the Mediterranean Sea], where people from Ethiopia had settled, to become angry with Jehoram.

17 And they came up into the land of Juda, and wasted it, and they carried away all the substance that was found in the king’s house, his sons also, and his wives: so that there was no son left him but Joachaz, who was the youngest.

Their army invaded Judah and took away [from Jerusalem] all the valuable things that they found in the king’s palace, and even his sons and wives. His youngest son, Ahaziah, was the only one of his sons whom they did not take away.

18 And besides all this the Lord struck him with an incurable disease in his bowels.

After that happened, Yahweh caused Jehoram to be afflicted with an intestinal disease that no one could cure.

19 And as day came after day, and time rolled on, two whole years passed: then after being wasted with a long consumption, so as to void his very bowels, his disease ended with his life. And he died of a most wretched illness, and the people did not make a funeral for him according to the manner of burning, as they had done for his ancestors.

About two years later, while he was in great pain, he died because of that disease. The people of Judah had made bonfires to honor his ancestors when they died, but they did not make a bonfire for Jehoram.

20 He was two and thirty years old when he began his reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked not rightly, and they buried him in the city of David: but not in the sepulchres of the kings.

Jehoram was 32 years old when he became the king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eight years. No one was sorry when he died. His corpse was buried in [the part of Jerusalem called] ‘The City of David’, but he was not buried where the other kings [of Judah] had been buried.