2 Ch. 21: Jehor(rible)am

2 Chronicles 21:20 "Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He passed away, to no one's regret, and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings."

Jehoram is another who gets some more press in 2 Chronicles. His reign is described in a 9-verse vignette in 2 Kings 8. We already know he was evil, and we already know his offspring was evil, and we know there was revolt in Edom and Libnah during his time.

So what evil did he do? Well, he started by putting all his brothers to the sword. Which sounds like the story of Abimelech in Judges 9 (entry). And we all know how it ended for Abimelech. Anyway, the other things he did included restoring the high places in Judah, causing the people to prostitute themselves. With the construction of the temple, these high places were even less useful. But Israel was a big fan of the useless.

Edom and Libnah rebelled against what was probably a weak ruler.

Then Jehoram gets a pretty disturbing letter from Elijah, who basically gives him the business for being a jerk. Citing Jehoram's killing of his brothers and family ("men who were better than you"), God says that he will strike Jehoram and his family with a weird bowel disease that will cause his bowels to fall out. Something called what my amateur diagnosis revealed to be a rectal prolapse. I searched all day for pictures, but I'm disappointed to tell you I couldn't find any. Not really. This is a family blog. Awful. Gross. Disturbing. That wasn't enough, Jehoram has to deal with the Philistines and the Cushites again, who looted the palace.

Even worse, when Jehoram died, the people made no fire in his honor. Even Asa got one of those.

Sad when you die, it's "to no one's regret." It's as if God had all this pent up anger at the moran kings Israel kept putting on the throne, and Jehoram bore the brunt of it. I don't mean to say Jehoram wasn't deserving of wrath, but the wrath God wrathed on him seemed to be more wrathful than the wrath God wrathed on the other kings deserving of wrath.