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1. Now Jehoram the king of Jerusalem, for we have said before
that he had the same name with the king of Israel, as soon as he
had taken the government upon him, betook himself to the
slaughter of his brethren, and his father's friends, who were
governors under him, and thence made a beginning and a
demonstration of his wickedness; nor was he at all better than
those kings of Israel who at first transgressed against the laws
of their country, and of the Hebrews, and against God's worship.
And it was Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, whom he had married,
who taught him to be a bad man in other respects, and also to
worship foreign gods. Now God would not quite root out this
family, because of the promise he had made to David. However,
Jehoram did not leave off the introduction of new sorts of
customs to the propagation of impiety, and to the ruin of the
customs of his own country. And when the Edomites about that time
had revolted from him, and slain their former king, who was in
subjection to his father, and had set up one of their own
choosing, Jehoram fell upon the land of Edom, with the horsemen
that were about him, and the chariots, by night, and destroyed
those that lay near to his own kingdom, but did not proceed
further. However, this expedition did him no service, for they
all revolted from him, with those that dwelt in the country of
Libnah. He was indeed so mad as to compel the people to go up to
the high places of the mountains, and worship foreign gods.
2. As he was doing this, and had entirely cast his own country
laws out of his mind, there was brought him an epistle from
Elijah the prophet which declared that God would execute
great judgments upon him, because he had not imitated his own
fathers, but had followed the wicked courses of the kings of
Israel; and had compelled the tribe of Judah, and the citizens of
Jerusalem, to leave the holy worship of their own God, and to
worship idols, as Ahab had compelled the Israelites to do, and
because he had slain his brethren, and the men that were good and
righteous. And the prophet gave him notice in this epistle what
punishment he should undergo for these crimes, namely, the
destruction of his people, with the corruption of the king's own
wives and children; and that he should himself die of a distemper
in his bowels, with long torments, those his bowels falling out
by the violence of the inward rottenness of the parts, insomuch
that, though he see his own misery, he shall not be able at all
to help himself, but shall die in that manner. This it was which
Elijah denounced to him in that epistle.
3. It was not long after this that an army of those Arabians that
lived near to Ethiopia, and of the Philistines, fell upon the
kingdom of Jehoram, and spoiled the country and the king's house.
Moreover, they slew his sons and his wives: one only of his sons
was left him, who escaped the enemy; his name was Ahaziah; after
which calamity, he himself fell into that disease which was
foretold by the prophet, and lasted a great while, (for God
inflicted this punishment upon him in his belly, out of his wrath
against him,) and so he died miserably, and saw his own bowels
fall out. The people also abused his dead body; I suppose it was
because they thought that such his death came upon him by the
wrath of God, and that therefore he was not worthy to partake of
such a funeral as became kings. Accordingly, they neither buried
him in the sepulchers of his fathers, nor vouchsafed him any
honors, but buried him like a private man, and this when he had
lived forty years, and reigned eight. And the people of Jerusalem
delivered the government to his son Ahaziah.
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