2 Chronicles 21

Revised Geneva Translation

21 Then Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. And Jehoram, his son, reigned in his place.

² And he had brethren (the sons of Jehoshaphat): Azariah and Jehiel and Zechariah and Azariah and Michael and Shephatiah. All these were the sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel.

³ And their father gave them great gifts of silver and gold and precious things, with strong cities in Judah. But he gave the kingdom to Jehoram; for he was the eldest.

⁴ And Jehoram rose up over the kingdom of his father and made himself strong and killed all his brethren with the sword, and also some of the other princes of Israel.

⁵ Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he began to reign. And he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem.

⁶ And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the House of Ahab had done. For he took the daughter of Ahab as a wife. And he wrought evil in the Eyes of the LORD.

⁷ However, the LORD would not destroy the House of David, because of the Covenant that He had made with David, and because He had promised to give a light to him and to his sons forever.

⁸ In his days, Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah and made a king over themselves.

⁹ And Jehoram went forth with his princes, and all his chariots with him. And he rose up by night and struck Edom (which had surrounded him) and the captains of the chariots.

¹⁰ So, Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah to this day. Then at the same time, Libnah rebelled from under his hand, because he had forsaken the LORD God of his fathers.

¹¹ Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah.

¹² And a writing came to him from Elijah the Prophet, saying, “Thus says the LORD God of David your father: ‘Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat, your father, nor in the ways of Asa, king of Judah,

¹³ ‘but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, as the House of Ahab went a whoring, and have also killed your brethren of your father’s house (who were better than you),

¹⁴ ‘behold, the LORD will strike your people and your children and your wives and all your substance with a great plague. 15’And you shall be in great diseases in the disease of your bowels, until your bowels fall out because of the disease, day by day.’”

¹⁶ So the LORD stirred up the spirit of the Philistines against Jehoram, and the Arabians (who were next to the Ethiopians).

¹⁷ And they came up into Judah and broke into it and carried away all the possessions that were found in the king’s house, and also his sons, and his wives, so that there was not a son left to him except Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.

¹⁸ And after all this, the LORD struck him in his bowels with an incurable disease.

¹⁹ And in process of time, after the end of two years, his guts fell out with his disease. So, he died of grave diseases. And his people made no burning for him like the burning of his fathers.

²⁰ When he began to reign, he was thirty-two years old. And he reigned in Jerusalem for eight years and lived without being desired. Still, they buried him in the City of David, but not among the sepulchers of the kings.