the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Joram
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Jo´ram (God-exalted, a contraction of Jehoram), ninth king of Israel, son of Ahab, and successor to his elder brother Ahaziah, who died childless. He began to reign B.C. 896, and reigned twelve years (; ). Joram adhered to the sinful policy of Jeroboam in the matter of the golden calves; but, although his mother Jezebel was still alive, he discontinued the dark idolatries of Baal which she had introduced and maintained at such high cost of guilt and blood to the nation.
The Moabites had been tributary to the crown of Israel since the separation of the two kingdoms. But king Mesha deemed the defeat and death of Ahab so heavy a blow to the power of Israel that he might safely assert his independence. He accordingly did so, by withholding his tribute of '100,000 lambs, and 100,000 rams, with the wool.' The short reign of Ahaziah had afforded no opportunity for any operations against the revolters; but the new king hastened to reduce them again under the yoke they had cast off. The good king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, was too easily induced to take a part in the war. He perhaps feared that the example of Moab, if allowed to be successful, might seduce into a similar course his own tributary, the king of Edom, whom he now summoned to join in this expedition. The deliverance of the allies from perishing for lack of water, and the signal overthrow of the Moabites at the word of Elisha, have been already described under Elisha and Jehoshaphat.
After this a more formidable enemy, Benhadad, king of Syria, occupied for a long time the attention and strength of the king. In the sacred records the more striking events of this war seem to be recorded for the sake of showing forth the great acts of Elisha, and they have therefore been related under his name. It suffices here to indicate that they consisted in the Syrian king being constrained to terminate one campaign in consequence of all his plans being made known by the prophet to the king of Israel (); and in the deliverance of Samaria, according to the prediction of the prophet, from a horrible famine, caused by the city being besieged by the Syrians (; 2 Kings 7). An interval of the war also afforded occasion for the remarkable cure of Naaman, the Syrian leper, by the same prophet (2 Kings 5) [NAAMAN].
After the death of Benhadad, Joram found a new and active enemy in his murderer and successor, Hazael. During the illness of Benhadad, the king of Israel seems to have employed himself in strengthening his eastern frontier against the Syrians, and in fortifying Ramoth-Gilead, which had fallen into his hands, and which his father had perished in the attempt to recover from the Syrians. This strong fortress thenceforth became the head-quarters of the operations beyond the river. Hazael was scarcely settled on the throne before he took arms, and marched against Ramoth, in the environs of which the Israelites sustained a defeat, and the king was wounded. He returned to Jezreel to be healed of his wounds, leaving the army in the charge of Jehu, one of his ablest and most active generals. It was in this interval that Jehu was anointed king of Israel by the messenger of Elisha, and immediately proceeded to Jezreel to fulfill his commission to exterminate the house of Ahab. The king, who went forth from the city to meet him when the watchman on the tower of Jezreel announced his approach, was slain under the circumstances described in the article Jehu; and Ahaziah, the king of Judah, who was at Jezreel on a visit to his sick cousin, shared his fate (B.C. 884). With Joram ended the dynasty of Ahab, which reigned forty-four years in Israel (; ).
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Joram'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/j/joram.html.
