TEXT [Commentary]

H. Synchronistic History of the Divided Monarchy, Resumed (2 Kgs 8:16-29)

1. Jehoram rules in Judah (8:16-24)

16 Jehoram son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah began to rule over Judah in the fifth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab, king of Israel. 17 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. 18 But Jehoram followed the example of the kings of Israel and was as wicked as King Ahab, for he had married one of Ahab’s daughters. So Jehoram did what was evil in the LORD’s sight. 19 But the LORD did not want to destroy Judah, for he had promised his servant David that his descendants would continue to rule, shining like a lamp forever.

20 During Jehoram’s reign, the Edomites revolted against Judah and crowned their own king. 21 So Jehoram[*] went with all his chariots to attack the town of Zair.[*] The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he went out at night and attacked them[*] under cover of darkness. But Jehoram’s army deserted him and fled to their homes. 22 So Edom has been independent from Judah to this day. The town of Libnah also revolted about that same time.

23 The rest of the events in Jehoram’s reign and everything he did are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. 24 When Jehoram died, he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. Then his son Ahaziah became the next king.

NOTES

8:16 Jehoram. See the first note on 1:17 for the probable meaning of this name. The spellings “Joram” and “Jehoram” are found in connection with both the northern and the southern kings, whose reigns substantially overlapped chronologically.

son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah. Already this king has been mentioned twice in 1–2 Kings (see 1:17; 1 Kgs 22:50), but in typical Deuteronomistic style, Jehoram’s accession formula is postponed until all the Joram (the concurrent king in Israel) material has been presented (concerning this practice, see “Literary Style” in the Introduction; see also the commentary on 1 Kgs 15:1-8). Curiously, the MT repeats the phrase “and Jehoshaphat [being/having been] king of Judah”; some (e.g., Cogan and Tadmor 1988:95) interpret this phrase as a dittograph (double reading), while others (e.g., Thiele 1951:36; 1974:174; but cf. Barnes 1991:20-21) understand it as overtly confirming the coregency between Jehoram and his father Jehoshaphat (see the next note).

in the fifth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab, king of Israel. Comparing this datum with that found in 3:1 (cf. the second note on that verse), Thiele and others (e.g., the medieval sage David Qimchi) have posited a coregency (probably about four years in length) between Jehoshaphat and his son Jehoram (cf. Cogan and Tadmor 1988:95).

8:18 as wicked as King Ahab. This is the infamous king of Israel, son of Omri. First Kings 16:33 claims that he did more to provoke Yahweh’s anger than any of the other kings before him (cf. 1 Kgs 21:25-26). For a general overview of these evaluative formulas for the kings of Israel and Judah, see endnotes 1 and 2 of the Introduction.

married one of Ahab’s daughters. This was done for diplomatic reasons. Still, as with Ahab himself (1 Kgs 16:31; cf. the note there), and with Solomon on a notoriously large scale (1 Kgs 11:1-6; cf. the note on 1 Kgs 11:2), marrying foreign royalty can lead only to disastrous results. (For more information concerning Athaliah, the particular woman Jehoram married, see the second note on 8:26.)

8:19 shining like a lamp forever. See “The ‘Lamp’ of David” under “Major Themes” in the Introduction for this very important catchphrase found several times in 1–2 Kings. In the present instance, we are encouraged that despite the negative events which attend Jehoram’s reign, Yahweh will be faithful to his covenant with David.

8:20 the Edomites . . . crowned their own king. In 1 Kgs 22:47 we were told there was no king in Edom during the days of Jehoshaphat, Jehoram’s father, so this is a clear indication that Judah’s political and military power had waned in the interval. (Curiously, 3:9 does make passing reference to a king of Edom in the days of Jehoshaphat; cf. the first note on that verse for a possible explanation.)

8:21 Jehoram. See the first note on 8:16 concerning the spelling variants.

Zair. This is a name otherwise unattested; possibly equivalent to “Zoar” (= “Smallville”) of Gen 19:22, etc., at the southern edge of the Dead Sea; or else “Zior” of Josh 15:54, near Hebron in Judah, but that seems too close to Jerusalem (cf. Lawlor 2009).

he went out at night and attacked them. As the NLT mg indicates, the Hebrew here is difficult; indeed, we are not even sure if Edom was attacked or did the attacking! In any case, the Judahite army “fled” home, evidently in ignominious defeat (Wiseman 1993:216).

8:22 to this day. See Childs (1963:284, 289) for this phrase being understood as a “political etiology” added to an archival note: “and Edom revolted from the rule of Judah (as is the situation today).” (See the note on 2:22 for the other instances of this familiar phrase throughout 1–2 Kings.)

Libnah. This was a Levitical city near the Philistine border, not far from Lachish (cf. 19:8 and its parallel in Isa 37:8); it is probably to be identified with Tell Bornat, or else Tell es-Safi (ABD 4.322-323). This laconic notice thus indicates that rebellion took place to the west as well as the southeast in the days of Jehoram of Judah. (Libnah, however, reverted back to Judahite control by the time of King Hezekiah.)

8:23 are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. See “Literary Style” in the Introduction.

COMMENTARY [Text]

We are back in the “leapfrog” treatment of the Israelite and the Judahite kings so typical of the Deuteronomistic editor (see second note on 8:16). But the placement of the Elisha material, especially the Hazael pericope (with its dire implications for the northern kingdom), casts a tragic light on the present passage, especially in its seemingly incidental details. Not so incidentally, Judah was at this time experiencing a significant loss of its political supremacy over the southern Levant (including independent access to the trade route to the Red Sea), and again, not so incidentally, that may have been due more to the pernicious northern Israelite, even Tyrian traditions present even in the south (cf. 8:18), rather than the time-honored traditions more typical of the Davidic dynasty. Up to now, only two southern kings have been censured by the editor (Rehoboam [1 Kgs 14:22, LXX] and Abijam [1 Kgs 15:1-3]), but both Jehoram and his son Ahaziah (8:27) will sadly fall into this category. As Cogan and Tadmor (1988:97) point out, the two brief annalistic excerpts in 8:20-22a and 22b, although unclear in some details (see the third note on 8:21), are very clear about the decline of Judah in the mid-ninth century BC. Edom’s revolt may have been inspired by Moab’s example in chapter 3, but the loss of the city of Libnah in territorial Judah may hint at internal Judahite monarchical instability. It may well be, therefore, that Judah’s joining Israel in foreign wars during this time (3:7; 8:28-29; 1 Kgs 22:1-4) “was as much due to imposition by the stronger partner as it was to shared economic and political interests” (so conclude Cogan and Tadmor; cf. Seow’s similar perspective, cited in the notes on 1 Kgs 22:4, 30). (Concerning the dangers of intermarriage with unbelievers, a major factor in the condemnation of both Jehoram and Ahaziah, see the commentary on the next section.)