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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
8:16-29 Jehoram and Ahaziah. Judah was last mentioned in ch. 3, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah. Another Judean king has come and gone in the meantime, however, and the reader must be told about him and be introduced to his successor in order to understand chs. 9-10.
8:16 Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat. First introduced briefly in 1 Kings 22:50, this king is mentioned again in 2 Kings 1:17. In 8:21, 23-24, his name appears as "Joram," which is also the name of the king of Israel in this period (v. 16). This Israelite king is himself called "Jehoram" in such verses as 1:17 and 3:1. At precisely the point when the southern monarchy has come to resemble the northern monarchy most closely in its worship (see note on 8:18), their kings are called by the same name, and one must work hard to distinguish their actions in the text.
8:18 Jehoram walked in the way of the kings of Israel. His father, Jehoshaphat, had made peace with the king of Israel in the aftermath of the struggles that arose out of the division of the kingdoms under Jeroboam and Rehoboam (1 Kings 22:44). From Jehoshaphat's reign onward, the fortunes of the house of Omri and the house of David were closely interconnected. There was intermarriage between the two families (Jehoram had married the daughter of Ahab), and the two kingdoms followed a similar religious policy (as the house of Ahab had done).
8:19 he promised to give a lamp to him. See 1 Kings 11:36; 15:4. Sins in David's family are to be punished not with the destruction of his dynasty but with the "rod of men" (2 Sam. 7:14-16)--divine discipline, characterized in 1-2 Kings as "affliction" (see 1 Kings 11:39). So it is that the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant.
8:20-22 In his days Edom revolted. The "affliction" on David's house in this case (cf. note on v. 19) comes in Jehoram's failure to subdue a rebellion by Edom, a country hitherto ruled by a king appointed by Judah (1 Kings 22:47; see note on 2 Kings 3:7-9), and in unrest even within Judah itself: Libnah was a Judean city to the southwest of Jerusalem and
8:23 Chronicles of the Kings. See note on 1 Kings 14:19.
8:25-27 Ahaziah the son of Jehoram. This Judean king, too, has habits of religion to match those of the family to whom he is related by marriage (He also walked in the way of the house of Ahab). The fact that he reigned for only one year, combined with the fact that he began his reign in the twelfth year of Joram . . . king of Israel (i.e., Joram's last year, 3:1), is the first hint of moving toward the end of the house of Omri.
8:28-29 war against Hazael king of Syria. The context in which the house of Omri comes to its end is now provided. Another joint battle against the Syrians at Ramoth-gilead (cf. 1 Kings 22:1-4) is followed by withdrawal to the Omride stronghold of Jezreel, so that the Israelite king can recover from his wounds. Ramoth-gilead is apparently back in Israelite hands by this point in the narrative (2 Kings 9:14), perhaps abandoned in the course of the general Syrian retreat in 7:3-7.
