Chapter 5.
CONCERNING THE WICKEDNESS OF JEHORAM KING O JERUSALEM; HIS
DEFEAT AND DEATH.FJAJ 9.23
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.FJAJ 9.24
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
(14)
This epistle, in some copies of Josephus, is said to come to Jotare from
Elijah, with this addition," for he was yet upon earth," which
could not be true of Elijah, who, as all agree, was gone from the earth
about four years before, and could only be true of Elisha; nor perhaps
is there any more mystery here, than that the name of Elijah has very anciently
crept into the text instead of Elisha, by the copiers, there being nothing
in any copy of that epistle peculiar to Elijah. 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.FJAJ 9.25
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.FJAJ 9.26