It was, perhaps, in consequence of Elisha's rebuke, and of the above remarkable deliverance granted to the allied armies according to his word, that Jehoram, on his return to Samaria, put away the image of Baal which Ahab, his father, had made (2 Kings iii, 2) ; for in 2 Kings iv we have an evidence of Elisha's being on friendly terms with Jehoram in the offer made by him to speak to the king in favor of the Shunammitess. (He is highly spoken of in the Talmud [Berachoth, 10] ; but he did not remove the golden calves introduced by Jer- oboam.) The impression on the king's mind was proba- bly strengthened by the subsequent incident of Naamaii's cure, and the temporary cessation of the inroads of the Syrians, which doubtless resulted from it (2 Kings v). See Naaman. Accordingly, when, a little later, war again broke out between Syria and Israel, we find Elisha be- friending Jehoram. The king -vvas made acquainted by
JEHORAM
805
JEHOSHAPHAT
the prophet with the secret counsels of the king of S3Tia, and was thus enabled to defeat them ; and, on the other hand, when Elisha had led a large band of Syrian sol- diers, whom (iod had blinded, into the midst of Samaria, Jelioram reverentially asked him, "My father, shall I smite them ?" and, at the prophet's bidding, not only for- bore to kill them, but made a feast for them, and then sent them home unhurt. This procured another cessation from the Syrian invasions for the Israelites (2 Kings vi, 23). See Ben-hauad. What happened after this to change the relations between the king and the prophet we can only conjecture. But, ]jutting together the gen- eral bad character given of Jehoram (2 Kings iii, 2, 3) with the fact of the prevalence of Baal-worship at the end of his reign (2 Kings x, 21-28), it seems probable that when the Syrian inroads ceased, and he felt less de- pendent upon the aid of the prophet, he relapsed into idolatry, and was rebuked by Elisha, and threatened witli a return of the calamities from which he had es- caped. Kefusing to repent, a fresh invasion by the Syr- ians and a close siege of Samaria actually came to pass, according probably to the word of the prophet. Hence, when the terrible incident arose, in consequence of the famine, of a woman boiling and eating her own child, the king immediately attributed the evil to Elisha, the son of Shaphat, and determined to take away his life. The message which he sent by the messenger whom he commissioned to cut off the prophet's head, '• Behold, this evil is from Jehovah, why should I wait for Jehovah any longer?" coupled with the fact of his having on sackcloth at the time (2 Kings vi, 30, 33), also indicates that many remonstrances and warnings, similar to those given by Jeremiah to the kings of his day, had passed between the prophet and the ^veak and unstable son of Ahab. The providential interposition by which both Elisha's life was saved and the city delivered is narrated in 2 Kings vii, and Jehoram appears to have returned to friendly feelings towards Elisha (2 Kings viii, 4). B.C. cir. 888-884. See Elisiia.
It was very soon after the above events that Elisha went to Damascus, and predicted the revolt of Hazael, and his accession to the throne of Syria in the room of Ben-hadad ; and it was during Elisha's absence, proba- bly, that the conversation between Jehoram and Gehazi, and the return of the Shunaramitess from the land of the Philistines, recorded in 2 Kings viii, took place. Je- horam seems to have thought the revolution in Syria, which immediately followed Elisha's prediction, a good opportunity to pursue his father's favorite project of re- covering Kamoth-gilead from the Syrians. He accord- ingly made an alliance with his nephew, Ahaziah, who had just succeeded Jehoram on the throne of Judah, and the two kings proceeded to strengthen the eastern fron- tier against the Syrians by fortifying Ramoth-gilead, which had fallen into Jehoram's 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. Ha- zael was scarcely settled on the throne before he took arms and marched against Ramoth, in the environs of which the Israelites sustained a defeat. Jehoram was wounded in the battle, and obliged to return to Jezreel to be healed of his wounds (2 Kings viii, 29 ; ix, 14, 15), leaving his army in the charge of Jehu, one of his ablest and most active generals, to hold Ramoth-gilead against Hazael. Jehu, however, in this interval was anointed king of Israel by the messenger of Elisha, and immedi- ately he and the army under his command revolted from their allegiance to Jehoram (2 Kings ix), and Jehu, hastily marching to Jezreel, surprised Jehoram, wound- ed and defenceless as he was. Jehoram, going out to meet him, fell pierced by an arrow from Jehu's bow on the very plat of ground which Ahab had wrested from Naboth the Jezreelite, thus fulfilling to the letter the prophecy of EUjah (1 Kings xxi, 21-29), B.C. 883.— Smith ; Kitto. See Jehu.
5. (Josephus 'libpafiog, Ant. ix, 5, 1.) The eldest