Joram (Jehoram of Israel)
Joram, son of Ahab and Jezebel, reigned over Israel for twelve years during the height of Elisha's ministry. Though he put away his father's pillar of Baal, he clung to the golden-calf worship of Jeroboam. His reign is the backdrop for some of the Elisha narratives' most dramatic scenes: the campaign against Moab where water miraculously filled the valley, Naaman's healing (Joram tore his clothes assuming the Syrian request was a pretext for war), and the horrific siege of Samaria that ended overnight when God routed the Syrian army. Wounded fighting Hazael at Ramoth-gilead, he was recovering at Jezreel when Jehu - anointed at Elisha's instruction - drove furiously to meet him and shot him through the heart, throwing his body onto Naboth's field in precise fulfillment of Elijah's prophecy against the house of Ahab.
Biography
- Occupation
- King of Israel
- Father
- Ahab
- Mother
- Jezebel
- Era
- Divided Kingdom
- Nationality
- Israelite
- Also Known As
- Jehoram
Family
Did You Know?
Joram is easily confused with his exact contemporary: Judah's king was also named Jehoram - and the two royal houses had intermarried, so each king was the other's brother-in-law.
Jehu's arrow struck Joram on the very plot of ground stolen from Naboth - a detail Jehu himself recognized aloud as fulfilling Elijah's prophecy word for word.
During the siege of Samaria in his reign, food grew so scarce that a donkey's head sold for eighty pieces of silver - the Bible's starkest famine price tag.
Key Chapters
Key Passages
Joram Begins to Reign
2 Kings 3:1-3
He removes Baal's pillar yet keeps Jeroboam's calves - a half-reform that defines his reign: better than his parents, but never turning fully to God.
1ow Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years.
Jehu Kills Joram on Naboth's Field
2 Kings 9:22-26
Jehu's arrow and the casting of Joram's body onto Naboth's plot deliberately close the ledger on Ahab's judicial murder - judgment delayed a generation, but exact.
22nd it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?