2 Chronicleschapter 21
20 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Then the LORD stirred against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and Arabs who lived near the Cushites.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 2 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for a people whose whole hope rested on God's promise to David. It tells of a king of Judah who married into the house of Ahab and took its ways as his own. His eight years brought the royal line nearer to its end than at any time before. It holds the only written letter from a prophet in the book. Listen for the one sentence in the middle that explains why the line survived at all. Notice also how the book reports the way this king was mourned.
Context
- Who
- People whose entire hope rested on a covenant that nearly ended here
- What
- The reign of Jehoram of Judah, his murder of his brothers, the revolt of Edom and Libnah, a letter from Elijah, and his death.
- Where
- Jerusalem, the Edomite frontier to the south, Libnah in the western lowlands, and the high places of Judah.
- When
- About 853 to 841 BC, the eight years of Jehoram's reign.
- Why
- To show that the line of David survived a faithless king because of the LORD's covenant with David.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Jehoram, Jehoshaphat's firstborn, who was thirty-two at his accession and reigned eight years. Thiele's reconstruction places the reign at about 853 to 841 BC.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The places are Jerusalem, the Edomite frontier in the south, and the high places he built on the hills of Judah.
The occasion is a succession. The father's arrangement was the ordinary one, with fortified cities and generous gifts to the other sons and the kingdom to the firstborn, which gave the younger brothers standing without a claim.
A first hearer knew that Jehoram's wife was Athaliah, Ahab's daughter, and that the marriage alliance made two chapters earlier was now setting the policy of Judah.
Edom held the copper country of the Arabah and the road to the Gulf of Aqaba, so its revolt cut Judah off from the southern trade and the port. Libnah, a fortress town on the western frontier, revolted at the same time.
A first hearer also knew that a written prophetic letter was unusual. Elijah's departure is usually placed before this reign, and the answers given are an earlier writing delivered later, Elisha carrying out his master's word, or a later date for the departure.
Significance
One sentence in the middle carries the weight of the whole book. The LORD would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant he had made with David and the lamp he promised to him and his sons forever.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The first hearers were alive because of that sentence. The dynasty had come within one surviving son of extinction, and the reason it survived was the character of the promise rather than the character of the king.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
Chronicles stands among the Writings in the Hebrew canon, and the annual cycle of Torah portions and their Haftarot draws on other books. A Jewish reader meets this chapter in study rather than in a reading appointed for a Sabbath or a feast, and the site's own reading data records the same for every chapter.
How it is read
The letter from Elijah is the point a reader stops at, and Rashi answers it in one line. Elijah had already been taken up, so Rashi calls the letter a prophetic one that came to Jehoram after the ascent (Rashi on II Chronicles 21:12:1). He states it as a fact of sequence and leaves the mechanics alone.
Rashi reads the word for a kingdom at the seventh verse as a yoke laid over Israel (Rashi on II Chronicles 21:7:1). The revolt of Edom he explains from the older settlement. David had left Edom under governors who paid tribute, and every king of Judah after him appointed governors of his own. Edom threw them off in this reign (Rashi on II Chronicles 21:8:1). Where the text says Edom rebelled a second time, Rashi calls it the manner of Scripture to repeat a clause after an interruption. He reads the revolt of Libnah as a border town following its neighbour (Rashi on II Chronicles 21:10:1).
The charge that the king led Jerusalem astray is read through the language of adultery. Rashi holds that the term for harlotry belongs to anyone who exchanges the fear of God for the worship of idols. Such a person "behaves in the manner of a promiscuous woman" (Rashi on II Chronicles 21:11:1). The closing verdict is read as a life rather than a death. Rashi takes the note that the king departed without being desired to mean that "all his life he was in distress and in illnesses" (Rashi on II Chronicles 21:20:1).
Malbim comments at 21:3:1, 21:4:1, 21:5:1 and 21:14:1. Metzudat David comments at 21:4:1, 21:9:1, 21:11:1, 21:13:1, 21:15:1, 21:16:1 and 21:18:1. Radak comments at 21:7:1, 21:8:1 and 21:12:1. The corpus holds no English text for any of them, so all three stand cited and unquoted.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries nineteen locators on this chapter and holds the locator alone for each, so they are cited here and not quoted. The Jerusalem Talmud carries it at Sanhedrin 10:2:5, Kiddushin 1:5:9 and Peah 3:7:6. The Babylonian Talmud carries it at Bava Kamma 12a:9 and 12a:10, Ketubot 103b:6, Kiddushin 26a:13, Keritot 5b:12 and Horayot 11b:16. Ein Yaakov carries it at Ketubot 12:2, in both the Glick and the plain editions. The midrashim carry it at Seder Olam Rabbah 17:2 and 20:2, Bamidbar Rabbah 6:2, and Aggadat Bereshit 26:1 and 26:2. The rest are Bereshit Rabbati Parashat Vayera 18, Midrash Tanchuma Buber Vayera 25:1 and Otzar Midrashim, Aharon, And These are the Generations of Aharon and Moshe 10.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on II Chronicles, the Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg (Sefaria, CC-BY); Malbim, Malbim on II Chronicles 21, cited by ref from the Sefaria corpus, which holds no English version of it; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on II Chronicles 21, cited by ref from the Sefaria corpus, which holds no English version of it; Radak, Radak on II Chronicles 21, cited by ref from the Sefaria corpus, which holds no English version of it; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/2-chronicles/21.json, fetched 2026-09-19; The reading data of this site, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed in this lane: 2-chronicles parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, hasSynagogueReading true for 0 of 36 chapters.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Jehoram kills his brothers, yet David's lamp still burns
2 Chronicles 21:1-3
Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers: Jehoshaphat dies as Kings records, and Chronicles keeps a detail Kings passes over. He gave his other sons fortified cities in Judah, the same provision Rehoboam made for his sons at 2 Chronicles 11:23. The kingdom went to Jehoram alone “because he was the firstborn”, the rule of Deuteronomy 21:15-17.
2 Chronicles 21:1
“Jehoram’s sole reign now began. (See 2Ki 8:16 note). His eight years 2Ch 21:5 must be counted from the time of his association, in his father’s 23rd year.”
these were all sons of Jehoshaphat king of Israel: Six brothers are named, two of them Azariah, and Wesley supposes they carried some added title that the record did not need to keep. Clarke notes that the Syriac, Arabic, Septuagint and Vulgate read Judah, with many Hebrew manuscripts, while Chronicles elsewhere uses Israel for the people of Judah.
2 Chronicles 21:2
“And he had brethren - the sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel. - Jehoshaphat certainly was not king of Israel, but king of Judah. ישראל Yisrael must be a corruption in the text, for יהודה Yehudah; which is the reading of the Syriac, Arabic, Septuagint, and Vulgate: the Chaldee, only agrees with the Hebrew text. And the reading of the versions is supported by thirty-eight of Kennicott’s and De Rossi’s MSS. The word Judah should therefore be restored to the text.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
he gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was the firstborn: Barnes observes that Jehoshaphat went further than Rehoboam had, handing the fortified cities over to his sons outright. Clarke adds that Jehoram shared the throne with his father for about three years, which explains the reckoning at 2 Kings 8:16. Henry applies Habakkuk 2:12 to a throne secured by blood.
2 Chronicles 21:3
“The kingdom gave he to Jehoram - He made him co-partner with himself in the kingdom about three years before his death; so that he reigned only five years after the death of his father Jehoshaphat. See the notes on 2Ki 8:16, etc.; and on the same, 2Ch 1:17, where an attempt is made to settle this disturbed chronology.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 21:4-5
the sword all his brothers: Once he holds the throne, Jehoram “strengthened himself by putting to the sword all his brothers along with some of the princes of Israel”. Chronicles states outright what 2 Kings 8 leaves unsaid. He reigns eight years from age thirty-two, the figures the chapter repeats at its close.
2 Chronicles 21:4
“Strengthened himself - He hardened his heart, as that word sometimes signifies. Princes - The chief of those Israelites, who out of love to God and the true religion, had forsaken their estates in the kingdom of Israel, and were now incorporated with the kingdom of Judah: because he thought these would be most zealous for that religion which he was resolved to oppose.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
he reigned in Jerusalem eight years: The regnal figures match 2 Kings 8:17, and Gill refers the reader to that parallel for the whole passage through verse 10. Jehoram came to the throne at thirty-two and died at forty, as verse 20 repeats, so David's line lost a king in middle life.
2 Chronicles 21:5
“Jehoram was thirty two years old,.... Of these verses; see Gill on 2Ki 8:17, 2Ki 8:18, 2Ki 8:19, 2Ki 8:20, 2Ki 8:21, 2Ki 8:22.”
he married a daughter of Ahab: Jehoram “walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done”. The verse gives the cause: “he married a daughter of Ahab”, Athaliah. The marriage came out of Jehoshaphat's alliance with Ahab, and it brought Baal worship into Judah at the top.
2 Chronicles 21:6
“He had the daughter of Ahab to wife - This was Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, who was famous for her impieties and cruelty, as was her most profligate mother. It is likely that she was the principal cause of Jehoram’s cruelty and profaneness.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the LORD was unwilling to destroy: Verse 7 turns the chapter: “the LORD was unwilling to destroy the house of David, because of the covenant He had made with David”. The promise matches the lamp of 1 Kings 11:36 and 15:4. Chronicles carries it from its own account of the covenant at 1 Chronicles 17.
2 Chronicles 21:7
“These things we had before, 2 Kings viii. The tenour of the covenant was that David's seed should be visited for their transgressions, but the covenant should never be broken, Ps. lxxxix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Edom and Libnah revolt, and high places rise in the mountains
2 Chronicles 21:8-10
Edom rebelled against the hand: Edom “rebelled against the hand of Judah and appointed their own king”. Jehoram breaks out by night from the Edomites who had surrounded him, but the province is lost. Verse 10 says Edom has stayed in revolt “to this day”, the writer's words for a break that outlived the reign.
2 Chronicles 21:8
“In his days the Edomites revolted - See on 2Ki 8:21 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
he rose up and attacked by night: Edom had been subject to Judah since David's garrisons. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that under Jehoshaphat it was governed by a deputy, as 1 Kings 22:47 records. The parallel at 2 Kings 8:21 adds that his troops fled home, so the escape saved the king and lost the province.
Likewise, Libnah rebelled against his rule at the same time: Libnah was one of the towns given to the priests at Joshua 21:13, so its revolt came from inside Judah's borders. Henry and Wesley read the reason as a matched exchange: while Jehoram held to God, his subjects held to him. When he cast God off, they cast him off.
caused the people of Jerusalem: Kings describes the idolatry in general terms, as walking in the ways of Ahab's house. Chronicles alone gives the particulars: Jehoram “built high places on the hills of Judah”, and “led Judah astray”. The idolatry was royal policy, laid on a people who had known Jehoshaphat's reform within living memory.
Elijah's letter, a wasting disease, and a death none regretted
2 Chronicles 21:12-13
Jehoram from Elijah the prophet: A letter comes to Jehoram from Elijah the prophet, his only writing in Scripture. Second Kings 2:11 appears to place Elijah's departure before Jehoram's accession. Commentators divide between a letter written earlier and delivered later, a later date for the departure, and leaving the text as it stands.
2 Chronicles 21:12
“There came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet - From 2Ki 2:11, it is evident that Elijah had been translated in the reign of Jehoshaphat, the father of Jehoram. How then could he send a letter to the son?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 21:12
“It is true, we find Elisha attending Jehoshaphat; but that might be, while Elijah was yet on earth: for we read of Jehoram's coming to the crown, before we read of Elijah's translation, 1 Kings xxii, 50. We may suppose, the time of his departure was at hand, so that he could not go in person to Jehoram.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
who were better than you: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown identify the idolatry as the Phoenician worship Ahab's house brought in, the enticement Deuteronomy 13 treats as a capital crime. Gill explains better than you as more devout, more humane and wiser, and Matthew Henry judges any of them fitter for the crown than Jehoram.
2 Chronicles 21:13
“And hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel,.... Worshipping the calves, and even Baal, with other idols, as they did: and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab; meaning spiritual whoredoms or idolatries: and hast also slain thy brethren of thy father's house, which were better than thyself; more religious, more humane, more prudent, and fitter for government.”
2 Chronicles 21:14-15
the LORD is about to strike: Elijah's letter turns from indictment to sentence: a great plague on the people, and on Jehoram himself a disease of the bowels. The two clauses are not separate threats but one unfolding judgment. The chapter will report both fulfilled in order, the household first and the king's own body last.
2 Chronicles 21:14
“Behold, with a great plague will the Lord smite thy people,.... They going into the same idolatry with himself willingly, at least great part of them, and therefore deserved to be smitten, and which would be a punishment to him: and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods; which should be carried captive, as the event shows.”
2 more voices on this verse
2 Chronicles 21:14
“Will the Lord smite - “The Word of the Lord will send a great mortality.” - Targum.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 21:14
“The fulfillment of the threat is given in 2Ch 21:16-17.”
a disease of your bowels: Gill sees a fitting return in the sentence: the king who showed his brothers no mercy is struck in the inward parts. Matthew Henry observes that the sure prospect of ruin in this life often fails to turn a hardened man from his course.
2 Chronicles 21:15
“And thou shalt have great sickness by disease of thy bowels,.... Which was a just retaliation to him, for having no bowels of compassion on his brethren whom he slew: until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day; that continuing day after day, and even year after year, the space of two years, as appears from 2Ch 21:19.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 21:15
“Until thy bowels fall out - This must have been occasioned by a violent inflammation: by the same death perished Antiochus Epiphanes, and Herod Agrippa.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 21:16-17
stirred against Jehoram the spirit: The first half of Elijah's sentence lands. The LORD stirs “the spirit of the Philistines and Arabs who lived near the Cushites”, peoples who had paid tribute to Jehoshaphat. Only Jehoahaz, the youngest, is left, so the line the covenant of verse 7 protects survives by one child.
2 Chronicles 21:16
“Moreover, the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines,.... Which had been depressed in the times of Jehoshaphat, to whom they brought their presents and tribute willingly, 2Ch 17:11. and of the Arabians that were near the Ethiopians; not the Ethiopians of Africa, as the Targum, for the Arabians were not near them, but the Chusaean Arabs or Midianites, see Num 12:1. The Targum is, the Word of the Lord did this.”
not a son was left to him except Jehoahaz, his youngest: Barnes explains that Jehoahaz is the same king called Ahaziah at 22:1. Wesley sees a measure returned, since Jehoram killed all his brothers and now loses all his sons but one. Augustine cites the raid to show that God stirred up the invaders while they acted by their own will.
2 Chronicles 21:17
“Left him - Blood for blood. He had slain all his brethren; they slay all his sons, but one. And he had not escaped, had be not been of the house of David; which must not be extirpated, like that of Ahab: because a blessing was in it; no less a blessing than that of the Messiah.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 21:17
“Jehoahaz - The writer of Chronicles calls him indifferently Jeboahaz and Abaziah, which are equivalent names (2Ki 8:24 note).”
2 Chronicles 21:18-19
an incurable disease of the bowels: The LORD afflicts him with “an incurable disease of the bowels”. After two full years “his intestines came out because of his disease”, the sequence Elijah's letter named at verse 15. His people “did not make a fire in his honor as they had done for his fathers”.
2 Chronicles 21:18
“After all this the Lord smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease. What it was is not agreed upon; some take it be an "hernia", or rupture; others, the falling of the "anus", or a fistula in it; others, the colic, or iliac passion; but generally it is thought to be a dysentery, or bloody flux; the Targum is,"the Word of the Lord broke him.''”
his people did not make a fire in his honor: Clarke records the Targum's reading, a burning of aromatic woods, the honour given at a king's funeral. Matthew Henry notes that the people, though drawn into idolatry themselves, felt no affection for the king who led them there. He applies 1 Samuel 2:30, that those who despise God are disdained.
2 Chronicles 21:19
“After the end of two years, his bowels fell out - The Targum seems to intimate that he had a constipation and inflammation in his bowels; and that at last his bowels gushed out. No burning - “His people made no burning of aromatic woods for him, as they had done for his forefathers.” - Targum. See on 2Ch 16:14 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
He died, to no one’s regret: The chapter closes on the harshest epitaph among the kings of Judah: “He died, to no one’s regret”. The commentators read the phrase as the opposite of the mourning a loved king receives. He was “buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings”.
2 Chronicles 21:20
“Departed without being desired - He was hated while he lived, and neglected when he died; visibly cursed of God, and necessarily execrated by the people whom he had lived only to corrupt and oppress. No annalist is mentioned as having taken the pains to write any account of his vile life. This summary mention of him consigns him to the execration of posterity, and holds in the view of every prudent governor, the rock on which he split and wrecked the state.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 21:20
“Desired - This is an emphatical expression, because it is usual with men to desire the deaths of some persons, whom afterward they lament, and heartily wish they were alive again.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Historical narrative built on a regnal formula, carrying the only surviving writing of Elijah, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The brothers named, then killed | Verse 2 lists six brothers by name and verse 3 says their father gave them silver, gold and fortified cities. Verse 4 says Jehoram killed them all. Albert Barnes reads the gifts of verse 3 as the very thing that made them rivals, so the list is the reason for the killing and the record of it.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 2 Chronicles 21:2. | 2 Chronicles 21:2, 2 Chronicles 21:3, 2 Chronicles 21:4 |
| Thirty-two years old, and eight years reigning | Verse 5 gives the king's age and the length of his reign, and verse 20 gives both again in the same words. Adam Clarke notes that the closing repetition carries the epitaph with it. Everything the chapter reports about Jehoram stands between the two statements.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 2 Chronicles 21:20. | 2 Chronicles 21:5, 2 Chronicles 21:20 |
| The ways of the kings of Israel | The charge stands at verse 6 in the narrator's voice and again at verse 13 in Elijah's letter. Adam Clarke names the mechanism between them, a marriage to a daughter of Ahab that brought her house's worship into Judah at the top. The same phrase carries the indictment twice over.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 2 Chronicles 21:6. | 2 Chronicles 21:6, 2 Chronicles 21:13 |
| The letter from Elijah | Verses 12 to 15 are a letter addressed to the king in the second person, and it is the only piece of writing from Elijah anywhere in Scripture. It names the LORD as the God of David his father and sets Jehoram against his own line. John Wesley notes it moves from indictment to sentence without a pause.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 2 Chronicles 21:12. | 2 Chronicles 21:12, 2 Chronicles 21:13, 2 Chronicles 21:15 |
| Two honours withheld | Verse 19 says his people made no fire in his honour as they had for his fathers. Verse 20 buries him in the City of David, away from the tombs of the kings. Adam Clarke reads the pair as one public verdict stated twice. Matthew Henry compares the fire Asa was given at 16:14.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 2 Chronicles 21:20. | 2 Chronicles 21:19, 2 Chronicles 21:20, 2 Chronicles 16:14 |
The debated concept
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
The first question is the letter's date. Adam Clarke and John Wesley both set out the difficulty and neither closes it. The three readings in the field are an earlier writing delivered after the prophet was taken, a translation later than 2 Kings 2 places it, and the text left as it stands. The estate names the three and states no verdict.
The second is what verse 7 protects. The verse says the LORD was unwilling to destroy the house of David because of the covenant and the lamp. Matthew Henry reads the clause as covering the dynasty rather than the king, since judgment falls on Jehoram in the verses that follow. Keil and Delitzsch read it as the Chronicler's own carrying forward of 1 Chronicles 17.
The third is what Chronicles adds to the account in Kings. Albert Barnes notes that Kings gives the idolatry in general terms, while this chapter names high places built on the hills of Judah and states that the people were compelled. John Gill reads the compulsion as the mark of settled policy.
Where the chapter reaches
The lamp promise of verse 7 is the covenant of 2 Samuel 7 held open at its thinnest point in this book. The dossier's Christ section anchors the promise at this verse and traces the line from here to the genealogy that opens the New Testament.
Abijah had called the same covenant a covenant of salt at 13:5, and Solomon had prayed it back to God at 6:16. The chapter is the first place in this book where the promise is tested by a king who deserved to end it.
The marriage that causes the fault runs forward through the book. Athaliah is the daughter of Ahab named at verse 6, and her son and then she herself hold the throne in the two chapters that follow.
The raid of verses 16 and 17 leaves one son, and the covenant of verse 7 then rests on that one child. The next chapter narrows it further.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of the Chronicles, on 2 Chronicles 21:12; the dossier's Christ section for this book, `src/components/book/dossier-content/2-chronicles.ts`, the Christ section, anchored at 2 Chronicles 21:7 and the guide's ledger for this book, `src/components/book/guides/2-chronicles/Book2ChroniclesGuide.tsx`, the kings ledger, Jehoram at 21:1 to 20.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Augustine of Hippo, ON GRACE AND FREE WILL 21.42; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.