TEHORADI (je-ho'ram), (Heb. yeh-ho .-awin', exalted by Jehovah), contracted form JoRAm (:71.,yo-rtzwol).
The eldest son and successor of Jehoshaphat, and fifth king of Judah, who began to reign (separately) B. C. 853, at the age of thirty.-five years, and reigned twelve years (2 Kings 1:17; ii::1). He was associated with his father in the later years of his life, but he profited littIe by this association.
(1) Marriage and Idolatry. He had unhap pily been married to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel ; and her influence seems to have neutralized all the good Ile might have de rived from the example of his father. One of the first acts of his reign was to put his brothers to death and seize the valuable appanages which their father had in his lifetime bestowed upon them. After this we are not surprised to find him giving way to the gross idolatries of that new and strange kind—the Pheenician—which had been brought into Israel by Jezebel, and into Judah by her daughter Athaliah (2 Kings viii :18, to). A prophetic writing from the aged prophet Elijah produced no good effect upon him (2 Chron. xxi: 12-15). For these atrocities the Lord let forth his anger against Jehoram and his kingdom.
(2) Wars. The Edomites revolted, and, accord ing to old prophecies (Gen. xxvii:40), shook off the yoke of Judah. The Philistines on one side, and the Arabians and Cushites on the other, also grew bold against a king forsaken of God, and in repeated invasions spoiled the land of all its substance; they even ravaged the royal pal aces; and took away the wives and children of the king, leaving him only one son, Ahaziah (2 Chron. xxii :I).
(3) Sickness and Death. Jehoram was in his last days afflicted with a frightful disease in his bowels, which, from the terms employed in describ ing it, appears to have been malignant dysentery in its most shocking and tormenting form. After a disgraceful reign, and a most painful death, public opinion inflicted the posthumous dishonor of refusing him a place in the sepulcher of the kings.
(4) Character. Jehoram was by far the most impious and cruel tyrant that had as yet occu pied the throne of Judah, though he was rivaled or surpassed by some of his successors (2 Kings V111:16-24 ; 2 Chron. xxi :4). (See JoRAm.)