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CHAPTER 7 : JEHOSHAPHAT, (FOURTH) KING OF JUDAH,
AHAZIAH AND JEHORAM) JORAM, (NINTH AND TENTH)
KINGS OF ISRAEL. - The Joint Maritime Expedition to Ophir -
Ahaziah's Reign and Illness - The proposed Inquiry of Baal-
zebub - The Divine Message by Elijah - Attempts to Capture the
Prophet, and their Result - Elijah appears before the King -
Death of Ahaziah - Accession of Joram - The Ascent of Elijah -
Elisha takes up his Mantle. (1 Kings 22:48-2 Kings 2:14; 2
Chronicles 20:35-27).
JEHOSHAPHAT saw two sons of Ahab ascend the throne of Israel. Of these
Ahaziah immediately succeeded Ahab. Of his brief reign, which lasted two years,
only two events are known: the first connected probably with the beginning, the
second with the close of it. We judge that the attempted maritime expedition in
conjunction with Jehoshaphat took place at the beginning of Ahaziah's reign - first,
because the fitting out and the destruction of that fleet, and then the proposal for
another expedition must have occupied two summers, during which alone such
undertakings could be attempted; secondly, because it seems unlikely that
Jehoshaphat would have entered into any alliance with an Ahaziah, except at the
beginning of his reign. There was that connected with the death of Ahab which might
readily influence a weak character like Jehoshaphat to think with hopefulness of the
son of his old ally, since his accession had been marked by such striking judgments.
Even the circumstance that Jezebel no longer reigned might seem promising of good.
And, in this respect, it is significant that, with the death of Ahab, the ministry of
Elijah passed into a more public stage, and was followed by the even more prominent
activity of Elisha.
We remember the notice (1 Kings 22:47) that "there was then no king in Edom."
However we may account for this state of matters, it was favorable for the
resumption of that maritime trade which had brought such wealth to Israel in the
reign of King Solomon (1 Kings 9:26-28). And there were not a few things in the
time of Jehoshaphat that might recall to a Judaean the early part of Solomon's reign.
Perhaps such thoughts also contributed to the idea of a joint expedition on the part of
Judah and Israel. But it was a mode of re-union as crude and ill-conceived as that
which had led to the alliance by marriage between the two dynasties, the state visit of
Jehoshaphat to Ahab, and its political outcome in the expedition against Ramoth-
Gilead. The story is briefly told in the book of Kings (1 Kings 22:48, 49), and one
part of it more circumstantially in the Second Book of Chronicles (20:35-37). In the
Book of Kings two expeditions are spoken of - the one actually undertaken, the other
only proposed. Accordingly, only the first of these is recorded in Chronicles. It
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