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Jorah Jorai Joram 1. King of Judah

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Jorah Jorai Joram 1. King of Judah 639 Jorah 640 org.il] ■ Slouschz, N.,” The Sea of Jaffa,” Davar (February have ascended the throne in the seventh year of Jo- 23, 1938) 2. [Available at www.jpress.nil.org.il] [Heb.] ram’s reign, and not the fifth year, as is stated in ■ “What is Troubling the World?” Davar (April 4, 1958) 24. his introduction formula. This three-to-four-year [Available at www.jpress.nil.org.il] [Heb.] discrepancy is usually accounted for by postulating Maoz Azaryahu a co-regency with his father Jehoshaphat, which is perhaps implied in the introduction formula (2 Kgs Jorah 8 : 16). The inability to accurately calculate his co- regency (if such in fact existed) results in disagree- Jorah (MT Yôrâ; LXX Ιωρα) is the head of a family ments in the dating of his reign, e.g., (852) 847– mentioned in Ezra 2 : 18 who brought one hundred 845 BCE (Begrich), (853) 848–841 BCE (Thiele) and and twelve people from Babylon to Jerusalem and 850–843 BCE (Andersen). Judah. In the parallel list in Neh 7 : 24 the name is 2. Geo-political Setting for Jehoram’s Reign. Jo- replaced by Hariph. Bergdall argues that since Jorah ram reigned over Judah in the mid-9th century means “autumn rain” and Hariph refers to “au- BCE, a formative period of the Judahite monarchy tumn,” these names should be regarded as “two during which its territory expanded from the Juda- forms of the same family name.” The name “Ha- hite hill country to the Shephelah in the west and riph” is later used again in Neh 10 : 20, when the the Beer-sheba and Arad valleys in the south (Naa- covenant of the reform was sealed. man 2013; Sergi 2013). Since the days of Joram’s Bibliography: ■ Bergdall, C. R., “Jorah,” ABD 3 (New York father, Jehoshaphat, the Davidic kings of Judah 1992) 949. were allied with the powerful Omride kings of Is- Esias Meyer rael. The Omride-Davidic alliance was sealed with See also /Hariph the marriage of Jehoram and Athaliah, an Omride princess, likely the daughter of King Omri (2 Kgs 8 : 26). Diplomatic marriages were common in ANE Jorai diplomacy, and were intended to strengthen loyalty Jorai (MT Yôray; LXX Ιωρεε) is a Gaddite and one of between kings and royal dynasties. Thus, powerful seven “clans” mentioned in 1 Chr 5 : 13. These kings in the ANE sent their daughters to the royal seven are listed as the sons of Abihail. According to courts of their vassals (or to kings inferior to them- 1 Chr 5 : 11 the sons of Gad lived next to the Reu- selves) with the expectation that they would take benites. The information in 1 Chr 5 does not corre- the position of “chief wife” and bear the royal heir. late with other lists of Gaddites found in Gen Considering the superior political and territorial 46 : 16 and Num 26 : 15–18 (Jonker: 60). status of the Omride Dynasty in the mid-9th cen- tury BCE, it seems that this was also the reason be- Bibliography: ■ Jonker, L. C., 1 & 2 Chronicles (NCB; Grand hind the marriage of Jehoram and Athaliah. Clearly Rapids, Mich. 2013). Athaliah had won the status of a chief wife in the Esias Meyer Davidic court, as her son, Ahaziah, inherited the Ju- dahite throne following the death of his father Joram (2 Kgs 8 : 26). The presence of an Omride princess in the Jerusalem court, and the fact that Ahaziah was a descendant of both the Omrides and the Davidides, 1. King of Judah allowed for the establishment of Omride hegemony Joram/Jehoram (MT Yôrām/Yĕhôrām; LXX Ιωραμ) in Judah. Omride hegemony is also reflected in the was king of Judah (r. ca. 850–843 BCE), son and fact that both the historical narrative in the book of successor of Jehoshaphat and contemporary of Jo- Kings (e.g., 1 Kgs 22 : 1–38, 45; 2 Kgs 3 : 4–27; ram and perhaps also Ahaziah, both kings of Israel. 8 : 28–29) and the Tel Dan Stele (lines 7–9) indicate According to the Deuteronomistic introduction for- that the kings of Judah addressed Omride military mula referring to his reign (2 Kgs 8 : 16–17), which needs even when this endangered their own lives. is probably based on an older source (i.e., a king 3. Joram King of Judah in the Book of Kings list), he was thirty-two years old when he took the and in History. The book of Kings is the only throne and he ruled Judah for eight years. source that mentions the reign of Joram in Judah. 1. Chronology. The synchronism given in the in- Except for the theological evaluation of his cultic troduction formula for Jehoram’s reign states that activities (2 Kgs 8 : 18–19) the short summary of his he ascended the throne in the fifth year of the reign reign (2 Kgs 8 : 16–24) only includes information re- of Joram, king of Israel (2 Kgs 8 : 16). According to garding his marriage to Athaliah (2 Kgs 8 : 18) and the synchronism given in 2 Kgs 3 : 1 Joram of Israel a report regarding his military/diplomatic efforts ascended the throne in the eighteenth year of the south and west of Judah (2 Kgs 8 : 21–22). This re- reign of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. If so, and con- port is “chronistic” in nature – that is, it is short, sidering the fact that Jehoshaphat ruled over Judah factual and contains no theological message, and for 25 years (1 Kgs 22 : 42), Joram of Judah should thus seems to have been taken from an older chron- Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 14 Authenticated | [email protected] © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2017 Download Date | 1/1/19 11:07 PM 641 Joram 642 icle detailing the deeds of the kings of Judah. contrast with the dynasties of Israel – the House of 2 Kings 8 : 20, 22a report an Edomite revolt against David survived and maintained its rule over Judah Judah, while v. 21 tells of an unsuccessful military even when its kings had sinned (Sergi 2014). The campaign that Jehoram led against the Edomites. meaning of the word nîr is disputed. It was tradi- From this it seems that before Joram’s southern tionally understood as a “lamp” (e.g., Cogan/Tad- campaign, Judah had some sort of hegemony over mor: 95), but the ancient translations of the Bible the inhabitants of the southern desert fringe who at do not always support this interpretation (Mont- some point rebelled (cf. 2 Sam 8 : 14; 1 Kgs 22 : 48). gomery: 247). Relying on Akkadian (Hanson) or However, throughout the 10th–early 9th centuries Egyptian (Görg) it was interpreted as a “yoke” or a BCE a desert polity related to copper production in “royal dominion.” These interpretations are, how- the Aravah, thrived thanks to an Egyptian presence ever, inconsistent with other instances of nîr in the (Martin/Finkelstein). It is unlikely that Judah HB, in which the term refers to cultivated land or would have been able to control the thriving desert a field (Hos 10 : 12, Jer 4 : 3, Prov 13 : 23). In light polity to its south. According to 2 Kgs 8 : 21 Joram’s of this, the most plausible suggestion is that the southern campaign failed (Montgomery: 395; meaning of nîr in the Book of Kings is land or a Würthwein: 322; Miller/Hayes: 322). The first victo- field granted to the House of David as a royal estate ries over the Edomites south of Judah are recorded (domain), thus symbolizing its rule over Judah only in the days of Amaziah (2 Kgs 14 : 7) during (Ben-Zvi). the early 8th century BCE. This information puts 5. Joram in Chronicles (2 Chr 21). The author of Joram’s southern campaign in context: it was the 1 Chr 21 takes up – albeit not word for word – the first in an ongoing effort by the Judahite kings to summary of Joram’s reign from the book of Kings push the desert dwellers south, and probably to es- (2 Kgs 8 : 16–22; 2 Chr 21 : 5–10b). He also reinfor- tablish Judahite hegemony in the region. Within ces the Deuteronomistic negative evaluation of Je- the account of the Edomite revolt there is a short horam by ascribing to him additional crimes that note on a similar conflict west of Judah, in the She- are not mentioned in Kings. First, he accuses Joram phelah (2 Kgs 8 : 22b): “Then Libnah revolted at the of having his brothers, to whom their father, Je- same time.” Libnah has been identified as Tel hoshaphat, granted riches and fortified cities, slain Burna (Uziel/Shai: 242, with further literature), lo- (2 Chr 21 : 2–4). He then goes on to argue that the cated about 8 km south-southeast of Gath. Taking unsuccessful military campaigns to Edom and Lib- the account at face value, it can be concluded that nah (recounted in 2 Kgs 8 : 21–22) were the result of Libnah, a town loyal to Jehoram, successfully re- his cultic misdeeds (2 Chr 21 : 10–11). Furthermore, belled and Joram did not regain his authority over the Chronicler cites a legendary letter by Elijah it. Given that Gath, the largest city in the western (2 Chr 21 : 12–15) in which the prophet portends Shephelah, must have controlled some of the rural that Joram will face divine punishment for his territory in its vicinity Libnah could have marked crimes against YHWH, against his brothers and the westernmost point of Judahite expansion, against his people.
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