MPV Commentary

Jehoram's Evil Reign over Israel.

Jehoram, son of Ahab, began his reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat (compare 1 Kings 22:51). To reconcile the statements in both passages, we must assume that Ahaziah reigned during the seventeenth and most of the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat. He was then succeeded by his brother Joram or Jehoram at the end of that eighteenth year, or possibly Ahaziah died after reigning two years alongside his father, allowing Jehoram to ascend the throne.

Jehoram's policy was as hostile to true religion as those of his predecessors. However, he made some changes. His motivation for this alteration is unclear – whether it was fear of the judgments that idolatry had brought upon his father or a concession to Jehoshaphat, his ally. He abolished gross forms of idolatry and restored symbolic worship of God, which the kings of Israel had established since Jeroboam's time as a dividing line between their subjects and those of Judah.

Mesha, King of Moab, Rebels.

As king of Moab, Mesha controlled an extensive pasture country. He paid annual tribute in the form of wool from 100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams. This practice is still common in the East today, where taxes are often paid in natural produce.

Mesha rebelled against Israel (compare 2 Kings 1:1). This rebellion had gone unchecked during Ahaziah's short reign, and Jehoram now sought to crush it with a confederate expedition.