IORAM
**IORAM** – King of Israel (853–842 BC), son of Ahab, succeeded his brother Ochozia, who died after a few months on the throne, and was the last king of the dynasty of Amri (Omri). Religiously, he followed the path marked by Jeroboam I (v.), but unlike his father Ahab, who had openly opposed the worship of Yahweh and allowed idolatry to flourish, Joram partially restored Yahwism by destroying the standing stone (maṣṣēbāh) of Baal that his father had erected (2 Kings 3:2–3, cf. 1 Kings 16:32), a success to be attributed to the action of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. He maintained good relations with Jehoshaphat (v.), king of Judah, and had him at his side in the campaign against Mesha, king of the Moabites, which is the most notable event of his reign.
Besides the detailed biblical account (2 Kings 3:4–27), a confirmation of this campaign is found in the famous Moabite Stone, discovered at Dibon in 1868 and preserved in the Louvre Museum in Paris (for the text cf. H. Gressmann, *Altorient. Texte*, Leipzig 1926, pp. 440 ff.; M.-J. Lagrange, in *Rev. bibl.*, 10 [1901], pp. 523–24). The Moabites had been subjected by King Omri (886–875 BC), who occupied the region of Medeba and imposed tribute (Stele, lines 5–8). Control over Moab was strengthened under King Ahab; and although already in the latter years of Ahab’s reign the Moabites had attempted to shake off the yoke, the revolt became open (according to the clear notice in 1 Kings 1:1; 3:5) only after Ahab’s death, during the brief reign of Ochozia. Joram, who succeeded his brother after a few months, found himself facing it as soon as he ascended the throne. He therefore marched together with the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom, still subject to Judah, to attack the Moabites from the south. The long and exhausting march through the desert nearly ended in disaster for lack of water; but, at the command of the prophet Elisha, some pits were dug and miraculously filled with water, allowing the army to proceed. The three allies successfully withstood an initial attack by the Moabites and penetrated deep into enemy territory, even besieging the capital Qir-Hareseth (modern Keral) or “city of the pottery” (Vulg.: *muri fictiles*). The siege was rigorous: King Mesha made desperate attempts to break it; failing to force a way through, he sought to propitiate the god Chemosh by sacrificing his own firstborn son and heir upon the city wall. After this deed “a great wrath came upon Israel, and they departed from him and returned to their own land” (2 Kings 3:27). From these words it is inferred that the enterprise, begun successfully, ended in failure for the Israelites. Not that Yahweh punished Israel because of the cruel sacrifice offered by Mesha to his idol, still less that the “wrath” was provoked by the idol invoked. They were defeated by the Moabites, to whom the sight of the terrible sacrifice had infused the courage of desperation (G. Ricciotti, [V. BIBLICA.], 1, p. 408). The success is magnified by King Mesha in his inscription, where, however, the unpleasant part is passed over in silence, which is supplied by 2 Kings 3:18–25.
To the years of Joram is to be attributed much of the prophetic activity of Elisha (2 Kings 2–9). Under the same king occurred the terrible siege of Samaria by the Syrians under Ben-hadad II: the famine was frightful and gave rise to horrifying scenes (cf. 2 Kings 6:24–33). But one night, suddenly, just as Elisha had predicted, the Syrians lifted the siege and fled. In general, relations with the Aramean kings were marked by alternating friendships and hostilities. When Hazael usurped the throne of Damascus and killed Ben-hadad, Joram attempted to retake the city of Ramoth-gilead; but in the course of operations he was wounded and withdrew to Jezreel to be healed (2 Kings 9:14 ff.). There, IEHU (v.), he was killed (2 Kings 9:21). The dynasty of Omri had ruled in Israel for about forty-five years (886–842).
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IORAM
**IORAM** – King of Judah (849–842 BC). Son of Jehoshaphat (v.), he inherited the throne from his father, but possessed none of his virtues. His marriage to Athaliah, daughter of King Ahab of Samaria and the Phoenician Jezebel (v.), had disastrous consequences for the kingdom of Judah. From the very beginning of his reign, Joram slaughtered his other brothers and even some of the leading men of the land. The motive for this ruthless repression (a prelude to the even more cruel measures later taken by his wife Athaliah, cf. 2 Kings 11) is probably to be sought in some latent opposition to the new political-religious direction of the king, who, departing from his father’s path and following instead the example of the kings of Israel, began to suppress the religion of Yahweh and favor idolatrous cults (2 Chron. 21:6, 11).
During his reign the Edomites, who had been subjected by King David (cf. 2 Sam. 13–14), rebelled against the sovereignty of Judah, doubtless encouraged by the example of the Moabites, who shortly before had revolted against their namesake king of Israel, Joram (v.). In the unfortunate attempt to suppress the revolt, Joram barely escaped being trapped by the enemy; from that time on the Edomites permanently gained autonomy with their own king (2 Kings 8:20–22). The Philistines and Arab tribes, who had submitted to Jehoshaphat, also rebelled against Joram and plundered the land; indeed, they advanced as far as Jerusalem, sacked the palace, and carried off members of the royal family (2 Chron. 21:16 ff.). It was a true catastrophe, a just punishment from heaven for the degenerate king of Judah. Joram died at the age of forty, after a long and loathsome illness foretold by the prophet Elijah (v.), and was not even honored with burial in the royal tombs (2 Chron. 21:12–20).