2 Chronicles 21:4

JEHORAM'S VICIOUS MURDER OF ALL HIS BROTHERS

"Now when Jehoram was risen up over the kingdom of his father, and had strengthened himself, he slew all his brethren with the sword, and divers also of the princes of Israel. Jehoram was thirty and two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab; for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife: and he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah. Howbeit Jehovah would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and as he promised to give a lamp to him and to his children alway."

"Jehovah would not destroy the house of David" (2 Chronicles 21:7). The very mention of such a thing in this paragraph is a mark of the diabolical threat that existed at this moment in the history of the Chosen People. In these events, Satan was moving swiftly and methodically toward that very goal: the total destruction of the house of David. And when Jehoram's evil mother Athaliah was finally able to seize power for herself, she all but accomplished it.

We cannot leave this without mentioning the disaster that always results from contracting a marriage with an evil partner. Jehoshaphat is credited with being a good king; but he was incredibly stupid in arranging a marriage for his first-born son and presumptive heir to the throne of Judah with the wicked Jezebel II, whose name was Athaliah.