2 Chronicles 21:11

THAT WRITING FROM ELIJAH REGARDING JEHORAM

"Moreover he made high places in the montains of Judah, and made the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot, and led Judah astray. And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but hast walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot, like as the house of Ahab did, and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father's house, who were better than thyself: behold, Jehovah will smite with a great plague thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy substance; and thou shalt have great sickness by disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of thy sickness, day by day."

Some scholars have argued that Elijah was already deceased at the times of Jehoram and that he could not have written the letter mentioned here; but this criticism is groundless for two reasons: (1) Elijah might indeed still have been living, a rather attractive argument for this having been cited by Myers.[4] That Elijah did indeed write this `document' and that it was sent during Elijah's lifetime was flatly declared by Josephus.[5] William Whiston, who translated the works of Josephus, however, insisted that Elijah had died four years previously to the times indicated here, and that the simplest explanation is that some copier inadvertently substituted the name Elijah for that of Elisha.[6] (2) The passage does not indicate that the "document"[7] (as the word is translated by Myers) was written during Elijah's lifetime. Furthermore, the Chronicler gives five other examples of prophets predicting disaster to kings before the event (2 Chronicles 12:5; 16:7; 19:2; 24:20; and 26:16).[8] In this light, we find no difficulty whatever in what is written here.