2 Chronicles 21:12

12. There came a writing to him from Elijah Here it appears that Elijah was still on earth in the days of Jehoram, and after the death of Jehoshaphat. Though we might naturally infer the contrary from the order of the narrative in 2 Kings, where Elijah’s ascension is recorded before the reign of Jehoram, yet such an inference is by no means necessary. The writer of Kings wished to group together the miracles of Elisha, and it was natural for him first to record the ascension of that master, Elijah, whose spirit rested so mightily upon his successor. So in his account of Elijah’s departure and of Elisha’s miracles he did not aim for chronological order, but for the grouping of certain assimilated facts. Some expositors, however, think that as Elijah committed the anointing of Hazael and Jehu (compare 1 Kings 19:15-16, with 2 Kings 8:13; 2 Kings 9:1-3, notes) to his servant Elisha, he may also have commissioned Elisha, or some other prophet, to announce, after his ascension, this threatening prophecy to Jehoram; and so, coming from that departed prophet, whose name had been a terror to Ahab, it would be like a voice from the other world calling to the wicked king of Judah. But this hypothesis seems to be entirely unnecessary, for there is no valid evidence that Elijah had yet ascended. His ministry was chiefly in the northern kingdom, and hence this is the only notice we have of him in Chronicles; but it shows that he did not overlook the religious interests of Judah.

The prophet’s epistle charges upon Jehoram two great crimes 1) his compelling Judah into idolatry, and 2) the slaughter of his brethren. And for these crimes he announces a twofold punishment 1) a stroke of Divine judgment upon his people, children, wives, and goods, (2 Chronicles 21:14,) and 2) a dreadful, incurable disease. 2 Chronicles 21:15.