Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 21:18
After all this, the LORD afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The chronicler records the divine judgment against King Jehoram of Judah immediately after the Philistines and Arabians plunder his palace and kill his sons. The narrative shifts from military defeat to physical punishment as the text notes the king's subsequent affliction.
The words — The phrase נְגָפ֨/וֹ (ne.ga.F/o) and לְ/אֵ֥ין (le./'Ein) appear in the clause describing Yahweh striking Jehoram with a sickness to which there is no [remedy or end]. The verb denotes a divine blow or plague, while the negative construction emphasizes the condition's permanence.
The thread — This affliction fulfills the prophetic warning recorded in 2 Chronicles 21:15 and parallels the sudden divine striking seen in Acts 12:23. The narrative links Jehoram's physical decay directly to the covenant consequences outlined in the surrounding chronicles.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine judgment operates through tangible, progressive consequences rather than abstract condemnation. It requires the reader to trace the direct line from covenant failure to bodily ruin without softening the severity of the record.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And after all this the Lord smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 21:15 And day after day you yourself will suffer from a severe illness, a disease of your bowels, until it causes your bowels to come out.’”
- Acts 12:23 Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.
- 2 Kings 9:29 (In the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king over Judah.)