Bible Strands
2 Kings 8:18
And Jehoram walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done. For he married a daughter of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Jehoram’s accession at age thirty-two and his eight-year reign in Jerusalem, placing his actions between the factual note of his age and the theological note of God’s restraint for David’s sake.
The words — וַ/יֵּ֜לֶךְ (va/i.Ye.lekh) means “and he walked,” and בֵּ֣ית (beit) means “[the] house of,” establishing his reign as a direct continuation of a specific dynastic pattern.
The thread — The text connects his marriage to a daughter of Ahab with the intermarriage prohibition in Deuteronomy 7:3, mirrors the mention of daughters in Genesis 6:1, and aligns with the reign chronology in 2 Kings 8:26.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to observe how royal marriage alliances produce immediate spiritual conformity to hostile kingdoms, while noting that divine covenant faithfulness operates independently of human obedience.
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 he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife: and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 8:26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.
- Genesis 6:1 Now when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them,
- Deuteronomy 7:3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
- 1 Kings 11:1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.
- 1 Kings 21:25 (Surely there was never one like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the LORD, incited by his wife Jezebel.
- 1 Kings 22:52 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the ways of his father and mother and of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin.
- 2 Kings 3:2 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as his father and mother had done. He removed the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made.
- 2 Kings 9:7 And you are to strike down the house of your master Ahab, so that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets and the blood of all the servants of the LORD shed by the hand of Jezebel.
- 2 Kings 21:3 For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, and he raised up altars for Baal. He made an Asherah pole, as King Ahab of Israel had done, and he worshiped and served all the host of heaven.
- 2 Kings 21:13 I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab, and I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes out a bowl—wiping it and turning it upside down.