* The date of the death of Jehoshaphat may be fixed as 849 or 848 B.C.  The biblical documents give us for the period of the history of Judah following on the death of Ahab:  First, eight years of Jehoshaphat, from the 17th year of his reign (1 Kings xxii. 51) to his 25th (and last) year (1 Kings xxii. 42); secondly, eight years of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat (2 Kings viii. 17); thirdly, one year of Ahaziah, son of Jehoram (2 Kings viii. 26)—­in all 17 years, which must be reduced and condensed into the period between 853 B.C., the probable date of the battle of Ramoth, and 843, the equally probable date of the accession of Jehu.  The reigns of the two Ahaziahs are too short to be further abridged; we must therefore place the campaign against Moab at the earliest in 850, during the months which followed the accession of Joram of Israel, and lengthen Johoshaphat’s reign from 850 to 849.  There will then be room between 849 and 844 for five years (instead of eight) for the reign of Jehoram of Judah.

The defection of the old Canaanite city of Libnah followed quickly on this reverse,* and Jehoram was powerless to avenge himself on it, the Philistines and the Bedawin having threatened the western part of his territory and raided the country.** In the midst of these calamities Judah had no leisure to take further measures against Mesha, and Israel itself had suffered too severe a blow to attempt retaliation.  The advanced age of Ben-hadad, and the unsatisfactory result of the campaigns against Shalmaneser, had furnished Joram with an occasion for a rupture with Damascus.  War dragged on for some time apparently, till the tide of fortune turned against Joram, and, like his father Ahab in similar circumstances, he shut himself within Samaria, where the false alarm of an Egyptian or Hittite invasion produced a panic in the Syrian camp, and restored the fortunes of the Israelitish king.***

     * 2 Kings viii. 20-22; cf. 2 Ghron. xxi. 8-10.

** This war is mentioned only in 2 Ghron. xxi. 16, 17, where it is represented as a chastisement from Jahveh; the Philistines and “the Arabs which are beside the Ethiopians” (Kush) seem to have taken Jerusalem, pillaged the palace, and carried away the wives and children of the king into captivity, “so that there was never a son left him, save Jehoahaz (Ahaziah), the youngest of his sons.”

*** Kuenen has proposed to take the whole account of the reign of Joram, son of Ahab, and transfer it to that of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, and this theory has been approved by several recent critics and historians.  On the other hand, some have desired to connect it with the account of the siege of Samaria in Ahab’s reign.  I fail to see any reasonable argument which can be brought against the authenticity of the main fact, whatever opinion may be held with regard to the details of the biblical narrative.

Ben-hadad did not long survive the reverse he had