King Jehoram (Israel)

Jehoram (also called Joram), another son of Ahab, reigned twelve years in Samaria. He removed the pillar of Baal his father had made but kept Jeroboam's golden calves. When Mesha of Moab stopped paying his tribute of lambs and wool, Jehoram marched against him with Jehoshaphat of Judah and the king of Edom through the Edomite wilderness. Out of water, the kings turned to Elisha, who called for a musician and foretold that the dry valley would fill with water; at dawn the Moabites saw it glowing red, took it for blood, attacked and were routed. Besieged in Kir-hareseth, Mesha sacrificed his firstborn son on the wall, and the Israelites withdrew (2 Kings 3).

Several Elisha stories in which "the king of Israel" goes unnamed, such as Naaman's cure and Ben-hadad's famine siege of Samaria, are usually placed in his reign. Wounded fighting Hazael of Aram at Ramoth-gilead, he was recovering at Jezreel when Jehu shot him through the heart and threw his body onto Naboth's field (2 Kings 9). On the Aramaic Tel Dan stele, found in 1993–1994, a king of Aram, probably Hazael, claims to have killed "[Jo]ram son of [Ahab], king of Israel."