Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years.
Jehoram ... in ... the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat - (cf. 1 Kings 22:51.) To reconcile the statements in the two passages, we must suppose that Ahaziah, having reigned during the 17th year and greater part of the 18th year of Jehoshaphat, was succeeded by his brother Joram or Jehoram, in the end of that 18th year, or else that Ahaziah, having reigned two years in conjunction with his father (see the notes at 2 Kings 1:17), died at the end of that period, when Jehoram ascended the throne. His policy was as hostile as that of his predecessors, to the true religion; but he made some changes. Whatever was his motive for this alteration-whether dread of the many alarming judgments the patronage of idolatry had brought upon his father, or whether it was made as a small concession to the feelings of Jehoshaphat, his ally-he abolished idolatry in its gross form, and restored the symbolic worship of God, which the kings of Israel, from the time of Jeroboam, had set up as a partition wall between their subjects and those of Judah.