CHAPTER IV.

_The disease of king Jehoram._

Of king Jehoram it is related, that, "for his wicked life, the Lord smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease, so that he voided his intestines daily for the space of two years, and then died of the violence of the[70] distemper." Two impious kings are recorded to have had the same end, Antiochus Epiphanes, and Agrippa; of whom it was said: [Greek: Eis ti ta splanchna tois ou splanchnizomenois].[71]

[70] _Chronicles, Book ii. Chap. xxi. Verse 18._

[71] _See the Notes of Grotius on this Place._

Of what avail are bowels to those who have no bowels?

Now this distemper seems to me to be no other than a severe dysentery. For in this the intestines are ulcerated, and blood flows from the eroded vessels, together with some excrement, which is always liquid, and slimy matter; and sometimes also some fleshy strings come away, so that the very intestines may seem to be ejected.