8:18 And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab: for the {l} daughter of Ahab was his wife: and he did evil in the sight of the LORD.
(l) The Holy Spirit shows by this the danger of joining with infidels.
8:18 He walked - After his father's death. The daughter - Athaliah. This unequal marriage, though Jehoshaphat possibly designed it as a means of uniting the two kingdoms under one head, is here and elsewhere noted, as the cause both of the great wickedness of his posterity, and of those sore calamities which befel them. No good could be reasonably expected from such an union. Those that are ill matched are already half - ruined.
8:16-24 A general idea is given of Jehoram's badness. His father, no doubt, had him taught the true knowledge of the Lord, but did ill to marry him to the daughter of Ahab; no good could come of union with an idolatrous family.