2 Kings 9

1Then Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, “Gird up your loins, take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead.”

2When you arrive there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Go in, get him up from among his brothers, and bring him into an inner room.

3Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head, and say, ‘Thus says Yahweh: I have anointed you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee; do not wait.

4So the young man, the young prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead.

5So he came, and behold, the commanders of the army were sitting. And he said, “I have a word for you, commander.” And Jehu said, “For which one of us?” And he said, “For you, commander.”

6So he got up and went into the house, and he poured the oil on his head and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: I have anointed you king over the people of Yahweh, over Israel.”

7And you shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the servants of Yahweh from the hand of Jezebel.

8And all the house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond and free in Israel.

9And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah.

10And the dogs will eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and there will be no one to bury her.” Then he opened the door and fled.

11Then Jehu went out to the servants of his master, and one said to him, “Is everything well? Why did this madman come to you?” And he said to them, “You know the man and his talk.”

12And they said, “That is a lie. Please tell us.” So he said, “Thus and thus he said to me, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh: I have anointed you king over Israel.’”

13Then they hurried, and each man took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the horn and said, “Jehu is king!”

14So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. Now Joram had been keeping watch at Ramoth-gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Aram.

15King Jehoram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. Jehu said, “If this is your wish, let no one escape from the city to go and report it in Jezreel.”

16So Jehu mounted up and went to Jezreel, because Joram was lying there, and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to see Joram.

17The watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he saw the company of Jehu as he came and said, “I see a company.” And Jehoram said, “Take a horseman and send him to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’”

18So the horseman went to meet him and said, “Thus says the king: Is it peace?” But Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace? Turn behind me.” And the watchman reported, saying, “The messenger reached them, but he has not returned.”

19So he sent a second horseman, and he came to them and said, “Thus says the king: Is it peace?” But Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace? Turn behind me.”

20And the watchman reported, saying, “He came up to them, but he has not returned; and the driving is like the driving of Jehu son of Nimshi, for he drives madly.”

21Then Jehoram said, “Harness!” and they harnessed his chariot. Then Jehoram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, to meet Jehu, and they found him in the plot of land of Naboth the Jezreelite.

22And it happened, when Jehoram saw Jehu, that he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” And he said, “What peace can there be, so long as the prostitutions of Jezebel your mother and her many sorceries continue?”

23Then Jehoram turned his hands and fled, and said to Ahaziah, “Treachery, Ahaziah!”

24And Jehu drew his bow full and struck Jehoram between his arms, and the arrow came out through his heart, and he collapsed in his chariot.

25Then he said to Bidkar his officer, “Lift him up and throw him onto the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, for remember: you and I were riding side by side behind Ahab his father when Yahweh laid this pronouncement against him.”

26‘Surely I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and I will repay you on this plot of land,’ declares Yahweh. ‘So now, lift him up and throw him on the plot, according to the word of Yahweh.’

27When Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of Beth-haggan. And Jehu pursued him and said, “Strike him too, in the chariot!” So they struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. But he fled to Megiddo and died there.

28His servants carried him to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David.

29In the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah became king over Judah.

30When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. She painted her eyes with kohl, adorned her head, and looked out through the window.

31As Jehu came into the gate, she said, “Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of his master?”

32He lifted up his face toward the window and said, “Who is with me? Who?” Then two or three eunuchs looked down at him.

33And he said, “Throw her down!” So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her.

34Then he went in and ate and drank, and he said, “Please see to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter.”

35So they went to bury her, but they found nothing of her except the skull, the feet, and the palms of the hands.

36So they returned and told him, and he said, “It is the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by the hand of his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘In the territory of Jezreel the dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel.’”

37And Jezebel’s corpse will be like dung on the face of the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that they will not say, “This is Jezebel.”