2 Rois 9

Jehu is anointed king

¹Elisha the prophet called one of the company of prophets and said to him, “Tuck your robe into your belt, take this flask of oil with you, and go to Ramoth-gilead. ²When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi. Go in, have him get up from among his fellow officers, and take him into an inner room. ³Then pour the flask of oil over his head and say, ‘The LORD says this: I anoint you king over Israel.’ After that, open the door and run; do not wait.” ⁴So the young man, the prophet’s servant, went to Ramoth-gilead.^{a 5}When he arrived, the commanders of the army were sitting together. He said, “I have a message for you, commander.” Jehu asked, “For which one of us?” He answered, “For you, commander.” ⁶Jehu got up and went into the house. The young man poured the oil on his head and said to him, “The LORD, the God of Israel, says this: I anoint you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel. ⁷You are to strike down the house of your master Ahab, and so I will avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants the prophets, and of all who serve the LORD. ⁸The whole house of Ahab will perish. From Ahab I will cut off every male in Israel, whether bond or free.^{b 9}I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. ¹⁰As for Jezebel, the dogs will eat her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.” Then he opened the door and ran. ¹¹When Jehu came out to his master’s officers, one of them asked him, “Is all well? Why did this madman come to you?” He told them, “You know the man and the way he talks.” ¹²But they said, “That is not true! Tell us.” So he said, “This is what he told me: ‘The LORD says this: I anoint you king over Israel.’” ¹³At once each man took off his cloak and spread it under Jehu on the bare steps. They blew the ram’s horn and shouted, “Jehu is king!”^{c 14}So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi plotted against Joram. Joram and all Israel had been holding Ramoth-gilead against Hazael king of Aram, ¹⁵but King Jehoram had gone back to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had given him when he fought Hazael king of Aram. Jehu said, “If you are with me, do not let anyone slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel.” ¹⁶Then Jehu got into his chariot and set out for Jezreel, because Joram was lying ill there, and Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to visit Joram. ¹⁷The watchman standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu’s troop coming, and he said, “I see a troop of men.” Jehoram said, “Get a horseman and send him to meet them, and have him ask, ‘Is it peace?’” ¹⁸So the horseman went to meet Jehu and said, “The king says this: ‘Is it peace?’” Jehu said, “What business of yours is peace? Fall in behind me.” The watchman reported, “The messenger has reached them, but he is not coming back.” ¹⁹Then Joram sent a second horseman. He came to them and said, “The king says this: ‘Is it peace?’” Jehu said, “What business of yours is peace? Fall in behind me.” ²⁰The watchman reported again, “He reached them, but he is not coming back either. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu son of Nimshi, for he drives like a madman.” ²¹Jehoram said, “Hitch up my chariot!” When his chariot was ready, Jehoram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah rode out, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu, and they met him on the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. ²²When Jehoram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” Jehu answered, “How can there be peace, as long as the prostitutions and the many sorceries of your mother Jezebel go on?” ²³Jehoram turned his chariot around and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, “Treachery, Ahaziah!” ²⁴Jehu drew his bow with all his strength and shot Jehoram between the shoulders. The arrow went through his heart, and he slumped down in his chariot. ²⁵Jehu said to his officer Bidkar, “Pick him up and throw him on the plot of ground that was Naboth the Jezreelite’s field. Remember how you and I were riding side by side behind his father Ahab, when the LORD spoke this oracle against him: ²⁶‘I surely saw the blood of Naboth and of his sons yesterday, declares the LORD, and I will repay you on this plot of ground, declares the LORD.’ So now pick him up and throw him on that plot of ground, as the LORD said.” ²⁷When Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled along the road to Beth-haggan. Jehu chased him and said, “Shoot him too!” They shot him in his chariot on the way up to Gur, near Ibleam, but he escaped to Megiddo and died there.^{d 28}His officials took him to Jerusalem in a chariot and buried him with his ancestors in his tomb in the City of David.

The death of Jezebel

²⁹Ahaziah had become king over Judah in the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab.^{e 30}Then Jehu came to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard of it, she painted her eyes, arranged her hair and looked down from the window. ³¹As Jehu came in through the gate, she said, “Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?” ³²Jehu looked up at the window. “Who is on my side?” he called. “Who?” Two or three officials looked down at him.^{f 33}“Throw her down!” he said. They threw her down, and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and Jehu drove over her. ³⁴Then Jehu went in and ate and drank. He said, “See to this cursed woman and bury her, for she was a king’s daughter.” ³⁵But when they went to bury her, they found nothing of her except her skull, her feet and the palms of her hands. ³⁶They went back and told Jehu, and he said, “This is the word of the LORD that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: ‘The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel on the plot of ground at Jezreel, ³⁷and the corpse of Jezebel will be like dung on the surface of the field in the plot of ground at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, “This is Jezebel.”’”