2 Kings 9

¹Now Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, "Gird your loins and 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 and set him apart from among his brothers and bring him into an inner chamber within the chamber.

³Take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, 'Thus says the LORD: I have anointed you king over Israel.' Then open the door and flee; do not linger.

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

⁵When he arrived, look, the officers of the army were sitting. He said, "I have a word for you, O commander." And Jehu said, "For which of us all?" And he said, "For you, O commander."

⁶Then Jehu arose and went into the house, and he poured the oil on his head and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I anoint you king over the people of the LORD, 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 the Lord from the hand of Jezebel.

⁸For all the house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, both the confined and the 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 as for Jezebel, the dogs shall eat her in the plot of ground of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her." Then he opened the door and fled.

¹¹And Jehu went out to the servants of his master, and one said to him, 'Is there peace? Why did this madman come to you?' And he said to them, 'You know the man and his talk.'

¹²And he said, It is nothing; tell me, please. And he said, So-and-so he said to me, saying, Thus says the LORD: I have anointed you king over Israel.

¹³Then they quickly took, each man his garment, and placed them under him on the bare step of the stairs, and they blew the trumpet and said, "Jehu is king!"

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

¹⁵Now Joram the king had returned to be healed in Jezreel from the wounds which the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. And Jehu said, 'If this is your desire, let no fugitive slip out of the city to go and report it in Jezreel.'

¹⁶So Jehu rode and went to Jezreel, for Joram was lying there, and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to visit Joram.

¹⁷Now the watchman was standing on the tower of Jezreel, and he saw the company of Jehu as he came, and said, "I see a company." And Jehoram said, "Take a rider and send him to meet them and let him ask, 'Is it peace?'"

¹⁸The horseman went to meet him and said, "Thus says the king: 'Is it peace?'" And Jehu said, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me." And the watchman reported, saying, "The messenger reached them and has not returned."

¹⁹Then he sent a second horseman, and he came to them and said, "Thus says the king: 'Is it peace?'" And Jehu said, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me."

²⁰The watchman reported, saying, "He came up to them and has not returned. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously."

²¹And Jehoram said, "Harness!" And his chariot was harnessed. And Jehoram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu and found him at the plot of Naboth the Jezreelite.

²²When Jehoram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" And he said, "What peace? As long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her many sorceries last."

²³And Jehoram turned his hands and fled, and said to Ahaziah, Treachery, Ahaziah!

²⁴And Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and struck Jehoram between his shoulders, and the arrow came out at his heart, and he sank down in his chariot.

²⁵And he said to Bidkar his adjutant, 'Pick him up and throw him into the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, for remember: I and you were riding together after Ahab his father, and the Lord uttered this oracle against him.'

²⁶Surely I have seen the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons last night, declares the LORD. And I will repay you in this plot, declares the LORD. Now lift him up and throw him in the plot, in accordance with the word of the LORD.

²⁷And Ahaziah king of Judah saw this and fled by the way of the garden house, and Jehu pursued him and said, "Him also!" And they struck him in his chariot at the ascent of Gur, which is near Ibleam; and he fled to Megiddo and died there.

²⁸His servants carried him in a chariot 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. And she put paint on her eyes and adorned her head and looked out through the window.

³¹As Jehu entered the gate, she said, "Is it well, you Zimri, killer of your master?"

³²And he lifted up his face to the window and said, "Who is on my side? Who?" And two or three eunuchs looked down at him.

³³He 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, "Attend to this accursed woman and bury her, for she is a king's daughter."

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

³⁶And they returned and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke by the hand of his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the plot of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel.

³⁷And the corpse of Jezebel shall be like dung upon the face of the field in the plot of ground of Jezreel, so that they shall not say, 'This is Jezebel.'