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2 Kings - Chapter 9

¹ The prophet Elisha summoned a member of the prophetic brotherhood to him, 'Hitch up your clothes, take this flask of oil, and go to Ramoth in Gilead.

² When you arrive there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Then, when you find him, tell him to get up and leave his companions, and take him into an inner room.

³ Take the flask of oil then and pour it over his head, and say, "Yahweh says this: I have anointed you king of Israel." Then open the door and flee as fast as you can.'

⁴ The young man left for Ramoth in Gilead

⁵ and when he arrived, found the senior officers of the army sitting together. 'I have a message for you, commander,' he said. 'For which of us?' asked Jehu. 'For you, commander,' he answered.

⁶ Jehu then got up and went into the house. And the young man poured the oil on his head, saying, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, "I have anointed you king of Yahweh's people, of Israel.

⁷ You will strike down the family of Ahab your master, and I shall avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and all of Yahweh's servants, on Jezebel

⁸ and on the whole family of Ahab. I shall destroy every manjack of Ahab's family, fettered or free in Israel.

⁹ I shall make the House of Ahab like the House of Jeroboam son of Nebat and of Baasha son of Ahijah.

¹⁰ As for Jezebel, the dogs will eat her in the field of Jezreel; no one will bury her." ' With this, he opened the door and made his escape.

¹¹ Jehu came out to his master's officers. 'Is all well?' they asked him. 'Why did this madman come to you?' 'You know the fellow and how he talks,' he answered.

¹² 'Evasion!' they cried, 'Come on, tell us.' He replied, 'He said this and that to me. He said, "Yahweh says this: I have anointed you king of Israel." '

¹³ Whereupon they all took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps; they sounded the trumpet and shouted, 'Jehu is king!'

¹⁴ Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi plotted against Jehoram. (At the time, Jehoram, with all Israel, was holding Ramoth in Gilead against an attack by Hazael king of Aram,

¹⁵ but King Jehoram had gone back to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which he had received from the Aramaeans while he was fighting against Hazael king of Aram.) 'If you agree,' Jehu said, 'let no one leave the town to go and take the news to Jezreel.'

¹⁶ Jehu then mounted his chariot and left for Jezreel; Jehoram had taken to his bed there, and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to visit him.

¹⁷ The lookout posted on the tower of Jezreel saw Jehu's troop approaching. 'I can see a body of men,' he shouted. Jehoram gave the order: 'Have a horseman sent to meet them and ask, "Is all well?" '

¹⁸ The horseman went to meet Jehu and said, 'The king says, "Is all well?" ' 'What has it to do with you whether all is well?' Jehu replied. 'Fall in behind me.' The lookout reported, 'The messenger has reached them and is not coming back.'

¹⁹ The king sent a second horseman who reached them and said, 'The king says, "Is all well?" ' 'What has it to do with you whether all is well?' Jehu replied. 'Fall in behind me.'

²⁰ The lookout reported, 'He has reached them and is not coming back. The manner of driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi: he drives like a madman.'

²¹ 'Harness!' Jehoram cried; and they harnessed his chariot. Then Jehoram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah, each in his chariot, set out to meet Jehu. They reached him in the field of Naboth of Jezreel.

²² As soon as Jehoram saw Jehu he asked, 'Is all well, Jehu?' 'What a question!' he replied, 'when all the while the prostitutions and countless sorceries of your mother Jezebel go on.'

²³ At this, Jehoram wheeled and fled, saying to Ahaziah, 'Treason, Ahaziah!'

²⁴ But Jehu had drawn his bow; he struck Jehoram between the shoulder-blades, the arrow went through the king's heart, and he sank down in his chariot.

²⁵ 'Pick him up,' Jehu said to Bidkar, his equerry, 'and throw him into the field of Naboth of Jezreel. Remember how, when you and I manned a chariot together behind Ahab his father, Yahweh pronounced this sentence against him,

²⁶ "This I swear. Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons -- Yahweh says this. And in this same field I shall requite you -- Yahweh says this." So pick him up, and throw him into the field, as Yahweh declared should happen!'

²⁷ When Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled along the Beth-ha-Gan road, but Jehu went in pursuit of him. 'Strike him down too,' he said. And they wounded him in his chariot at the slope of Gur, which is near Ibleam, and he took refuge in Megiddo, where he died.

²⁸ His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb in the City of David.

²⁹ Ahaziah had become king of Judah in the eleventh year of Jehoram son of Ahab.

³⁰ When Jehu went back to Jezreel, Jezebel was told. She made up her eyes with mascara, adorned her head and appeared at the window.

³¹ As Jehu came through the gateway she said, 'How did Zimri get on after killing his master?'

³² Jehu looked up to the window and said, 'Who is on my side? Who?' And two or three officials looked down at him.

³³ 'Throw her down,' he said. They threw her down and her blood spattered the walls and the horses; and Jehu rode over her.

³⁴ He went in and ate and drank, then said, 'See to this accursed woman, and give her burial; after all, she was a king's daughter.'

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

³⁶ They came back and told Jehu, who said, 'This is the word of Yahweh which he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite, "The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel in the field of Jezreel;

³⁷ the corpse of Jezebel will be like dung spread on the fields, so that no one will be able to say: This was Jezebel." '