< 2 Kings 9 >
1 Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and told him, “Put your cloak into your belt, take this flask of olive oil, and go to Ramoth-gilead.
2 Once you get there, look for Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Go in, get him away from his companions, and take him to an inner room. Get him to leave his friends, lead him to a private room,
3 take the flask of olive oil, and pour it on his head. Tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king of Israel.’ Then open the door and run away! Don't wait around!”
4 So the young prophet went to Ramoth-gilead.
5 When he arrived, he saw the army commanders sitting around. “I've got a message for you, commander,” he said. “For which one of us?” Jehu asked. “For you, commander,” he replied.
6 Jehu got up and went inside, where the young prophet poured the olive oil on his head and announced to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anoint you king over the Lord's people Israel.
7 You are going to destroy the family of Ahab, your master. You will avenge the blood my prophets and the blood of all the Lord's servants killed by Jezebel.
8 The whole house of Ahab will be eradicated—I will destroy all the males of Ahab's family in Israel, both slave and free.
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.
10 Dogs will eat Jezebel, Ahab's wife, at the plot of ground in Jezreel, and no one will bury her.” Then the young prophet opened the door and ran away.
11 When Jehu went back out to the other officers of his master, they asked him, “Is everything fine? Why did this crazy man come to you?” “You know what he's like, and how he goes on and on,” he replied.
12 “Liar!” they said. “Please tell us what's going on.” “Well, he talked to me about this and that, and he told me, ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.’”
13 They quickly grabbed their cloaks and spread them on the bare steps. They blew the trumpet and shouted, “Jehu is king!”
14 So Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi, plotted rebellion against Joram. Joram and the whole Israelite army had been defending Ramoth-Gilead against Hazael, king of Aram.
15 But Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he'd received fighting against Hazael, king of Aram. So Jehu said, “If you commanders want to make me king, don't let anyone leave town and go and announce it in Jezreel.”
16 Jehu got on his chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was recuperating there. Ahaziah, king of Judah, was there too because he had come to visit Joram.
17 The watchman on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu's soldiers approaching, and he shouted out, “I see a soldiers coming!” “Choose a horseman,” Joram ordered. “Send him out to meet them and ask, ‘Do you come in peace?’”
18 So a horseman rode off to meet Jehu, and said, “This is what the king asks: ‘Do you come in peace?’” “What has peace got to do with you?” Jehu replied. “Turn around and follow me.” The watchman reported, “The messenger has reached them, but he's not returning.”
19 The king sent out a second horseman. He went up to them and said, “This is what the king asks: ‘Do you come in peace?’” “What has peace got to do with you?” Jehu replied. “Turn around and follow me.”
20 The watchman reported, “The messenger has reached them, but he's not returning. The driving looks like the driving of Jehu, son of Nimshi—he's a crazy driver!”
21 “Prepare my chariot!” Joram shouted, and they had his chariot ready. Then Joram, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, king of Judah, set off in their separate chariots, and met Jehu on the plot of ground that was previously owned by Naboth from Jezreel.
22 When Joram saw Jehu, he asked him, “Do you come in peace, Jehu?” “What peace can there be with so much prostitution and witchcraft caused by your mother Jezebel?” Jehu replied.
23 Joram turned around and raced away, shouting out to Ahaziah, “It's treason, Ahaziah!”
24 Jehu picked up his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow went through his heart and he collapsed dead in his chariot.
25 Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, “Pick him up and throw him into the field of Naboth from Jezreel. Remember when you and I were riding together behind his father Ahab how the Lord made this prophecy against him:
26 ‘In the same way as I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday, says the Lord, so I will certainly repay you on this same plot of ground, says the Lord.’ Now then, following what the Lord has said, pick him up and throw him on the plot of ground.”
27 When Ahaziah, king of Judah, saw what happened, he raced up the road toward Beth-haggan. But Jehu chased after him, shouting, “Shoot him too!” So they shot Ahaziah in his chariot on the way up to Gur, near Ibleam. He managed to escape to Megiddo but he died there.
28 His servants took him by chariot to Jerusalem and buried him with his forefathers in his tomb in the City of David.
29 Ahaziah became king of Judah in the eleventh year of the reign of Joram, son of Ahab.
30 When Jezebel heard that Jehu had arrived in Jezreel, she put on her black eye-shadow, placed jewelry in her hair, and watched from a window.
31 As Jehu came in through the gate, she shouted down, “Do you come in peace? Or are you like Zimri, a murderer of your master?”
32 Jehu looked up at the window and shouted out, “Who is on my side? Anyone?” Two or three eunuchs looked down at him.
33 “Throw her down!” he shouted. And they threw her down. Her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses which then trampled her.
34 Jehu went inside and ate and drank. Then he said, “Please deal with that cursed woman and bury her, for she was a king's daughter.”
35 They went out to bury her but all they found were her skull, her feet, and her hands.
36 They went back and told Jehu, who said, “This is what the Lord said through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: ‘Dogs will eat Jezebel's flesh on the plot of ground at Jezreel.
37 Jezebel's body will lie like manure in the field on the plot of ground at Jezreel, so that no one can say: This is where Jezebel is buried.’”
