Jehu Anointed King of Israel
1 Elisha the prophet called one of the prophets’ sons and said to him, “Put your belt on your waist, take this vial of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead. 2 When you arrive there, find Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi and go in and make him rise up from among his brothers and take him to an inner room. 3 Then take the vial of oil, pour it on his head and say, ‘The Lord says: I have anointed you king over Israel.’ Then open the door, flee, and don’t wait.”
4 So the young prophet went to Ramoth Gilead. 5 When he came, the captains of the army were sitting. Then he said, “I have a message for you, captain.”
Jehu said, “For which of us?”
He said, “To you, Captain.” 6 He arose, and went into the house. Then he poured the oil on his head and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘I have anointed you king over the people of God, over Israel. 7 You must strike your master Ahab’s house, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of God, at the hand of Jezebel. 8 For the whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every man, both slave and free, in Israel. 9 I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. 10 The dogs will eat Jezebel on the plot of ground of Jezreel, and there shall be no one to bury her.’ ” Then he opened the door and fled.
11 When Jehu came out to the servants of his lord, one of them asked him, “Is all well? Why did this madman come to you?”
He said to them, “You know the man and how he talks.” 12 They said, “That is a lie. Tell us now.”
He said, “He said to me, ‘The Lord says, I have anointed you king over Israel.’ ”
13 Then they hurried, and each man took his cloak and put it under him on the top of the stairs and blew the trumpet, saying, “Jehu is king.”
Jehu Kills Joram and Ahaziah
14 So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram.
Now Joram was keeping Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria. 15 But king Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel, of the wounds which the Syrians had inflicted on him when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.
Jehu said, “If this is your thinking, then let no one escape and leave the city, to go and report it in Jezreel.” 16 So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram. 17 Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came and said, “I see a company.”
Joram said, “Take a horseman and send to meet them and let him say, ‘Do you come in peace?’ ”
18 So a horseman went to meet him and said, “The king says, ‘Do you come in peace?’ ”
Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!”
The watchman said, “The messenger came to them, but he isn’t coming back.”
19 Then he sent out a second horseman, who came to them and said, “The king says, ‘Do you come in peace?’ ”
Jehu answered, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!”
20 The watchman said, “He came to them and isn’t coming back. He drives like Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for he drives like a maniac.”
21 Joram said, “Get ready!”
They got his chariot ready. Then Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu and found him on Naboth the Jezreelite’s land. 22 When Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Do you come in peace, Jehu?”
He answered, “What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?”
23 Joram turned his hands and fled and said to Ahaziah, “This is treason, Ahaziah!”
24 Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, struck Joram between his arms. The arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot. 25 Then Jehu said to Bidkar his captain, “Pick him up and throw him in the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, for remember how, when you and I rode together after Ahab his father, the Lord laid this burden on him: 26 ‘Surely, yesterday I have seen the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will repay you on this plot of ground,’ says the Lord. Now therefore take him and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to the word of the Lord.”
27 But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu followed after him and said, “Strike him also in the chariot!” They struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. He fled to Megiddo and died there. 28 His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David. 29 In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah.
The Murder of Jezebel
30 When Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, and she painted her eyes, adorned her head, and looked out the window. 31 As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, “Do you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?”
32 He looked up to the window and said, “Who is on my side? Who?”
Two or three eunuchs looked out at him.
33 He said, “Throw her down!”
So they threw her down, and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses, which trampled her. 34 Then Jehu went in and ate and drank. Then he said, “See now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she was the daughter of a king.”
35 They went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands. 36 They came back and told him of this.
He said, “This is the word of the Lord, which he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel on the plot of Jezreel, 37 and the body of Jezebel will be as dung on the face of the field on Jezreel’s land, so that they won’t say: This is Jezebel.’ ”