Second Book of Kings 10

¹ There were seventy sons of Ahab in Samaria.[*a] Jehu sent to Samaria, to the authorities of the city, to the elders and to the guardians of the children of Ahab. He said,

² ‘At this time, when this letter reaches you, you have your master’s sons with you; you also have chariots and horses, fortified towns and weapons.

³ See which of your master’s sons is the best and worthiest, put him on his father’s throne and fight for the dynasty of your master.’

⁴ They were utterly terrified. ‘We have seen how the two kings could not stand up to him,’ they said ‘so how could we do so?’

⁵ Consequently the master of the palace, the governor of the city, the elders and the guardians sent word to Jehu, ‘We are your servants. We will do whatever you order us. We will not proclaim a king; act as you think best.’

⁶ Jehu then wrote them a second letter. He said, ‘If you are for me and if you are prepared to accept orders from me, take the heads[*b] of the men of your master’s house and come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow’. (There were seventy sons of the king being educated there by the leading men of the city.)

⁷ When this letter reached them, they took the king’s sons and butchered all seventy of them, put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel.

⁸ The messenger came and told Jehu, ‘They have brought the heads of the king’s sons’. ‘Leave them in two heaps at the entrance to the gate until morning’ he replied.

⁹ When morning came, he went out and, standing, said to all the people, ‘Be guiltless! I certainly plotted against my master and murdered him; but who killed all these?

¹⁰ Know, then, nothing will fail to be fulfilled of the oracle uttered by Yahweh against the family of Ahab: Yahweh has done what he said through his servant Elijah.’

¹¹ Jehu then killed everyone of the House of Ahab surviving in Jezreel, all his leading men, his close friends, his priests; he did not leave a single one alive.

¹² Jehu then set out and went to Samaria. As he was on his way

¹³ he met, at Beth-eked of the Shepherds, the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah. ‘Who are you?’ he asked. ‘We are brothers of Ahaziah,’ they answered ‘and we are going down to pay our respects to the sons of the king and the sons of the queen.’

¹⁴ ‘Take them alive’ he said. They took them alive, and he slaughtered them at the cistern of Beth-eked, forty-two of them; he did not spare a single one.

¹⁵ Leaving there, he came upon Jehonadab son of Rechab who was on his way to meet him. He greeted him and said, ‘Is your heart true to mine, as my heart is to yours?’ Jehonadab replied, ‘Yes’. ‘If so,’ Jehu said ‘give me your hand.’ Jehonadab gave him his hand, and Jehu took him up beside him in his chariot.

¹⁶ ‘Come with me,’ he said ‘and witness my zeal for Yahweh’, and drove him on in his chariot.

¹⁷ When he entered Samaria, he killed all the survivors of Ahab’s family in Samaria; he wiped it out, as Yahweh had told Elijah it would happen.

¹⁸ Then Jehu assembled all the people. ‘Ahab did Baal some small service,’ he said ‘but Jehu will do him a great one.

¹⁹ Now call me all the prophets of Baal and all his priests. Let no one be missing: I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal. If anyone is missing, he shall forfeit his life.’ This was a trick on Jehu’s part to destroy the devotees of Baal.

²⁰ ‘Summon a sacred assembly for Baal’ he commanded; and they summoned it.

²¹ Jehu sent messengers throughout Israel, and all the devotees of Baal arrived, not a man was left who did not attend. They packed into the temple of Baal until it was full from wall to wall.

²² Jehu then said to the keeper of the wardrobe, ‘Bring out vestments for all the devotees of Baal’; he brought out the vestments for them.

²³ Jehu then went into the temple of Baal with Jehonadab son of Rechab and said to the devotees of Baal, ‘Make quite sure there are no devotees of Yahweh in here with you, but only devotees of Baal’.

²⁴ He then proceeded to offer sacrifices and holocausts. Now Jehu had stationed eighty of his men outside, having said, ‘If any of you lets anyone of those I am handing over to you escape, his life will pay for the life of the other’.

²⁵ When he had finished offering the holocaust, he gave the order to the guards and squires: ‘Go in, strike them down! Let no one out!’ The guards and squires went in, putting everyone to the sword, until they had reached the sanctuary of the temple of Baal.

²⁶ They took the sacred pole out of the temple of Baal and burned it.

²⁷ They demolished the altar of Baal, and demolished the temple of Baal too, making it into a latrine, which it still is today.

²⁸ Thus Jehu rid Israel of Baal.

²⁹ Even so, Jehu did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel, the golden calves of Bethel and Dan.

³⁰ Yahweh said to Jehu, ‘Since you have done properly what was pleasing in my sight, and have achieved all I set my heart on against Ahab’s family, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel down to the fourth generation’.

³¹ But Jehu did not follow the law of Yahweh, the God of Israel faithfully and wholeheartedly: he did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel.

³² At that time, Yahweh began to whittle Israel down, and Hazael defeated the Israelites throughout the territory[*c]

³³ from the Jordan eastwards: all the land of Gilead, of the Gadites, the Reubenites and the Manassites, from Aroer which is by the wadi Arnon, Gilead and Bashan.

³⁴ The rest of the history of Jehu, his entire career, all his prowess, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?

³⁵ Then he slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in Samaria; his son Jehoahaz succeeded him.

³⁶ Jehu’s reign over Israel in Samaria lasted twenty-eight years.