Second Book of Kings 9

¹ Elisha the prophet summoned a member of the prophetic brotherhood to him, ‘Tuck up your cloak, take this flask of oil, and go to Ramoth-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, “This is Yahweh’s word: I have anointed you king of Israel”. Then throw open the door and escape as fast as you can.’

⁴ The young man left for Ramoth-gilead

⁵ and when he arrived, he 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 Then Jehu got up and went into the house. And the young man poured the oil on his head, saying, ‘Yahweh the God of Israel says this, “I have anointed you king over the people of Yahweh, king of Israel.

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

⁸ and the whole family of Ahab. I will wipe out every male belonging to the family of Ahab, fettered or free in Israel.

⁹ I will make the family of Ahab like the family of Jeroboam son of Nebat and of Baasha son of Ahijah.

¹⁰ As for Jezebel, the dogs shall eat her in the territory of Jezreel; no one will bury her.”‘ With this, he opened the door and made his escape.

¹¹ Jehu came out to the officers of his master. ‘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, ‘His drift was this – 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. (Jehoram, with all Israel, was at that time defending Ramoth-gilead against Hazael king of Aram,

¹⁵ although Jehoram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which he had received from the Aramaeans while he was fighting against Hazael king of Aram.) ‘If this is how you feel,’ Jehu said ‘let no one escape from 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[*a] 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 both rode 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 – it is Yahweh who speaks. In this same field I will requite you – it is Yahweh who speaks.” 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-haggan 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 Citadel of David.

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

³⁰ Jehu went back to Jezreel and Jezebel heard of it. She made up her eyes with kohl and adorned her head and appeared at the window.

³¹ As Jehu came through the gateway she said, ‘Is all well, Zimri, you murderer of your master?[*b]

³² Jehu looked up to the window and said, ‘Who is on my side? Who?’ And two or three

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 territory 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”‘.