2 Kings 9

Jehu Receives His Call 2 Kings 9:4–10

⁴Verse 4. So the young man, even the young man, the prophet, went to Ramoth Gilead. ⁵Verse 5. When he came, behold, the captains of the army were sitting. Then he said, “I have a message for you, captain.” Jehu said, “To which of us all?” He said, “To you, O captain.” ⁶Verse 6. He arose, and went into the house. Then he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘I have anointed you king over the people of Yahweh, even over Israel. ⁷Verse 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 Yahweh, at the hand of Jezebel.

⁸Verse 8. For the whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall, both him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. ⁹Verse 9. I will make Ahab’s house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. ¹⁰Verse 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.

Jehu Proclaimed King 2 Kings 9:11–14

¹¹Verse 11. When Jehu came out to the servants of his lord, and one said to him, “Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?” He said to them, “You know the man and how he talks.” ¹²Verse 12. They said, “That is a lie. Tell us now.” He said, “He said to me, ‘Yahweh says, I have anointed you king over Israel.’” ¹³Verse 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.” ¹⁴Verse 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;

Jehu Approaches Jezreel 2 Kings 9:15–21

¹⁵Verse 15. but king Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) Jehu said, “If this is your thinking, then let no one escape and go out of the city, to go to tell it in Jezreel.”¹⁶Verse 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.¹⁷Verse 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, ‘Is it peace?’”¹⁸Verse 18. So one went on horseback to meet him, and said, “Thus says the king, ‘Is it 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.”¹⁹Verse 19. Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, “Thus says the king, ‘Is it peace?’”Jehu answered, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!”²⁰Verse 20. The watchman said, “He came to them, and isn’t coming back. The driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.”²¹Verse 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.

Joram's Death 2 Kings 9:22–27

²²Verse 22. When Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?” ²³Verse 23. Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, “This is treason, Ahaziah!” ²⁴Verse 24. Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and struck Joram between his arms; and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot. ²⁵Verse 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, Yahweh laid this burden on him:

²⁶Verse 26. ‘Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,’ says Yahweh; ‘and I will repay you in this plot of ground,’ says Yahweh. Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to Yahweh’s word.” ²⁷Verse 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.

Ahaziah's Fate 2 Kings 9:28–30

²⁸Verse 28. His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in David’s city. ²⁹Verse 29. In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah. ³⁰Verse 30. When Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out at the window.

Jezebel's Demise 2 Kings 9:31–37

³¹Verse 31. As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, “Do you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?” ³²Verse 32. He lifted up his face to the window, and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. ³³Verse 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. Then he trampled her under foot. ³⁴Verse 34. When he had come in, he ate and drank. Then he said, “See now to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king’s daughter.”

³⁵Verse 35. They went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands. ³⁶Verse 36. Therefore they came back, and told him. He said, “This is Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel on the plot of Jezreel, ³⁷Verse 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.”’”