2 Kings 9 14-2 Kings 10 25
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;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.”So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.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?’”So one went on horseback to meet him, and said,“ the king says,‘ 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.”Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said,“ The king says,‘ Is it peace?’” Jehu answered,“ What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!”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.”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.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?”Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah,“ This is treason, Ahaziah!”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.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:‘ 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.”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.His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in David’s city.In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah.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.As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said,“ Do you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?”He lifted up his face to the window, and said,“ Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him.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.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.”They went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands.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,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.”’”Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and to those who brought up Ahab’s sons, saying,“ Now as soon as this letter comes to you, since your master’s sons are with you, and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and armor,Select the best and fittest of your master’s sons, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.”But they were exceedingly afraid, and said,“ Behold, the two kings didn’t stand before him! How then shall we stand?”He who was over the household, and he who was over the city, the elders also, and those who raised the children, sent to Jehu, saying,“ We are your servants, and will do all that you ask us. We will not make any man king. You do that which is good in your eyes.”Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying,“ If you are on my side, and if you will listen to my voice, take the heads of the men who are your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time.” Now the king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who brought them up.When the letter came to them, they took the king’s sons and killed them, even seventy people, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him to Jezreel.A messenger came and told him,“ They have brought the heads of the king’s sons.” He said,“ Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning.”In the morning, he went out, and stood, and said to all the people,“ You are righteous. Behold, I conspired against my master and killed him, but who killed all these?Know now that nothing will fall to the earth of Yahweh’s word, which Yahweh spoke concerning Ahab’s house. For Yahweh has done that which he spoke by his servant Elijah.”So Jehu struck all that remained of Ahab’s house in Jezreel, with all his great men, his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him no one remaining.He arose and departed, and went to Samaria. As he was at the shearing house of the shepherds on the way,Jehu met with the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said,“ Who are you?” They answered,“ We are the brothers of Ahaziah. We are going down to greet the children of the king and the children of the queen.”He said,“ Take them alive!” They took them alive, and killed them at the pit of the shearing house, even forty- two men. He didn’t leave any of them.When he had departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. He greeted him, and said to him,“ Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart?” Jehonadab answered,“ It is.”“ If it is, give me your hand.” He gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot.He said,“ Come with me, and see my zeal for Yahweh.” So they made him ride in his chariot.When he came to Samaria, he struck all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to Yahweh’s word, which he spoke to Elijah.Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them,“ Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu will serve him much.Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, all of his worshipers, and all of his priests. Let no one be absent; for I have a great sacrifice to Baal. Whoever is absent, he shall not live.” But Jehu did deceptively, intending to destroy the worshipers of Baal.Jehu said,“ Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal!” So they proclaimed it.Jehu sent through all Israel; and all the worshipers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that didn’t come. They came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was filled from one end to another.He said to him who kept the wardrobe,“ Bring out robes for all the worshipers of Baal!” So he brought robes out to them.Jehu went with Jehonadab the son of Rechab into the house of Baal. Then he said to the worshipers of Baal,“ Search, and see that none of the servants of Yahweh are here with you, but only the worshipers of Baal.”So they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed for himself eighty men outside, and said,“ If any of the men whom I bring into your hands escape, he who lets him go, his life shall be for the life of him.”As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the captains,“ Go in and kill them! Let no one escape.” So they struck them with the edge of the sword. The guard and the captains threw the bodies out, and went to the inner shrine of the house of Baal.
