﻿2 Kings.
Chapter 9.
Elisha the prophet called one of the company of prophets and said to him, “Tuck up your robe, take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. 
When you arrive there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Go in, have him rise from among his companions, and take him into an inner room. 
Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head, and say, ‘This is what the LORD says: I have anointed you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee. Do not wait.” 
So the young man, the young prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead. 
When he arrived, the army commanders were sitting together. He said, “I have a message for you, commander.” Jehu said, “For which of us?” He said, “For you, commander.” 
Jehu got up and went into the house. The young man poured the oil on his head and said to him, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have anointed you king over the LORD’s people, over Israel. 
You are to strike down the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the LORD’s servants. 
The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, slave or free. 
I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. 
The dogs will eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and no one will bury her.” Then he opened the door and fled. 
When Jehu came out to his master’s servants, one of them asked him, “Is all well? Why did this madman come to you?” He said to them, “You know the man and his way of talking.” 
They said, “That is not true! Please tell us.” He said, “He told me this and that, saying, ‘This is what the LORD says: I have anointed you king over Israel.’” 
They quickly took their cloaks, each man his own, and spread them under him on the steps themselves. They blew the ram’s horn and proclaimed, “Jehu is king!” 
So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. Now Joram and all Israel had been defending Ramoth-gilead against Hazael king of Aram. 
But King Jehoram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. Jehu said, “If you agree, let no one escape from the city to go and report it in Jezreel.” 
Then Jehu mounted his chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was lying there. Ahaziah king of Judah had also gone down to visit Joram. 
The watchman standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu’s company approaching and said, “I see a company of men.” Jehoram said, “Take a horseman and send him to meet them. Have him ask, ‘Is it peace?’” 
The horseman went to meet him and said, “This is what the king asks: ‘Is it peace?’” Jehu said, “What have you to do with peace? Fall in behind me.” The watchman reported, “The messenger has reached them, but he is not returning.” 
Then he sent a second horseman, who came to them and said, “This is what the king asks: ‘Is it peace?’” Jehu said, “What have you to do with peace? Fall in behind me.” 
The watchman reported, “He has reached them, but he is not returning. The driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi, for he drives like a madman.” 
Jehoram said, “Harness my chariot!” So they harnessed his chariot, and Jehoram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu. They met him on the plot of Naboth the Jezreelite. 
When Jehoram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He said, “What peace can there be as long as the acts of prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her many sorceries continue?” 
Jehoram turned his chariot around and fled, saying to Ahaziah, “Treachery, Ahaziah!” 
Jehu drew his bow with all his strength and struck Jehoram between the shoulders. The arrow went through his heart, and he slumped down in his chariot. 
Jehu said to his officer Bidkar, “Pick him up and throw him onto the plot of Naboth the Jezreelite’s field. Remember how you and I rode together behind his father Ahab when the LORD pronounced this oracle against him: 
‘I surely saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday, declares the LORD, and I will repay you on this very plot, declares the LORD.’ So now pick him up and throw him onto the plot, according to the word of the LORD.” 
When Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled by the road to Beth-haggan. Jehu pursued him and said, “Strike him too in his chariot, on the ascent of Gur near Ibleam!” Ahaziah fled to Megiddo and died there. 
His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb with his ancestors in the City of David. 
Ahaziah had become king over Judah in the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab. 
When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard about it. She painted her eyes, arranged her hair, and looked out of the window. 
As Jehu entered the gate, she said, “Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of your master?” 
He looked up toward the window and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked down at him. 
He said, “Throw her down!” So they threw her down, and some of her blood splashed on the wall and on the horses. He trampled her underfoot. 
Then he went in and ate and drank. He said, “Please see to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter.” 
But when they went to bury her, they found nothing of her except the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands. 
They returned and told him. He said, “This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: ‘In the territory of Jezreel, the dogs will eat Jezebel’s flesh. 
Jezebel’s body will be like dung on the surface of the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one will say, “This is Jezebel.”’” 
