The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Kings 09
1 Elisha the prophet called one of the
sons of the prophets, and said to him, “Put
your belt on your waist, take this vial of oil
in your hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead.
2 When you come there, findJehuthe son
of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go
in and make him rise up from among his
brothers, and take him to an inner room.
3 Then take the vial of oil, and pour it on
his head, and say, ‘Yahweh says, “I have
anointed youking over Israel.” ’ Thenopen
the door, flee, and don’t wait.”
4 So the young man, the young prophet,
went to Ramoth Gilead.
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 one of us?”
He said, “To you, O captain.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
11 When Jehu came out to the servants of
his lord and one said to him, “Is all well?
Why did this madman come to you?”
He said to them, “You know the man and
how he talks.”
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.’ ”
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.”
14 So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son
of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now
Joram was defending Ramoth Gilead, he
and all Israel, because of Hazael king of
Syria;
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,thenletno one escape
and go out of the city to go to tell it in
Jezreel.”
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.
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 itpeace?’ ”
18 So one went onhorseback tomeethim,
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.”
19 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!”
20 The watchmansaid, “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.”
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.
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?”
23 Joram turned his hands and fled, and
said to Ahaziah, “This is treason, Ahaziah!”
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.
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:
26 ‘Surely Ihave seenyesterday 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.”
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.
28 His servants carried him in a chariot
to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb
with his fathers in David’s city.
29 In the eleventh year of Joram the son
of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah.
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.
31 As Jehu entered in at the gate, she
said, “Do you come in peace, Zimri, you
murderer of your master?”
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.
33 He said, “Throw her down!”
So they threw her down; and some ofher
blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on
the horses. Then he trampled her under
foot.
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.”
35 They went to bury her, but they found
no more of her than the skull, the feet, and
the palms of her hands.
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,
37and the body ofJezebel will be as dung
on the surface of the field on Jezreel’s land,
so that they won’t say, “This is Jezebel.” ’ ”