2 Kings 9:1-37
9 And E·liʹsha the prophet, for his part, called one of the sons+ of the prophets and then said to him: “Gird up your loins+ and take this flask*+ of oil in your hand and go to Raʹmoth-gilʹe·ad.+
2 When you have come in there, see Jeʹhu+ the son of Je·hoshʹa·phat the son of Nimʹshi there; and you must come in and make him get up from the midst of his brothers and bring him into the innermost chamber.+
3 And you must take the flask of oil and pour it out upon his head+ and say, ‘This is what Jehovah has said: “I do anoint+ you as king+ over Israel.”’ And you must open the door and flee and not wait.”
4 And the attendant, the prophet’s attendant, got on his way to Raʹmoth-gilʹe·ad.
5 When he came in, why, there the chiefs of the military force were seated. He now said: “There is a word I have for you,+ O chief.” At this Jeʹhu said: “For which one of all of us?” Then he said: “For you, O chief.”
6 So he got up and came into the house; and he proceeded to pour the oil out upon his head and say to him: “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said, ‘I do anoint you as king+ over Jehovah’s people,+ that is, over Israel.
7 And you must strike down the house of Aʹhab your lord, and I must avenge+ the blood* of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the servants of Jehovah at the hand of Jezʹe·bel.+
8 And the whole house of Aʹhab must perish; and I must cut off from Aʹhab+ anyone urinating against a wall*+ and any helpless and worthless one*+ in Israel.
9 And I must constitute the house of Aʹhab like the house of Jer·o·boʹam+ the son of Neʹbat and like the house of Baʹa·sha+ the son of A·hiʹjah.
10 And Jezʹe·bel the dogs will eat+ up in the tract of land at Jezʹre·el, and there will be no one burying her.’” With that he opened the door and went fleeing.+
11 As for Jeʹhu, he went out to the servants of his lord, and they began to say to him: “Is everything all right?+ Why did this crazy+ man come in to you?” But he said to them: “YOU yourselves well know the man and his sort of talk.”
12 But they said: “It is false!* Tell us, please.” Then he said: “It was like this and like that that he talked to me, saying, ‘This is what Jehovah has said: “I do anoint you as king over Israel.”’”+
13 At this they hurriedly took each one his garment+ and put it under him upon the bare steps, and they began to blow the horn+ and say: “Jeʹhu has become king!”+
14 And Jeʹhu+ the son of Je·hoshʹa·phat the son of Nimʹshi+ proceeded to conspire+ against Je·hoʹram.*
And Je·hoʹram himself had happened to be keeping guard at Raʹmoth-gilʹe·ad,+ he with all Israel, because of Hazʹa·el+ the king of Syria.
15 Later Je·hoʹram+ the king returned to get healed at Jezʹre·el+ from the wounds that the Syrians got to inflict upon him when he fought Hazʹa·el the king of Syria.+
Jeʹhu now said: “If YOUR soul agrees,*+ do not let anyone go out in escape from the city to go and make report in Jezʹre·el.”
16 And Jeʹhu began to ride and go to Jezʹre·el; for Je·hoʹram was lying there, and A·ha·ziʹah*+ the king of Judah himself had gone down to see Je·hoʹram.
17 And the watchman+ was standing upon the tower+ in Jezʹre·el,+ and he got to see the heaving mass of Jeʹhu’s [men] as he was coming, and he at once said: “There is a heaving mass [of men] that I am seeing.” At that Je·hoʹram said: “Take a cavalryman and send him to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is there peace?’”+
18 Accordingly a rider on a horse went to meet him and said: “This is what the king has said, ‘Is there peace?’” But Jeʹhu said: “What do you have to do with ‘peace’?*+ Get around to my rear!”
And the watchman+ went on to report, saying: “The messenger came as far as to them, but he has not returned.”
19 So he sent out a second rider on a horse, who, when he came to them, proceeded to say: “This is what the king has said, ‘Is there peace?’” But Jeʹhu said: “What do you have to do with ‘peace’?+ Get around to my rear!”
20 And the watchman went on to report, saying: “He came as far as to them, but he has not returned; and the driving is like the driving of Jeʹhu+ the grandson* of Nimʹshi,+ for it is with madness that he drives.”+
21 At that Je·hoʹram said: “Hitch up!”+ So his war chariot was hitched up and Je·hoʹram the king of Israel and A·ha·ziʹah+ the king of Judah went out, each in his own war chariot. As they continued on out to meet Jeʹhu, they got to find him in the tract of land of Naʹboth+ the Jezʹre·el·ite.
22 And it came about that as soon as Je·hoʹram saw Jeʹhu, he immediately said: “Is there peace, Jeʹhu?” But he said: “What peace+ could there be as long as there are the fornications of Jezʹe·bel+ your mother and her many sorceries?”+
23 At once Je·hoʹram made a turn with his hands, that he might flee, and said to A·ha·ziʹah: “There is trickery,+ A·ha·ziʹah!”
24 And Jeʹhu himself filled his hand with a bow+ and proceeded to shoot Je·hoʹram between the arms, so that the arrow came out at his heart, and he collapsed in his war chariot.+
25 He now said to Bidʹkar* his adjutant:+ “Lift him up; throw him into the tract of the field of Naʹboth the Jezʹre·el·ite;+ for remember: I and you were riding teams behind Aʹhab his father, and Jehovah himself lifted up this pronouncement+ against him:
26 ‘“Certainly the blood+ of Naʹboth and the blood of his sons+ I saw yesterday,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “and I shall certainly repay+ you in this tract of land,” is the utterance of Jehovah.’ So now, lift him up; throw him into the tract of land according to the word of Jehovah.”+
27 And A·ha·ziʹah+ the king of Judah himself saw it and took to flight by the way of the garden house.+ (Later* Jeʹhu went in pursuit of him and said: “Him also! STRIKE him down!” So they struck him down* while in the chariot on the way up to Gur, which is by Ibʹle·am.+ And he continued his flight to Me·gidʹdo+ and got to die there.+
28 Then his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and so they buried him in his grave with his forefathers in the City of David.+
29 And it was in the eleventh year of Je·hoʹram+ the son of Aʹhab that A·ha·ziʹah+ had become king over Judah.)
30 At length Jeʹhu came to Jezʹre·el,+ and Jezʹe·bel+ herself heard of it. And she proceeded to paint+ her eyes with black paint and do her head up beautifully+ and to look down through the window.+
31 And Jeʹhu himself came in by the gate. She now said: “Did it go all right with Zimʹri+ the killer of his lord?”
32 At that he raised his face toward the window and said: “Who is with me? Who?”+ Immediately two or three court officials+ looked down at him.
33 So he said: “Let her drop!”+ Then they let her drop, and some of her blood went spattering upon the wall and upon the horses; and he now trampled+ upon her.
34 After that he came on in and ate and drank and then said: “YOU men, please, take care of this accursed+ one and bury her, for she is the daughter of a king.”+
35 When they went to bury her, they did not find anything of her but the skull and the feet and the palms of the hands.+
36 When they returned and told him, he went on to say: “It is the word of Jehovah that he spoke by means+ of his servant E·liʹjah* the Tishʹbite, saying, ‘In the tract of land of Jezʹre·el the dogs will eat the flesh of Jezʹe·bel.+
37 And the dead body of Jezʹe·bel will certainly become as manure+ upon the face of the field in the tract of land of Jezʹre·el, that they may not say: “This is Jezʹe·bel.”’”+
Footnotes
^ Or, “juglet,” of ceramic ware.
^ Lit., “bloods.”
^ “Urinating against a wall.” A Heb. idiom for males.
^ Lit., “Falsehood!”
^ Lit., “If there is your soul.”
^ Lit., “What [is there] to you and to peace?” See App 7B.
^ Lit., “son.”
^ “Bidkar,” M; Syr., Bar deqer, “Ben-deker.”
^ See 2Ch 22:7-9.
^ “So they struck him down,” SyVgc; M omits.
