The Second of Kings 9:1-37
9 E·liʹsha the prophet then called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him: “Wrap your garments around your waist, and quickly take this flask of oil with you and go to Raʹmoth-gilʹe·ad.+
2 When you arrive there, look for Jeʹhu+ the son of Je·hoshʹa·phat the son of Nimʹshi; go in and have him get up from among his brothers and take him into the innermost room.
3 Then take the flask of oil and pour it out on his head and say, ‘This is what Jehovah says: “I anoint you as king over Israel.”’+ Then open the door and flee without delay.”
4 So the prophet’s attendant got on his way to Raʹmoth-gilʹe·ad.
5 When he arrived, the army chiefs were seated there. He said: “I have a message for you, O chief.” Jeʹhu asked: “For which one of us?” He said: “For you, O chief.”
6 So Jeʹhu got up and went into the house; the attendant poured the oil out on his head and said to him, “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says: ‘I anoint you as king over Jehovah’s people, over Israel.+
7 You must strike down the house of Aʹhab your lord, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and of all the servants of Jehovah who died at the hands of Jezʹe·bel.+
8 And the whole house of Aʹhab will perish; and I will annihilate from Aʹhab every male,* including the helpless and weak in Israel.+
9 And I will make 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 As for Jezʹe·bel, the dogs will eat her up in the plot of land at Jezʹre·el,+ and no one will bury her.’” With that he opened the door and fled.+
11 When Jeʹhu went back to the servants of his lord, they asked him: “Is everything all right? Why did this crazy man come to you?” He answered them: “You know that sort of man and his sort of talk.”
12 But they said: “That is not true! Tell us, please.” Then he said: “This is what he said to me, and then he added, ‘This is what Jehovah says: “I anoint you as king over Israel.”’”+
13 At this each of them quickly took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps,+ and they blew the horn and said: “Jeʹhu has become king!”+
14 Then Jeʹhu+ the son of Je·hoshʹa·phat the son of Nimʹshi conspired against Je·hoʹram.
Je·hoʹram had been on guard at Raʹmoth-gilʹe·ad,+ he with all Israel, because of King Hazʹa·el+ of Syria.
15 King Je·hoʹram later returned to Jezʹre·el+ to recover from the wounds that the Syrians inflicted on him when he fought King Hazʹa·el of Syria.+
Jeʹhu now said: “If you agree,* do not let anyone escape from the city to go and report this in Jezʹre·el.”
16 Then Jeʹhu mounted his chariot and went to Jezʹre·el, for Je·hoʹram was lying there wounded, and King A·ha·ziʹah of Judah had gone down to see Je·hoʹram.
17 As the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezʹre·el, he saw the throng of Jeʹhu’s men approaching. At once he said: “I see a throng of men.” Je·hoʹram said: “Take a cavalryman and send him to meet them, and let him say, ‘Are you coming in peace?’”
18 So a horseman went to meet him and said: “This is what the king says, ‘Are you coming in peace?’” But Jeʹhu said: “What do you have to do with ‘peace’? Fall in behind me!”
The watchman then reported: “The messenger reached them, but he has not returned.”
19 So he sent out a second horseman, who said when he came to them: “This is what the king says, ‘Are you coming in peace?’” But Jeʹhu said: “What do you have to do with ‘peace’? Fall in behind me!”
20 The watchman then reported: “He reached them, but he has not returned, and the driving is like the driving of Jeʹhu the grandson* of Nimʹshi, for he drives like a madman.”
21 Je·hoʹram said: “Hitch up!” So his war chariot was hitched up and King Je·hoʹram of Israel and King A·ha·ziʹah+ of Judah each went out in his own war chariot to meet Jeʹhu. They encountered him in the plot of land of Naʹboth+ the Jezʹre·el·ite.
22 As soon as Je·hoʹram saw Jeʹhu, he said: “Are you coming in peace, Jeʹhu?” But he said: “What peace could there be as long as there is the prostitution of Jezʹe·bel+ your mother and her many sorceries?”+
23 At once Je·hoʹram turned his chariot to flee, and he said to A·ha·ziʹah: “We have been tricked, A·ha·ziʹah!”
24 Jeʹhu took his bow in hand and shot Je·hoʹram between the shoulders, and the arrow came out at his heart, and he collapsed in his war chariot.
25 He then said to Bidʹkar his adjutant: “Pick him up and throw him into the field of Naʹboth the Jezʹre·el·ite.+ Remember, you and I were riding together* behind Aʹhab his father when Jehovah himself made this pronouncement against him:+
26 ‘“As surely as I saw the blood of Naʹboth+ and the blood of his sons yesterday,” declares Jehovah, “I will repay+ you in this very plot of land,” declares Jehovah.’ So now pick him up and throw him into the plot of land, according to the word of Jehovah.”+
27 When King A·ha·ziʹah+ of Judah saw what was happening, he fled by way of the garden house. (Later Jeʹhu pursued him and said: “Strike him down also!” So they struck him down in the chariot on his way up to Gur, which is by Ibʹle·am.+ But he continued his flight to Me·gidʹdo and died there.
28 Then his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and they buried him in his grave with his forefathers in the City of David.+
29 It was in the 11th year of Je·hoʹram the son of Aʹhab that A·ha·ziʹah+ had become king over Judah.)
30 When Jeʹhu came to Jezʹre·el,+ Jezʹe·bel+ heard of it. So she painted her eyes with black paint* and adorned her head and looked down through the window.
31 As Jeʹhu came in through the gate, she said: “Did it go well with Zimʹri, the killer of his lord?”+
32 Looking up to the window, he said: “Who is on my side? Who?”+ Immediately two or three court officials looked down at him.
33 He said: “Throw her down!” So they threw her down, and some of her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her.
34 After that he went in and ate and drank. He then said: “Please, take care of this accursed woman and bury her. After all, she is the daughter of a king.”+
35 But when they went to bury her, they did not find anything but her skull and her feet and the palms of her hands.+
36 When they returned and told him, he said: “This fulfills the word of Jehovah+ that he spoke through his servant E·liʹjah the Tishʹbite, saying, ‘In the plot of land of Jezʹre·el, the dogs will eat the flesh of Jezʹe·bel.+
37 And the dead body of Jezʹe·bel will become as manure on the surface of the field in the plot of land of Jezʹre·el, so that they may not say: “This is Jezʹe·bel.”’”
Footnotes
^ Lit., “anyone urinating against a wall.” A Hebrew expression of contempt referring to males.
^ Or “your soul agrees.”
^ Lit., “son.”
^ Lit., “riding teams.”
^ Or “eye shadow.”
