2 Kings 9 — FBV
9Verse 1Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and told him, “Put your cloak into your belt, take this flask of olive oil, and go to Ramoth-gilead.Verse 2Once you get there, look for Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Go in, get him away from his companions, and take him to an inner room. Get him to leave his friends, lead him to a private room,Verse 3take the flask of olive oil, and pour it on his head. Tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king of Israel.’ Then open the door and run away! Don't wait around!”Verse 4So the young prophet went to Ramoth-gilead.Verse 5When he arrived, he saw the army commanders sitting around. “I've got a message for you, commander,” he said. “For which one of us?” Jehu asked. “For you, commander,” he replied.Verse 6Jehu got up and went inside, where the young prophet poured the olive oil on his head and announced to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anoint you king over the Lord's people Israel.Verse 7You are going to destroy the family of Ahab, your master. You will avenge the blood of my prophets and the blood of all the Lord's servants killed by Jezebel.Verse 8The whole house of Ahab will be eradicated—I will destroy all the males of Ahab's family in Israel, both slave and free.Verse 9I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha, son of Ahijah.Verse 10Dogs will eat Jezebel, Ahab's wife, at the plot of ground in Jezreel, and no one will bury her.’” Then the young prophet opened the door and ran away.Verse 11When Jehu went back out to the other officers of his master, they asked him, “Is everything fine? Why did this crazy man come to you?” “You know what he's like, and how he goes on and on,” he replied.Verse 12“Liar!” they said. “Please tell us what's going on.” “Well, he talked to me about this and that, and he told me, ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.’”Verse 13They quickly grabbed their cloaks and spread them on the bare steps. They blew the trumpet and shouted, “Jehu is king!”Verse 14So Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi, plotted rebellion against Joram. Joram and the whole Israelite army had been defending Ramoth-gilead against Hazael, king of Aram.Verse 15But Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he'd received fighting against Hazael, king of Aram. So Jehu said, “If you commanders want to make me king, don't let anyone leave town and go and announce it in Jezreel.”Verse 16Jehu got on his chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was recuperating there. Ahaziah, king of Judah, was there too because he had come to visit Joram.Verse 17The watchman on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu's soldiers approaching, and he shouted out, “I see soldiers coming!” “Choose a horseman,” Joram ordered. “Send him out to meet them and ask, ‘Do you come in peace?’”Verse 18So a horseman rode off to meet Jehu, and said, “This is what the king asks: ‘Do you come in peace?’” “What has peace got to do with you?” Jehu replied. “Turn around and follow me.” The watchman reported, “The messenger has reached them, but he's not returning.”Verse 19The king sent out a second horseman. He went up to them and said, “This is what the king asks: ‘Do you come in peace?’” “What has peace got to do with you?” Jehu replied. “Turn around and follow me.”Verse 20The watchman reported, “The messenger has reached them, but he's not returning. The driving+looks like the driving of Jehu, son of Nimshi—he's a crazy driver!”Verse 21“Prepare my chariot!” Joram shouted, and they had his chariot ready. Then Joram, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, king of Judah, set off in their separate chariots, and met Jehu on the plot of ground that was previously owned by Naboth from Jezreel.Verse 22When Joram saw Jehu, he asked him, “Do you come in peace, Jehu?” “What peace can there be with so much prostitution+and witchcraft caused by your mother Jezebel?” Jehu replied.Verse 23Joram turned around and raced away, shouting out to Ahaziah, “It's treason, Ahaziah!”Verse 24Jehu picked up his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow went through his heart and he collapsed dead in his chariot.Verse 25Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, “Pick him up and throw him into the field of Naboth from Jezreel. Remember when you and I were riding together behind his father Ahab how the Lord made this prophecy against him:Verse 26‘In the same way as I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday, says the Lord, so I will certainly repay you on this same plot of ground, says the Lord.’ Now then, following what the Lord has said, pick him up and throw him on the plot of ground.”Verse 27When Ahaziah, king of Judah, saw what happened, he raced up the road toward Beth-haggan. But Jehu chased after him, shouting, “Shoot him too!” So they shot Ahaziah in his chariot on the way up to Gur, near Ibleam. He managed to escape to Megiddo but he died there.Verse 28His servants took him by chariot to Jerusalem and buried him with his forefathers in his tomb in the City of David.Verse 29Ahaziah became king of Judah in the eleventh year of the reign of Joram, son of Ahab.Verse 30When Jezebel heard that Jehu had arrived in Jezreel, she put on her black eye shadow, placed jewelry in her hair, and watched from a window.Verse 31As Jehu came in through the gate, she shouted down, “Do you come in peace? Or are you like Zimri, a murderer of your master?”Verse 32Jehu looked up at the window and shouted out, “Who is on my side? Anyone?” Two or three eunuchs looked down at him.Verse 33“Throw her down!” he shouted. And they threw her down. Her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses which then trampled her.Verse 34Jehu went inside and ate and drank. Then he said, “Please deal with that cursed woman and bury her, for she was a king's daughter.”Verse 35They went out to bury her but all they found were her skull, her feet, and her hands.Verse 36They went back and told Jehu, who said, “This is what the Lord said through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: ‘Dogs will eat Jezebel's flesh on the plot of ground at Jezreel.Verse 37Jezebel's body will lie like manure in the field on the plot of ground at Jezreel, so that no one can say: This is where Jezebel is buried.’”