World English Bible

Chapter 9

¹Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and said to him, Gird up your waist, and take this vial of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead. ²When you come there, look out there Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brothers, and carry him to an inner chamber. ³Then take the vial of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus says Yahweh, I have anointed you king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and don’t wait. ⁴So the young man, even the young man the prophet, went to Ramoth Gilead. ⁵When he came, behold, the captains of the army were sitting; and he said, I have an errand to you, captain. Jehu said, To which of us all? He said, To you, O captain. ⁶He arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I have anointed you king over the people of Yahweh, even over Israel. ⁷You shall strike the house of Ahab your master, 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. ⁸For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and I will cut off from Ahab every boy, and him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. ⁹I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. ¹⁰The dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her. He opened the door, and fled. ¹¹Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said to him, Is all well? why came this mad fellow to you? He said to them, You know the man and what his talk was. ¹²They said, It is false; tell us now. He said, Thus and thus spoke he to me, saying, Thus says Yahweh, I have anointed you king over Israel. ¹³Then they hurried, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, Jehu is king. ¹⁴So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram was keeping Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria; ¹⁵but king Joram was 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 be your mind, then let none escape and go forth out of the city, to go to tell it in Jezreel. ¹⁶So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah was come down to see Joram. ¹⁷Now 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 it peace? ¹⁸So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, Thus says the king, Is it peace? Jehu said, What have you to do with peace? turn you behind me. The watchman told, saying, The messenger came to them, but he isn’t coming back. ¹⁹Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, Thus says the king, Is it peace? Jehu answered, What have you to do with peace? turn you behind me. ²⁰The watchman told, saying, He came even to them, and isn’t coming back: and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he drives furiously. ²¹Joram said, Make ready. They made ready his chariot. 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 in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite. ²²It happened, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? He answered, What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound? ²³Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is treachery, Ahaziah. ²⁴Jehu 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. ²⁵Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how that, when I and you rode together after Ahab his father, Yahweh laid this burden on him: ²⁶Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons, says Yahweh; and I will requite you in this plat, says Yahweh. Now therefore take and cast him into the plat of ground, according to the word of Yahweh. ²⁷But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the chariot: and they struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. He fled to Megiddo, and died there. ²⁸His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David. ²⁹In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah. ³⁰When Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and attired her head, and looked out at the window. ³¹As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Is it peace, you Zimri, your master’s murderer? ³²He lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? There looked out to him two or three eunuchs. ³³He said, Throw her down. So they threw her down; and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trod her under foot. ³⁴When he was come in, he ate and drink; and he said, See now to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king’s daughter. ³⁵They went to bury her; but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. ³⁶Therefore they came back, and told him. He said, This is the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall the dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel; ³⁷and the body of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel, so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.