2 Kings 9:24–10:11

²⁴Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow went through his heart, and he slumped down in his chariot.^{p 25}Jehu said to Bidkar his aide, “Pick him up and throw him on the plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite.^q For remember when you and I were riding side by side behind his father Ahab, and the Lord uttered this pronouncement against him: ²⁶‘As surely as I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday’—this is the Lord’s declaration—‘so will I repay you on this plot of land’—this is the Lord’s declaration. So now, according to the word of the Lord, pick him up and throw him on the plot of land.”^r

²⁷When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what was happening, he fled up the road toward Beth-haggan. Jehu pursued him, shouting, “Shoot him too!” So they shot him in his chariot^A at Gur Pass near Ibleam,^s but he fled to Megiddo^t and died there.^{u 28}Then his servants carried him to Jerusalem in a chariot and buried him in his ancestors’ tomb in the city of David.^{v 29}It was in the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab that Ahaziah had become king over Judah.^w

JEHU KILLS JEZEBEL

³⁰When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard about it, so she painted her eyes,^a fixed her hair,^B and looked down from the window. ³¹As Jehu entered the city gate, she said, “Do you come in peace, Zimri,^b killer of your master?”

³²He looked up toward the window and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs^c looked down at him, ³³and he said, “Throw her down!” So they threw her down, and some of her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses, and Jehu rode over her.^d

³⁴Then he went in, ate and drank, and said, “Take care of this cursed^e woman and bury her, since she’s a king’s daughter.”^{f 35}But when they went out to bury her, they did not find anything but the skull, the feet, and the hands. ³⁶So they went back and told him, and he said, “This fulfills the Lord’s word that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: ‘In the plot of land at Jezreel, the dogs will eat Jezebel’s flesh.^{g 37}Jezebel’s corpse will be like manure^h on the surface of the ground in the plot of land at Jezreel so that no one will be able to say: This is Jezebel.’ ”

JEHU KILLS THE HOUSE OF AHAB

10Since Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria,ⁱ Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria to the rulers of Jezreel,^j to the elders, and to the guardians of Ahab’s sons,^A saying:

²Your master’s sons are with you, and you have chariots, horses, a fortified city, and weaponry, so when this letter^k arrives ³select the most qualified^B of your master’s sons, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.

⁴However, they were terrified and reasoned, “Look, two kings^l couldn’t stand against him; how can we?”

⁵So the overseer of the palace, the overseer of the city, the elders, and the guardians sent a message to Jehu: “We are your servants, and we will do whatever you tell us. We will not make anyone king. Do whatever you think is right.”^Cm

⁶Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying:

If you are on my side, and if you will obey me, bring me the heads of your master’s sons^D at this time tomorrow at Jezreel.

All seventy of the king’s sons were being cared for by the city’s prominent men. ⁷When the letter came to them, they took the king’s sons and slaughtered all seventy, put their heads in baskets, and sent them to Jehu at Jezreel. ⁸When the messenger came and told him, “They have brought the heads of the king’s sons,” the king said, “Pile them in two heaps at the entrance of the city gate until morning.”

⁹The next morning when he went out and stood at the gate, he said to all the people, “You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him.ⁿ But who struck down all these? ¹⁰Know, then, that not a word the Lord spoke against the house of Ahab will fail,^o for the Lord has done what he promised through his servant Elijah.”^{p 11}So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel—all his great men, close friends, and priests—leaving him no survivors.