2 Kings 10:18–28

Servants of Baal Killed

¹⁸Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, “Ahab served^s Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much. ¹⁹Now summon^t all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live.” But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal.

²⁰Jehu said, “Call an assembly^u in honor of Baal.” So they proclaimed it. ²¹Then he sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from one end to the other. ²²And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, “Bring robes for all the servants of Baal.” So he brought out robes for them.

²³Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went into the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the servants of Baal, “Look around and see that no one who serves the Lord is here with you—only servants of Baal.” ²⁴So they went in to make sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had posted eighty men outside with this warning: “If one of you lets any of the men I am placing in your hands escape, it will be your life for his life.”^v

²⁵As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: “Go in and kill^w them; let no one escape.”^x So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal. ²⁶They brought the sacred stone^y out of the temple of Baal and burned it. ²⁷They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple^z of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.

²⁸So Jehu^a destroyed Baal worship in Israel.