1   Elisha the prophet summoned one of the company of prophets and said to him, ‘Hitch up your cloak, take this flask of oil with you and go to Ramoth-gilead. 2   When you arrive, you will find Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi; go in and call him aside from his fellow-officers, and lead him through to an inner room. 3   Then take the flask

Elisha and the end of the house of Ahab and pour the oil on his head and say, “This is the word of the Lord: I anoint you king over Israel”; then open the door and flee for your life.’ 4    5   So the young prophet went to Ramoth-gilead. When he arrived, he found the officers sitting together and said, ‘Sir, I have a word for you.’ 6   ‘For which of us?’ asked Jehu. ‘For you, sir’, he said. He rose and went into the house, and the prophet poured the oil on his head, saying, ‘This is the word of the Lord the God of Israel: “I anoint you king over Israel, the people of the Lord. 7   You shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, and I will take vengeance on Jezebel for the blood of my servants the prophets and for the blood of all the Lord's servants. 8   All house of Ahab shall perish and I will destroy every mother's son of his house in Israel, whether under the protection of the family or not. 9   And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. 10   Jezebel shall be devoured by dogs in the plot of ground at Jezreel and no one will bury her.”’ 11   Then he opened the door and fled. When Jehu rejoined the king's officers, they said to him, ‘Is all well? What did this crazy fellow want with you?’ ‘You know him and the way his thoughts run’, he said. 12   ‘Nonsense!’ they replied; ‘tell us what happened.’ ‘I will tell you exactly what he said: “This is the word of the Lord: I anoint you king over Israel.”’ 13   They snatched up their cloaks and spread them under him on the stones ^note of the steps, and sounded the trumpet and shouted, ‘Jehu is king.’

14   Then Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi, laid his plans against Jehoram, while Jehoram and the Israelites were defending Ramoth-gilead against Hazael king of Aram. 15   King Jehoram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds inflicted on him by the Aramaeans when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. Jehu said to them, ‘If you are on my side, ^note see that no one escapes from the city to tell the news in Jezreel.’ 16   He mounted his chariot and drove to Jezreel, for Jehoram was laid up there, and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to visit him.

17   The watchman standing on the watch-tower in Jezreel saw Jehu and his troop approaching and called out, ‘I see a troop of men.’ Then Jehoram said, ‘Fetch a horseman and send to find out if they come peaceably.’ 18   The horseman went to meet him and said, ‘The king asks, “Is it peace?”’ Jehu said, ‘Peace? What is peace to you? Fall in behind me.’ Thereupon the watchman reported, ‘The messenger has met them but he is not coming back.’ 19   A second horseman was sent; when he met them, he also said, ‘The king asks, “Is it peace?”’ ‘Peace?’ said Jehu. 20   ‘What is peace to you?’ Fall in behind me.’ Then the watchman reported, ‘He has met them but he is not coming back. The driving is like the driving of Jehu son ^note of Nimshi, for he drives

Elisha and the end of the house of Ahab furiously.’ 21   ‘Harness my chariot’, said Jehoram. They harnessed it, and Jehoram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out each in his own chariot to meet Jehu, and met him by the plot of Naboth of Jezreel. 22   When Jehoram saw Jehu, he said, ‘Is it peace, Jehu?’ But he replied, ‘Do you call it peace while your mother Jezebel keeps up her obscene idol-worship and monstrous sorceries?’ 23   Jehoram wheeled about and fled, crying out to Ahaziah, ‘Treachery, Ahaziah!’ 24   Jehu seized his bow and shot Jehoram between the shoulders; the arrow pierced his heart and he sank down in his chariot. 25   Then Jehu said to Bidkar, his lieutenant, ‘Pick him up and throw him into the plot of land belonging to Naboth of Jezreel; remember how, when you and I were riding side by side behind Ahab his father, the Lord pronounced this sentence against him: 26   “It is the very word of the Lord: as surely as I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, I will requite you in this plot.” So pick him up and throw him into it and thus fulfil the word of the Lord.’ 27   When Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled by the road to Beth-haggan. Jehu went after him and said, ‘Make sure of him too.’ They shot him down ^note in his chariot on the road up the valley ^note near Ibleam, but he escaped to Megiddo and died there. 28   His servants conveyed his body to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb with his forefathers in the city of David.

29   In the eleventh year of Jehoram son of Ahab, Ahaziah became king over Judah.

30   Jehu came to Jezreel. Now Jezebel had heard what had happened; she had painted her eyes and dressed her hair, and she stood looking down from a window. 31   As Jehu entered the gate, she said, ‘Is it peace, you Zimri, you murderer of your master?’ 32   He looked up at the window and said, ‘Who is on my side, who?’ Two or three eunuchs looked out, and he said, ‘Throw her down.’ 33   They threw her down, and some of her blood splashed on to the wall and the horses, which trampled her underfoot. 34   Then he went in and ate and drank. ‘See to this accursed woman,’ he said, ‘and bury her; for she is a king's daughter.’ 35   But when they went to bury her they found nothing of her but the skull, the feet, and the palms of the hands; 36   and they went back and told him. Jehu said, ‘It is the word of the Lord which his servant Elijah the Tishbite spoke, when he said, “In the plot of ground at Jezreel the dogs shall devour the flesh of Jezebel, 37   and Jezebel's corpse shall lie like dung upon the ground in the plot at Jezreel so that no one will be able to say: This is Jezebel.”’

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