Hosea’s Unfaithful Wife

1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of ^(A)Uzziah, ^(B)Jotham, ^(C)Ahaz, and ^(D)Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of ^(E)Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

Jehu Anointed King of Israel

9 And Elisha the prophet called one of ^(A)the sons of the prophets, and said to him, ^(B)“Get^[a] yourself ready, take this flask of oil in your hand, ^(C)and go to Ramoth Gilead. ² Now when you arrive at that place, look there for Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, and go in and make him rise up from among ^(D)his associates, and take him to an inner room. ³ Then ^(E)take the flask of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: “I have anointed you king over Israel.” ’ Then open the door and flee, and do not delay.”

⁴ So the young man, the servant of the prophet, went to Ramoth Gilead. ⁵ And when he arrived, there were the captains of the army sitting; and he said, “I have a message for you, Commander.”

Jehu said, “For which one of us?”

And he said, “For you, Commander.” ⁶ Then he arose and went into the house. And he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, ^(F)“Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I have anointed you king over the people of the Lord, over Israel. ⁷ You shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, that I may ^(G)avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, ^(H)at the hand of Jezebel. ⁸ For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and ^(I)I will cut off from Ahab all ^(J)the males in Israel, both ^(K)bond and free. ⁹ So I will make the house of Ahab like the house of ^(L)Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of ^(M)Baasha the son of Ahijah. ^10 (N)The dogs shall eat Jezebel on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her.’ ” And he opened the door and fled.

¹¹ Then Jehu came out to the servants of his master, and one said to him, “Is all well? Why did ^(O)this madman come to you?”

And he said to them, “You know the man and his babble.”

¹² And they said, “A lie! Tell us now.”

So he said, “Thus and thus he spoke to me, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “I have anointed you king over Israel.” ’ ”

¹³ Then each man hastened ^(P)to take his garment and put it ^[b]under him on the top of the steps; and they blew trumpets, saying, “Jehu is king!”

Joram of Israel Killed

¹⁴ So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against ^(Q)Joram. (Now Joram had been defending Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, against Hazael king of Syria. ¹⁵ But ^(R)King ^[c]Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which the Syrians had inflicted on him when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) And Jehu said, “If you are so minded, let no one leave or escape from the city to go and tell it in Jezreel.” ¹⁶ So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was laid up there; ^(S)and Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.

¹⁷ Now a watchman stood on the tower in Jezreel, and he saw the company of Jehu as he came, and said, “I see a company of men.”

And Joram said, “Get a horseman and send him to meet them, and let him say, ^[d]‘Is it peace?’ ”

¹⁸ So the horseman went to meet him, and said, “Thus says the king: ‘Is it peace?’ ”

And Jehu said, “What have you to do with peace? ^[e]Turn around and follow me.”

So the watchman reported, saying, “The messenger went to them, but is not coming back.”

¹⁹ Then he sent out a second horseman who came to them, and said, “Thus says the king: ‘Is it peace?’ ”

And Jehu answered, “What have you to do with peace? Turn around and follow me.”

²⁰ So the watchman reported, saying, “He went up to them and is not coming back; and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously!”

²¹ Then Joram said, ^[f]“Make ready.” And his chariot was made ready. Then ^(T)Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot; and they went out to meet Jehu, and ^[g]met him ^(U)on the property of Naboth the Jezreelite. ²² Now it happened, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?”

So he answered, “What peace, as long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft are so many?”

²³ Then Joram turned around and fled, and said to Ahaziah, “Treachery, Ahaziah!” ²⁴ Now Jehu ^[h]drew his bow with full strength and shot Jehoram between his arms; and the arrow came out at his heart, and he sank down in his chariot. ²⁵ Then Jehu said to Bidkar his captain, “Pick him up, and throw him into the tract of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember, when you and I were riding together behind Ahab his father, that ^(V)the Lord laid this ^(W)burden upon him: ²⁶ ‘Surely I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,’ says the Lord, ^(X)‘and I will repay you ^[i]in this plot,’ says the Lord. Now therefore, take and throw him on the plot of ground, according to the word of the Lord.”

Ahaziah of Judah Killed^(Y)

²⁷ But when Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled by the road to ^[j]Beth Haggan. So Jehu pursued him, and said, ^[k]“Shoot him also in the chariot.” And they shot him at the Ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. Then he fled to ^(Z)Megiddo, and died there. ²⁸ And his servants carried him in the chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the City of David. ²⁹ In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king over Judah.

Jezebel’s Violent Death

³⁰ Now when Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; ^(AA)and she put paint on her eyes and adorned her head, and looked through a window. ³¹ Then, as Jehu entered at the gate, she said, ^(AB)“Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of your master?”

³² And he looked up at the window, and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” So two or three eunuchs looked out at him. ³³ Then he said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses; and he trampled her underfoot. ³⁴ And when he had gone in, he ate and drank. Then he said, “Go now, see to this accursed woman, and bury her, for ^(AC)she was a king’s daughter.” ³⁵ So they went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. ³⁶ Therefore they came back and told him. And he said, “This is the word of the Lord, which He spoke by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ^(AD)‘On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; ³⁷ and the corpse of Jezebel shall be ^(AE)as refuse on the surface of the field, in the plot at Jezreel, so that they shall not say, “Here lies Jezebel.” ’ ”

Ahab’s Seventy Sons Killed

10 Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote and sent letters to Samaria, to the rulers of ^[l]Jezreel, to the elders, and to ^[m]those who reared Ahab’s sons, saying:

⁴ But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, “Look, ^(AF)two kings could not ^[o]stand up to him; how then can we stand?” ⁵ And he who was in charge of the house, and he who was in charge of the city, the elders also, and those who reared the sons, sent to Jehu, saying, “We are your servants, we will do all you tell us; but we will not make anyone king. Do what is good in your sight.” ⁶ Then he wrote a second letter to them, saying:

Now the king’s sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who were rearing them. ⁷ So it was, when the letter came to them, that they took the king’s sons and ^(AG)slaughtered seventy persons, put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel.

⁸ Then a messenger came and told him, saying, “They have brought the heads of the king’s sons.”

And he said, “Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning.”

⁹ So it was, in the morning, that he went out and stood, and said to all the people, “You are righteous. Indeed ^(AH)I conspired against my master and killed him; but who killed all these? ¹⁰ Know now that nothing shall ^(AI)fall to the earth of the word of the Lord which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab; for the Lord has done what He spoke ^(AJ)by His servant Elijah.” ¹¹ So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men and his close acquaintances and his priests, until he left him none remaining.

Ahaziah’s Forty-two Brothers Killed

¹² And he arose and departed and went to Samaria. On the way, at ^[p]Beth Eked of the Shepherds, ^13 (AK)Jehu met with the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, “Who are you?”

So they answered, “We are the brothers of Ahaziah; we have come down to greet the sons of the king and the sons of the queen mother.”

¹⁴ And he said, “Take them alive!” So they took them alive, and ^(AL)killed them at the well of ^[q]Beth Eked, forty-two men; and he left none of them.

The Rest of Ahab’s Family Killed

¹⁵ Now when he departed from there, he ^[r]met ^(AM)Jehonadab the son of ^(AN)Rechab, coming to meet him; and he greeted him and said to him, “Is your heart right, as my heart is toward your heart?”

And Jehonadab answered, “It is.”

Jehu said, “If it is, ^(AO)give me your hand.” So he gave him his hand, and he took him up to him into the chariot. ¹⁶ Then he said, “Come with me, and see my ^(AP)zeal for the Lord.” So they had him ride in his chariot. ¹⁷ And when he came to Samaria, ^(AQ)he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed them, according to the word of the Lord ^(AR)which He spoke to Elijah.

Worshipers of Baal Killed

¹⁸ Then Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them, ^(AS)“Ahab served Baal a little, Jehu will serve him much. ¹⁹ Now therefore, call to me all the ^(AT)prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests. Let no one be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal. Whoever is missing shall not live.” But Jehu acted deceptively, with the intent of destroying the worshipers of Baal. ²⁰ And Jehu said, ^[s]“Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal.” So they proclaimed it. ²¹ Then Jehu sent throughout all Israel; and all the worshipers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left who did not come. So they came into the ^[t]temple of Baal, and the ^(AU)temple of Baal was full from one end to the other. ²² And he said to the one in charge of the wardrobe, “Bring out vestments for all the worshipers of Baal.” So he brought out vestments for them. ²³ Then Jehu and Jehonadab the son of Rechab went into the temple of Baal, and said to the worshipers of Baal, “Search and see that no servants of the Lord are here with you, but only the worshipers of Baal.” ²⁴ So they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed for himself eighty men on the outside, and had said, “If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escapes, whoever lets him escape, it shall be ^(AV)his life for the life of the other.”

²⁵ Now it happened, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, “Go in and kill them; let no one come out!” And they killed them with the edge of the sword; then the guards and the officers threw them out, and went into the ^[u]inner room of the temple of Baal. ²⁶ And they brought the ^(AW)sacred pillars out of the temple of Baal and burned them. ²⁷ Then they broke down the sacred pillar of Baal, and tore down the ^[v]temple of Baal and ^(AX)made it a refuse dump to this day. ²⁸ Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel.

²⁹ However Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin, that is, from ^(AY)the golden calves that were at Bethel and Dan. ³⁰ And the Lord ^(AZ)said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in doing what is right in My sight, and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, ^(BA)your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” ³¹ But Jehu ^[w]took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; for he did not depart from ^(BB)the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin.

Death of Jehu

³² In those days the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel; and ^(BC)Hazael conquered them in all the territory of Israel ³³ from the Jordan eastward: all the land of Gilead—Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh—from ^(BD)Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, including ^(BE)Gilead and Bashan.

³⁴ Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? ³⁵ So Jehu ^[x]rested with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. Then ^(BF)Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place. ³⁶ And the period that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

Hoshea Reigns in Israel

17 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, ^(A)Hoshea the son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. ² And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him. ^3 (B)Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him; and Hoshea ^(C)became his vassal, and paid him tribute money. ⁴ And the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy by Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and brought no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.

Israel Carried Captive to Assyria^(D)

⁵ Now ^(E)the king of Assyria went throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. ^6 (F)In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and ^(G)carried Israel away to Assyria, ^(H)and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

⁷ For ^(I)so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and they had ^(J)feared other gods, ⁸ and ^(K)had walked in the statutes of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. ⁹ Also the children of Israel secretly did against the Lord their God things that were not right, and they built for themselves ^[a]high places in all their cities, ^(L)from watchtower to fortified city. ^10 (M)They set up for themselves sacred pillars and ^(N)wooden images^{[b] (O)}on every high hill and under every green tree. ¹¹ There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom the Lord had carried away before them; and they did wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger, ¹² for they served idols, ^(P)of which the Lord had said to them, ^(Q)“You shall not do this thing.”

¹³ Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His ^(R)prophets, ^(S)every seer, saying, ^(T)“Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.” ¹⁴ Nevertheless they would not hear, but ^(U)stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who ^(V)did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ And they ^(W)rejected His statutes ^(X)and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed ^(Y)idols, ^(Z)became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should ^(AA)not do like them. ¹⁶ So they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, ^(AB)made for themselves a molded image and two calves, ^(AC)made a wooden image and worshiped all the ^(AD)host of heaven, ^(AE)and served Baal. ^17 (AF)And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, ^(AG)practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and ^(AH)sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁸ Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left ^(AI)but the tribe of Judah alone.

¹⁹ Also ^(AJ)Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. ²⁰ And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and ^(AK)delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them from His ^(AL)sight. ²¹ For ^(AM)He tore Israel from the house of David, and ^(AN)they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them commit a great sin. ²² For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them, ²³ until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, ^(AO)as He had said by all His servants the prophets. ^(AP)So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day.

Assyria Resettles Samaria

^24 (AQ)Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, ^(AR)Ava, Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities. ²⁵ And it was so, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. ²⁶ So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations whom you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the rituals of the God of the land; therefore He has sent lions among them, and indeed, they are killing them because they do not know the rituals of the God of the land.” ²⁷ Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Send there one of the priests whom you brought from there; let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the rituals of the God of the land.” ²⁸ Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.

²⁹ However every nation continued to make gods of its own, and put them ^(AS)in the shrines on the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities where they dwelt. ³⁰ The men of ^(AT)Babylon made Succoth Benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, ^31 (AU)and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites ^(AV)burned their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. ³² So they feared the Lord, ^(AW)and from every class they appointed for themselves priests of the ^[c]high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. ^33 (AX)They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods—according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away.

³⁴ To this day they continue practicing the former rituals; they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances, or the law and commandment which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, ^(AY)whom He named Israel, ³⁵ with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them, saying: ^(AZ)“You shall not fear other gods, nor ^(BA)bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them; ³⁶ but the Lord, who ^(BB)brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and ^(BC)an outstretched arm, ^(BD)Him you shall fear, Him you shall worship, and to Him you shall offer sacrifice. ³⁷ And the statutes, the ordinances, the law, and the commandment which He wrote for you, ^(BE)you shall be careful to observe forever; you shall not fear other gods. ³⁸ And the covenant that I have made with you, ^(BF)you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. ³⁹ But the Lord your God you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.” ⁴⁰ However they did not obey, but they followed their former rituals. ^41 (BG)So these nations feared the Lord, yet served their carved images; also their children and their children’s children have continued doing as their fathers did, even to this day.