Joram of Israel Killed

¹⁴ So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against ^(A)Joram. (Now Joram had been defending Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, against Hazael king of Syria. ¹⁵ But ^(B)King ^[a]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; ^(C)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, ^[b]‘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? ^[c]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, ^[d]“Make ready.” And his chariot was made ready. Then ^(D)Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot; and they went out to meet Jehu, and ^[e]met him ^(E)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 ^[f]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 ^(F)the Lord laid this ^(G)burden upon him: ²⁶ ‘Surely I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,’ says the Lord, ^(H)‘and I will repay you ^[g]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^(I)

²⁷ But when Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled by the road to ^[h]Beth Haggan. So Jehu pursued him, and said, ^[i]“Shoot him also in the chariot.” And they shot him at the Ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. Then he fled to ^(J)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.