²⁶ Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah,^(A) a granddaughter of Omri^(B) king of Israel.

² Ahaziah was twenty-two^[a] years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri.

⁵ He also followed their counsel when he went with Joram^[a] son of Ahab king of Israel to wage war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead.^(A) The Arameans wounded Joram; ⁶ so he returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds they had inflicted on him at Ramoth^[b] in his battle with Hazael^(B) king of Aram.

Then Ahaziah^[c] son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab because he had been wounded.

⁷ Through Ahaziah’s^(C) visit to Joram, God brought about Ahaziah’s downfall. When Ahaziah arrived, he went out with Joram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab. ⁸ While Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab,^(D) he found the officials of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s relatives, who had been attending Ahaziah, and he killed them.

¹³ When Athaliah heard the noise made by the guards and the people, she went to the people at the temple of the Lord. ¹⁴ She looked and there was the king, standing by the pillar,^(A) as the custom was. The officers and the trumpeters were beside the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets.^(B) Then Athaliah tore^(C) her robes and called out, “Treason! Treason!”^(D)

¹⁵ Jehoiada the priest ordered the commanders of units of a hundred, who were in charge of the troops: “Bring her out between the ranks^[a] and put to the sword anyone who follows her.” For the priest had said, “She must not be put to death in the temple^(E) of the Lord.” ¹⁶ So they seized her as she reached the place where the horses enter^(F) the palace grounds, and there she was put to death.^(G)

Athaliah and Joash^(A)

11 When Athaliah^(B) the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family.

²¹ “Hitch up my chariot,” Joram ordered. And when it was hitched up, Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah rode out, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu. They met him at the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth^(A) the Jezreelite. ²² When Joram saw Jehu he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?”

“How can there be peace,” Jehu replied, “as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel^(B) abound?”

²³ Joram turned about and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, “Treachery,^(C) Ahaziah!”

²⁴ Then Jehu drew his bow^(D) and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot. ²⁵ Jehu said to Bidkar, his chariot officer, “Pick him up and throw him on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together in chariots behind Ahab his father when the Lord spoke this prophecy^(E) against him: ²⁶ ‘Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth^(F) and the blood of his sons, declares the Lord, and I will surely make you pay for it on this plot of ground, declares the Lord.’^[a] Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in accordance with the word of the Lord.”^(G)

²⁷ When Ahaziah king of Judah saw what had happened, he fled up the road to Beth Haggan.^[b] Jehu chased him, shouting, “Kill him too!” They wounded him in his chariot on the way up to Gur near Ibleam,^(H) but he escaped to Megiddo^(I) and died there.