2 Kings 9
English Standard Version
Jehu Anointed King of Israel
9 Then Elisha the prophet called one of (A)the sons of the prophets and said to him, (B)“Tie up your garments, and take this (C)flask of oil in your hand, and go to (D)Ramoth-gilead. 2 And when you arrive, look there for Jehu (E)the son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. And go in and have him rise from among (F)his fellows, and lead him to an inner chamber. 3 Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, ‘Thus says the Lord, (G)I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee; do not linger.”
4 So the young man, the servant of the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead. 5 And when he came, behold, the commanders of the army were in council. And he said, “I have a word for you, O commander.” And Jehu said, “To which of us all?” And he said, “To you, O commander.” 6 So he arose and went into the house. And the young man poured the oil on his head, saying to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, (H)I anoint you king over the people of the Lord, over Israel. 7 And you shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, so that I may avenge (I)on Jezebel the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord. 8 For the whole house of Ahab shall perish, (J)and I will cut off from Ahab (K)every male, (L)bond or free, in Israel. 9 And I will make the house of Ahab like (M)the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like (N)the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. 10 (O)And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her.” Then he opened the door and fled.
11 When Jehu came out to the servants of his master, they said to him, (P)“Is all well? Why did (Q)this mad fellow come to you?” And he said to them, “You know the fellow and his talk.” 12 And they said, “That is not true; tell us now.” And he said, “Thus and so he spoke to me, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, I anoint you king over Israel.’” 13 Then in haste (R)every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare[a] steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, (S)“Jehu is king.”
Jehu Assassinates Joram and Ahaziah
14 Thus Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. ((T)Now Joram with all Israel had been on guard at Ramoth-gilead against (U)Hazael king of Syria, 15 (V)but King Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) So Jehu said, “If this is your decision, then let no one slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel.” 16 Then Jehu mounted his chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. And Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to visit Joram.
17 Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he saw the company of Jehu as he came and said, “I see a company.” And Joram said, “Take a horseman and send to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’” 18 So a man on horseback went to meet him and said, “Thus says the king, ‘Is it peace?’” And Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace? Turn around and ride behind me.” And the watchman reported, saying, “The messenger reached them, but he is not coming back.” 19 Then he sent out a second horseman, who came to them and said, “Thus the king has said, ‘Is it peace?’” And Jehu answered, “What do you have to do with peace? Turn around and ride behind me.” 20 Again the watchman reported, “He reached them, but he is not coming back. And the driving (W)is like the driving of Jehu (X)the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.”
21 Joram said, (Y)“Make ready.” And they made ready his chariot. (Z)Then Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah set out, each in his chariot, and went to meet Jehu, and met him (AA)at the property of Naboth the Jezreelite. 22 And when Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace can there be, so long as (AB)the whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many?” 23 Then Joram reined about and fled, saying to Ahaziah, “Treachery, O Ahaziah!” 24 And Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and shot Joram between the shoulders, so that the arrow pierced his heart, and he sank in his chariot. 25 Jehu said to Bidkar (AC)his aide, “Take him up and throw him (AD)on the plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. For remember, when you and I rode side by side behind Ahab his father, how (AE)the Lord made this (AF)pronouncement against him: 26 ‘As surely as I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons—declares the Lord—I will repay you on this plot of ground.’ Now therefore take him up and throw him on the plot of ground, in accordance with the word of the Lord.”
27 (AG)When Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled in the direction of Beth-haggan. And Jehu pursued him and said, “Shoot him also.” And they shot him[b] in the chariot at the ascent of Gur, which is by (AH)Ibleam. And he fled to (AI)Megiddo and died there. 28 (AJ)His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David.
29 In the (AK)eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah.
Jehu Executes Jezebel
30 When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. And (AL)she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window. 31 And as Jehu entered the gate, she said, (AM)“Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?” 32 And he lifted up his face to the window and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. 33 He said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down. And some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled on her. 34 Then he went in and ate and drank. And he said, “See now to this cursed woman and bury her, (AN)for she is a king's daughter.” 35 But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. 36 When they came back and told him, he said, “This is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite: (AO)‘In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel, 37 and the corpse of Jezebel shall be (AP)as dung on the face of the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, This is Jezebel.’”
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 9:13 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
- 2 Kings 9:27 Syriac, Vulgate (compare Septuagint); Hebrew lacks and they shot him
2 Kings 9
Living Bible
9 Meanwhile Elisha had summoned one of the young prophets.
“Get ready to go to Ramoth-gilead,” he told him. “Take this vial of oil with you 2 and find Jehu (the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi). Call him into a private room away from his friends, 3 and pour the oil over his head. Tell him that the Lord has anointed him to be the king of Israel; then run for your life!”
4 So the young prophet did as he was told. When he arrived in Ramoth-gilead, 5 he found Jehu sitting around with the other army officers.
“I have a message for you, sir,” he said.
“For which one of us?” Jehu asked.
“For you,” he replied.
6 So Jehu left the others and went into the house, and the young man poured the oil over his head and said, “The Lord God of Israel says, ‘I anoint you king of the Lord’s people, Israel. 7 You are to destroy the family of Ahab; you will avenge the murder of my prophets and of all my other people who were killed by Jezebel. 8 The entire family of Ahab must be wiped out—every male, no matter who. 9 I will destroy the family of Ahab as I destroyed the families of Jeroboam (son of Nebat) and of Baasha (son of Ahijah). 10 Dogs shall eat Ahab’s wife Jezebel at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.’”
Then he opened the door and ran.
11 Jehu went back to his friends and one of them asked him, “What did that crazy fellow want? Is everything all right?”
“You know very well who he was and what he wanted,” Jehu replied.
12 “No, we don’t,” they said. “Tell us.”
So he told them what the man had said and that he had been anointed king of Israel!
13 They quickly carpeted the bare steps with their coats and blew a trumpet, shouting, “Jehu is king!”
14 That is how Jehu (son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi) rebelled against King Joram. (King Joram had been with the army at Ramoth-gilead, defending Israel against the forces of King Hazael of Syria. 15 But he had returned to Jezreel to recover from his wounds.)
“Since you want me to be king,” Jehu told the men who were with him, “don’t let anyone escape to Jezreel to report what we have done.”
16 Then Jehu jumped into a chariot and rode to Jezreel himself to find King Joram, who was lying there wounded. (King Ahaziah of Judah was there too, for he had gone to visit him.) 17 The watchman on the Tower of Jezreel saw Jehu and his company approaching and shouted, “Someone is coming.”
“Send out a rider and find out if he is friend or foe,” King Joram shouted back. 18 So a soldier rode out to meet Jehu.
“The king wants to know whether you are friend or foe,” he demanded. “Do you come in peace?”
Jehu replied, “What do you know about peace? Get behind me!”
The watchman called out to the king that the messenger had met them but was not returning. 19 So the king sent out a second rider. He rode up to them and demanded in the name of the king to know whether their intentions were friendly or not.
Jehu answered, “What do you know about friendliness? Get behind me!”
20 “He isn’t returning either!” the watchman exclaimed. “It must be Jehu, for he is driving so furiously.”
21 “Quick! Get my chariot ready!” King Joram commanded.
Then he and King Ahaziah of Judah rode out to meet Jehu. They met him at the field of Naboth, 22 and King Joram demanded, “Do you come as a friend, Jehu?”
Jehu replied, “How can there be friendship as long as the evils of your mother Jezebel are all around us?”
23 Then King Joram reined the chariot horses around and fled, shouting to King Ahaziah, “There is treachery, Ahaziah! Treason!”
24 Then Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and shot Joram between the shoulders; and the arrow pierced his heart, and he sank down dead in his chariot.
25 Jehu said to Bidkar, his assistant, “Throw him into the field of Naboth, for once when you and I were riding along behind his father Ahab, the Lord revealed this prophecy to me: 26 ‘I will repay him here on Naboth’s property for the murder of Naboth and his sons.’ So throw him out on Naboth’s field, just as the Lord said.”
27 Meanwhile, King Ahaziah of Judah had fled along the road to Beth-haggan. Jehu rode after him, shouting, “Shoot him too.”
So they shot him in his chariot at the place where the road climbs to Gur, near Ibleam. He was able to go on as far as Megiddo, but died there. 28 His officials took him by chariot to Jerusalem where they buried him in the royal cemetery. 29 (Ahaziah’s reign over Judah had begun in the twelfth year[a] of the reign of King Joram of Israel.)
30 When Jezebel heard that Jehu had come to Jezreel, she painted her eyelids and fixed her hair and sat at a window. 31 When Jehu entered the gate of the palace, she shouted at him, “How are you today, you murderer! You son of a Zimri who murdered his master!”
32 He looked up and saw her at the window and shouted, “Who is on my side?” And two or three eunuchs looked out at him.
33 “Throw her down!” he yelled.
So they threw her out the window, and her blood spattered against the wall and on the horses; and she was trampled by the horses’ hoofs.
34 Then Jehu went into the palace for lunch. Afterwards he said, “Someone go and bury this cursed woman, for she is the daughter of a king.”
35 But when they went out to bury her, they found only her skull, her feet, and her hands.
36 When they returned and told him, he remarked, “That is just what the Lord said would happen. He told Elijah the prophet that dogs would eat her flesh 37 and that her body would be scattered like manure upon the field, so that no one could tell whose it was.”
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 9:29 twelfth year, implied in 8:25; literally, “eleventh.”
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.