Jehu Anointed as Israel’s King

9 The prophet Elisha called one of the sons of the prophets^(A) and said, “Tuck your mantle^(B) under your belt, take this flask of oil^(C) with you, and go to Ramoth-gilead.^{(D) 2} When you get there, look for Jehu^(E) son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Go in, get him away from his colleagues, and take him to an inner room. ³ Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head, and say, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I anoint you king over Israel.”’^(F) Open the door and escape. Don’t wait.” ⁴ So the young prophet^[a] went to Ramoth-gilead.

⁵ When he arrived, the army commanders were sitting there, so he said, “I have a message for you, commander.”

Jehu asked, “For which one of us?”

He answered, “For you, commander.”

⁶ So Jehu got up and went into the house. The young prophet poured the oil on his head and said, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anoint you king over the Lord’s people, Israel. ⁷ You are to strike down the house of your master Ahab so that I may avenge the blood shed by the hand of Jezebel—the blood of my servants the prophets and of all the servants of the Lord.^{(G) 8} The whole house of Ahab will perish, and I will wipe out all of Ahab’s males,^[b] both slave and free,^[c] in Israel.^{(H) 9} I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah.^{(I) 10} The dogs will eat Jezebel in the plot of land at Jezreel—no one will bury her.’”^(J) Then the young prophet opened the door and escaped.

¹¹ When Jehu came out to his master’s servants, they asked, “Is everything all right? Why did this crazy person^(K) come to you?”

Then he said to them, “You know the sort and their ranting.”

¹² But they replied, “That’s a lie! Tell us!”

So Jehu said, “He talked to me about this and that and said, ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.’”

¹³ Each man quickly took his garment and put it under Jehu on the bare steps.^[d](L) They blew the ram’s horn^(M) and proclaimed, “Jehu is king!” ^(N)