2 Kings 9:14-29

Modern English Version

Joram of Israel Killed^(A)

¹⁴ So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. Joram had been guarding Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Aram. ¹⁵ But King Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel from the wounds with which the Arameans had stricken him when he fought with Hazael king of Aram. So Jehu said, “If this be your minds, let no fugitive exit the city to go tell Jezreel.” ¹⁶ Then Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.

¹⁷ A watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he saw the company of Jehu as he was coming and said, “I see a company.”

And Joram said, “Take a horseman and send him to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’ ”

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

But Jehu said, “What have you to do with peace? Circle in behind me.”

So the watchman reported, “The messenger came to them, but he is not returning.”

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

Again, Jehu said, “What have you to do with peace? Circle in behind me.”

²⁰ The watchman reported, “He came to them, but he is not returning. The driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.”

²¹ Then Joram said, “Hitch my chariot.” So his chariot was hitched, and Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot. They went out to meet Jehu and found him on the property of Naboth the Jezreelite. ²² When Joram saw Jehu he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?”

And he said, “What peace, so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her sorceries are so many?”

²³ Then Joram turned the reins, fled, and said to Ahaziah, “There is treachery, Ahaziah.”

²⁴ Jehu drew a bow with his full strength and shot Joram between his shoulder blades. The arrow went out at his heart, and he kneeled down in his chariot. ²⁵ Then Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, “Lift him up and throw him on the property of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember when you and I were riding together after Ahab his father and the Lord pronounced this oracle about him: ²⁶ ‘Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and his sons, declares the Lord, and I will pay you back on this property, declares the Lord.’ Now lift him up and throw him onto the property, according to the word of the Lord.”

Ahaziah of Judah Killed

²⁷ But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled on the path to the garden house. Jehu chased after him and said, “Shoot him too.” So they shot him on the ascent to Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo and died there. ²⁸ 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 eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah became king over Judah.