²² After this the Feast of Dedication [of the reconsecration of the temple] was taking place at Jerusalem. It was winter,

²³ And Jesus was walking in Solomon’s Porch in the temple area.

²⁴ So the Jews surrounded Him and began asking Him, How long are You going to keep us in doubt and suspense? If You are really the Christ (the Messiah), tell us so plainly and openly.

²⁵ Jesus answered them, I have told you so, yet you do not believe Me [you do not trust Me and rely on Me]. The very works that I do by the power of My Father and in My Father’s name bear witness concerning Me [they are My credentials and evidence in support of Me].

²⁶ But you do not believe and trust and rely on Me because you do not belong to My fold [you are no sheep of Mine].

²⁷ The sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice; and I know them, and they follow Me.

²⁸ And I give them eternal life, and they shall never lose it or perish throughout the ages. [To all eternity they shall never by any means be destroyed.] And no one is able to snatch them out of My hand.

²⁹ My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater and mightier than all [else]; and no one is able to snatch [them] out of the Father’s hand.

³⁰ I and the Father are One.

³¹ Again the Jews ^[a]brought up stones to stone Him.

³² Jesus said to them, My Father has enabled Me to do many good deeds. [I have shown many acts of mercy in your presence.] For which of these do you mean to stone Me?

³³ The Jews replied, We are not going to stone You for a good act, but for blasphemy, because You, a mere ^[b]Man, make Yourself [out to be] God.

³⁴ Jesus answered, Is it not written in your Law, I said, You are gods?^(A)

³⁵ So men are called gods [by the Law], men to whom God’s message came—and the Scripture cannot be set aside or cancelled or broken or annulled—

³⁶ [If that is true] do you say of the One Whom the Father consecrated and dedicated and set apart for Himself and sent into the world, You are blaspheming, because I said, I am the Son of God?

³⁷ If I am not doing the works [performing the deeds] of My Father, then do not believe Me [do not adhere to Me and trust Me and rely on Me].

³⁸ But if I do them, even though you do not believe Me or have faith in Me, [at least] believe the works and have faith in what I do, in order that you may know and understand [clearly] that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father [One with Him].

³⁹ They sought again to arrest Him, but He escaped from their hands.

⁴⁰ He went back again across the Jordan to the locality where John was when he first baptized, and there He remained.

⁴¹ And many came to Him, and they kept saying, John did not perform a [single] sign or miracle, but everything John said about this Man was true.

⁴² And many [people] there became believers in Him. [They adhered to and trusted in and relied on Him.]

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8 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, Arise and go with your household and sojourn wherever you can, for the Lord has called for a famine, and moreover, it will come upon the land for seven years.

² So the woman arose and did as the man of God had said. She went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.

³ At the end of the seven years the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, and she went to appeal to the king for her house and land.

⁴ The king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me all the great things Elisha has done.

⁵ And as Gehazi was telling the king how [Elisha] had restored the dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and land. And Gehazi said, My lord O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha brought back to life.

⁶ When the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed to her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land even until now.

⁷ Elisha came to Damascus, and Ben-hadad king of Syria was sick; and he was told, The man of God has come here.

⁸ And the king said to Hazael, Take a present in your hand and go meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord by him, saying, Shall I recover from this disease?

⁹ So Hazael went to meet Elisha and took a present with him of every good thing of Damascus, forty camel loads, and came and stood before him and said, Your son Ben-hadad king of Syria has sent me to you, asking, Shall I recover from this disease?

¹⁰ And Elisha said, Go, say to him, You shall certainly recover; but the Lord has shown me that he shall certainly die.

¹¹ Elisha stared steadily at him until Hazael was embarrassed. And the man of God wept.

¹² And Hazael said, Why do you weep, my lord? He answered, Because I know the evil that you will do to the Israelites. You will burn their strongholds, slay their young men with the sword, dash their infants in pieces, and rip up their pregnant women.

¹³ And Hazael said, What is your servant, only a dog, that he should do this monstrous thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord has shown me that you will be king over Syria.

¹⁴ Then [Hazael] departed from Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, What did Elisha say to you? And he answered, He told me you would surely recover.

¹⁵ But the next day Hazael took the bedspread and dipped it in water and spread it on [the Syrian king’s] face, so that he died. And Hazael reigned in his stead.

¹⁶ In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign.

¹⁷ He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

¹⁸ He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab, for [Athaliah] the daughter of Ahab was his wife. He did evil in the sight of the Lord.

¹⁹ Yet, for David His servant’s sake, the Lord would not destroy Judah, for He promised to give him and his sons a lamp forever.

²⁰ In his days, Edom revolted from the rule of Judah and set up a king over themselves.

²¹ So Jehoram [of Judah] went over to Zair with all his chariots. He and his chariot commanders rose up by night and slew the Edomites who had surrounded them; and [escaping] his army fled home.

²² So Edom revolted from the rule of Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time.

²³ The rest of the acts of Jehoram, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

²⁴ Jehoram slept with his fathers and was buried with [them] in the City of David. Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead.

²⁵ In the twelfth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.

²⁶ Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.

²⁷ He walked in the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the Lord, as did the house of Ahab, for his father was son-in-law of Ahab.

²⁸ Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Syria in Ramoth-gilead; and the Syrians wounded Joram.

²⁹ King Joram returned to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.

9 And Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, Gird up your loins, take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead.

² When you arrive, look there for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi; and go in and have him arise from among his brethren and lead him to an inner chamber.

³ Then take the cruse of oil and pour it on his head and say, Thus says the Lord: I have anointed you king over Israel. Then open the door and flee; do not tarry.

⁴ So the young man, the young prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead.

⁵ And when he came, the captains of the army were sitting outside; and he said, I have a message for you, O captain. Jehu said, To which of us? And he said, To you, O captain.

⁶ And Jehu arose, and they went into the house. And the prophet poured the oil on Jehu’s head and said to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I have anointed you king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel.

⁷ You shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets and of all the servants of the Lord [who have died] at the hands of Jezebel.

⁸ For the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel.

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.^(A)

¹⁰ And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and none shall bury her. And he opened the door and fled. [Fulfilled in II Kings 9:33-37.]

¹¹ When Jehu came out to the servants of his master, one said to him, Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you? And he said to them, You know that class of man and what he would say.

¹² And they said, That is false; tell us now. And he said, Thus and thus he spoke to me, saying, Thus says the Lord: I have anointed you king over Israel.

¹³ Then they hastily took every man his garment and put it [for a cushion] under Jehu on the top of the [outside] stairs, and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king!

¹⁴ So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram [to dethrone and slay him]. Now Joram was holding Ramoth-gilead, he and all Israel, against Hazael king of Syria,

¹⁵ But King Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him when he fought with Hazael king of Syria. And Jehu said, If this is your mind, let no one make his escape from the city [Ramoth-gilead] to go and tell it in Jezreel [the capital].

¹⁶ So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. And Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.

¹⁷ A watchman on the tower in Jezreel spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, I see a company. And Joram said, Send a horseman to meet them and have him ask, Do you come in peace?

¹⁸ So one on horseback went to meet him and said, Thus says the king: Is it peace? And Jehu said, What have you to do with peace? Rein in behind me. And the watchman reported, The messenger came to them, but he does not return.

¹⁹ Then Joram sent out a second man on horseback, who came to them and said, Thus says the king: Is it peace? Jehu replied, What have you to do with peace? Ride behind me.

²⁰ And the watchman reported, He came to them, but does not return; also the driving is like the driving of Jehu son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.

²¹ Joram said, Make ready. When his chariot was made ready, Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot. Thus they went out to meet Jehu and met him in the field of Naboth the Jezreelite.

²² When Joram saw Jehu, he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, How can peace exist as long as the fornications of your mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?

²³ Then Joram reined about and fled, and he said to Ahaziah, Treachery, Ahaziah!

²⁴ But Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and shot Joram between his shoulders; and the arrow went out through his heart, and he sank down in his chariot.

²⁵ Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, Take [Joram] up and cast him in the plot of Naboth the Jezreelite’s field; for remember how, when I and you rode together after Ahab his father, the Lord uttered this prophecy against him:

²⁶ As surely as I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, says the Lord, I will repay you on this plot of ground, says the Lord. Now therefore, take and cast Joram into the plot of ground [of Naboth], as the word of the Lord said.^(B)

²⁷ When Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu followed him and said, Smite him also in the chariot. And they did so at the ascent to Gur, which is by Ibleam. And [Ahaziah] fled to Megiddo and died there.

²⁸ His servants took him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his sepulcher with his fathers in the City of David.

²⁹ In the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah’s reign over Judah began.

³⁰ Now when Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, and she painted her eyes and beautified her head and looked out of [an upper] window.

³¹ And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, [Have you come in] peace, you Zimri, who slew his master?^(C)

³² Jehu lifted up his face to the window and said, Who is on my side? Who? And two or three eunuchs looked out at him.

³³ And he said, Throw her down! So they threw her down, and some of her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses, and he drove over her.

³⁴ When he came in, he ate and drank, and said, See now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter.

³⁵ They went to bury her, but they found nothing left of her except the skull, feet, and palms of her hands.

³⁶ They came again and told Jehu. He said, This is the word of the Lord which He spoke by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel.^(D)

³⁷ The corpse of Jezebel shall be like dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel, so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.