2 Kings 9:14-29

Lexham English Bible

¹⁴ So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. Now Joram was keeping guard in Ramoth-Gilead, he and all of Israel, because of the threat^[a] of Hazael king of Aram. ¹⁵ But Joram the king had returned to heal in Jezreel from the wound which the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought with Hazael king of Aram. Jehu said, “If this is what you want,^[b] do not let him go out as a fugitive from the city to go to make it known in Jezreel.” ¹⁶ Jehu mounted his chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was lying there, and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to visit Joram. ¹⁷ Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he saw the company of Jehu when he came, and he said, “I see a company.” Joram said, “Take a horseman and send him to meet them.” And he said, “Is it peace?” ¹⁸ So the rider of the horse went out to meet him, and he said, “Thus the king asks, ‘Is it peace?’” Then Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace?^[c] Turn after me.” Then the watchman reported, saying, “The messenger went up to them, but he did not return.” ¹⁹ Then he sent out a second horseman, and he came to them and said, “Thus the king asks, ‘Is it peace?’” Then Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace?^[d] Turn after me.” ²⁰ So the sentinel reported, saying, “He went up to them, but he did not return, and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives with madness.”

²¹ Then Joram said, “Get ready,” so he got his chariot ready. Joram king of Israel went out, and Ahaziah king of Judah, each with his chariot. They went out to meet Jehu, and they found him at the tract of land of Naboth the Jezreelite. ²² When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Is it peace?” And he said, “What peace is there while the prostitutions of your mother Jezebel and her sorceries are numerous?” ²³ Joram turned his chariot^[e] and fled and said to Ahaziah, “It’s treason, Ahaziah!” ²⁴ Then Jehu drew his bow^[f] and shot Joram between his shoulders so that the arrow went out from his heart, and he slumped down in his chariot. ²⁵ He said to Bidkar his third servant, “Lift him out and throw him on the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, for remember, you and I were with the pair of chariots behind Ahab his father when Yahweh pronounced this oracle against him: ²⁶ ‘“Since I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his children yesterday,” declares Yahweh, “I will requite it for you in this tract of land,” declares Yahweh.’ So then lift him out and throw him on the tract of land according to the word of Yahweh.”

Jehu Orders the Assassination of Ahaziah

²⁷ When Ahaziah king of Judah saw, he fled the way of Beth-Haggen. Jehu pursued after him and said, “Shoot him also, in the chariot.” They shot him at the ascent of Gur which is in Ibleam, and he fled to Megiddo, but he died there. ²⁸ Then his officers carried him to Jerusalem, and they buried him in his tomb with his ancestors^[g] in the city of David. ²⁹ In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king over Judah.