Jehu Kills Joram and Ahaziah^(A)

¹⁴ So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. (Now Joram and all Israel had been defending Ramoth Gilead^(B) against Hazael king of Aram, ¹⁵ but King Joram^[a] had returned to Jezreel to recover^(C) from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him in the battle with Hazael king of Aram.) Jehu said, “If you desire to make me king, don’t let anyone slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel.” ¹⁶ Then he got into his chariot and rode to Jezreel, because Joram was resting there and Ahaziah^(D) king of Judah had gone down to see him.

¹⁷ When the lookout^(E) standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu’s troops approaching, he called out, “I see some troops coming.”

“Get a horseman,” Joram ordered. “Send him to meet them and ask, ‘Do you come in peace?^(F)’”

¹⁸ The horseman rode off to meet Jehu and said, “This is what the king says: ‘Do you come in peace?’”

“What do you have to do with peace?” Jehu replied. “Fall in behind me.”

The lookout reported, “The messenger has reached them, but he isn’t coming back.”

¹⁹ So the king sent out a second horseman. When he came to them he said, “This is what the king says: ‘Do you come in peace?’”

Jehu replied, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me.”

²⁰ The lookout reported, “He has reached them, but he isn’t coming back either. The driving is like^(G) that of Jehu son of Nimshi—he drives like a maniac.”

²¹ “Hitch up my chariot,” Joram ordered. And when it was hitched up, Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah rode out, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu. They met him at the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth^(H) the Jezreelite. ²² When Joram saw Jehu he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?”

“How can there be peace,” Jehu replied, “as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel^(I) abound?”

²³ Joram turned about and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, “Treachery,^(J) Ahaziah!”

²⁴ Then Jehu drew his bow^(K) and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot. ²⁵ Jehu said to Bidkar, his chariot officer, “Pick him up and throw him on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together in chariots behind Ahab his father when the Lord spoke this prophecy^(L) against him: ²⁶ ‘Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth^(M) and the blood of his sons, declares the Lord, and I will surely make you pay for it on this plot of ground, declares the Lord.’^[b] Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in accordance with the word of the Lord.”^(N)

²⁷ When Ahaziah king of Judah saw what had happened, he fled up the road to Beth Haggan.^[c] Jehu chased him, shouting, “Kill him too!” They wounded him in his chariot on the way up to Gur near Ibleam,^(O) but he escaped to Megiddo^(P) and died there. ²⁸ His servants took him by chariot^(Q) to Jerusalem and buried him with his ancestors in his tomb in the City of David. ²⁹ (In the eleventh^(R) year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king of Judah.)