¹⁴ Then Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram.^(A) Joram and all Israel had been at Ramoth-gilead on guard against Hazael king of Aram. ¹⁵ But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought against Aram’s King Hazael. Jehu said, “If you commanders wish to make me king, then don’t let anyone escape from the city to go tell about it in Jezreel.”

Jehu Kills Joram and Ahaziah

¹⁶ Jehu got into his chariot and went to Jezreel since Joram was laid up there and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to visit Joram. ¹⁷ Now the watchman^(B) was standing on the tower in Jezreel. He saw Jehu’s troops approaching and shouted, “I see troops!”

Joram responded, “Choose a rider and send him to meet them and have him ask, ‘Do you come in peace?’”^(C)

¹⁸ So a horseman went to meet Jehu and said, “This is what the king asks: ‘Do you come in peace?’”

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

The watchman reported, “The messenger reached them but hasn’t started back.”

¹⁹ So he sent out a second horseman, who went to them and said, “This is what the king asks: ‘Do you come in peace?’”

Jehu answered, “What do you have to do with peace?^[b] Fall in behind me.”

²⁰ Again the watchman reported, “He reached them but hasn’t started back. Also, the driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi^(D)—he drives like a madman.”

²¹ “Harness!” Joram shouted, and they harnessed his chariot. Then Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah set out, each in his own chariot, and met Jehu at the plot of land of Naboth the Jezreelite.^{(E) 22} When Joram saw Jehu he asked, “Do you come in peace, Jehu?”

He answered, “What peace can there be as long as there is so much prostitution and witchcraft from your mother Jezebel?”^(F)

²³ Joram turned around and fled, shouting to Ahaziah, “It’s treachery,^(G) Ahaziah!”

²⁴ Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow went through his heart, and he slumped down in his chariot.^{(H) 25} Jehu said to Bidkar his aide, “Pick him up and throw him on the plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite.^(I) For remember when you and I were riding side by side behind his father Ahab, and the Lord uttered this oracle against him: ²⁶ ‘As surely as I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday’—this is the Lord’s declaration—‘so will I repay you on this plot of land’—this is the Lord’s declaration. So now, according to the word of the Lord, pick him up and throw him on the plot of land.”^(J)

²⁷ When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what was happening, he fled up the road toward Beth-haggan. Jehu pursued him, shouting, “Shoot him too!” So they shot him in his chariot^[c] at Gur Pass near Ibleam,^(K) but he fled to Megiddo^(L) and died there.^{(M) 28} Then his servants carried him to Jerusalem in a chariot and buried him in his fathers’ tomb in the city of David.^{(N) 29} It was in the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab that Ahaziah had become king over Judah.^(O)