Beginning
9 Then Elisha the Prophet called one of the children of the Prophets, and said to him, “Gird your loins and take this box of oil in your hand and get yourself to Ramoth Gilead.
2 “And when you get there, look for Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. And go and make him rise up from among his brethren and lead him to a secret chamber.
3 “Then take the box of oil and pour it on his head, and say, ‘Thus says the LORD: “I have anointed you for king over Israel.”’ Then open the door and flee without any delay.”
4 So the servant of the Prophet got himself to Ramoth Gilead.
5 And when he came in, behold, the captains of the army were sitting. And he said, “I have a message to you, O captain.” And Jehu said, “To which one of us?” And he answered, “To you, O captain.”
6 And he arose and went into the house. And he poured the oil on his head and said to him, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel.
7 ‘And you shall strike the House of Ahab, your master, so that I may avenge the blood of My servants, the Prophets — and the blood of all the servants of the LORD — at the hand of Jezebel.
8 ‘For the whole House of Ahab shall be destroyed. And I will cut off all males from Ahab, he who is shut up as well as he who is left in Israel.
9 ‘And I will make the House of Ahab like the House of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and like the House of Baasha, the son of Ahijah.
10 ‘And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the field of Jezreel. And there shall be no one to bury her.’” And he opened the door and fled.
11 Then Jehu came out to the servants of his lord. And someone said to him, “Is all well? Why did this mad man come to you?” And he said to them, “You know the man and what his talk was.”
12 And they said, “It is false. Tell it to us now.” Then he said, “(Thus and thus) he spoke to me, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “I have anointed you for king over Israel.”’”
13 Then they hurried. And every man took his garment and put it underneath him, at the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, “Jehu is king!”
14 So Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. Now Joram protected Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, from Hazael, king of Aram.
15 And king Joram returned to Jezreel to be healed from the wounds which the Aramites had given him when he fought with Hazael, king of Aram. And Jehu said, “If you are so minded, let no man depart and escape out of the city to go and tell in Jezreel.”
16 So Jehu got up into a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. And Ahaziah, king of Judah, had come down to see Joram.
17 And the watchman that stood in the tower in Jezreel spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, “I see a company!” And Jehoram said, “Take a horseman and send to meet them, so that he may say, ‘Is it 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? Turn behind me.” And the watchman told, saying, “The messenger went to them, but he has not come back.”
19 Then he sent out another on horseback, who came to them, and said, “Thus says the king, ‘Is it peace?’” And Jehu answered, “What have you to do with peace? Follow me.”
20 And the watchman told, saying, “He went to them, but does not return. And the marching is like the marching of Jehu, the son of Nimshi. For he marches furiously.”
21 Then Jehoram said, “Make ready.” And his chariot was made ready. And Jehoram, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, king of Judah, went out, each of them in his chariot, against Jehu, and met him in the field of Naboth the Jezreelite.
22 And when Jehoram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” And he answered, “What peace while the whoredoms of your mother, Jezebel, and her witchcrafts, are still in great number?”
23 Then Jehoram turned his hand, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, “O Ahaziah! Treason!”
24 But Jehu took a bow in his hand and struck Jehoram between the shoulders, so that the arrow went through his heart. And he fell down in his chariot.
25 Then Jehu said to Bidkar, a captain, “Take and cast him in some place in the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. For I remember that when I and you rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden upon him.
26 ‘Surely yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,’ said the LORD, ‘And I will render it to you in this field,’ says the LORD. Now, therefore, take and cast him in the field according to the Word of the LORD.”
27 But when Ahaziah, the king of Judah, saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. And Jehu pursued after him, and said, “Strike him also in the chariot!” And they struck him in the going up to Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo and died there.
28 And his servants carried him to Jerusalem in a chariot and buried him in his sepulcher with his fathers, in the city of David.
29 And in the eleventh year of Joram, the son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah.
30 And when Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it and painted her face and adorned her head and looked out a window.
31 And as Jehu entered at the gate, she said, “Does Zimri, killer of his master, have peace?”
32 And he lifted up his eyes to the window, and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Then two or three of her eunuchs looked to him,
33 and he said, “Throw her down.” And they threw her down. And he sprinkled some of her blood upon the wall, and upon the horses. And he trod her underfoot.
34 And when he had come in, he ate and drank, and said, “Now, see to this cursed woman, and bury her. For she is a king’s daughter.”
35 And they went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.
36 Therefore, they came back and told him. And he said, “This is the Word of the LORD which He spoke by His servant, Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘In the field of Jezreel shall the dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel.
37 ‘And the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the ground in the field of Jezreel, so that no one shall say, “This is Jezebel.”’”
10 Ahab now had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters and sent to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders, and to the guardians of Ahab’s children, to this effect:
2 “Now when this letter comes to you (for you have with you your master’s sons, you have with you both chariots and horses, and a defensed city, and armor),
3 consider which of your master’s sons is best and most fitting, and set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.”
4 But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, “Behold, two kings could not stand before him. How then shall we stand?”
5 And he who was governor of Ahab’s house, and he who ruled the city, and the elders, and the guardians of the children sent to Jehu, saying, “We are your servants, and will do all that you shall ask us. We will make no king. Do what seems good to you.”
6 Then he wrote another letter to them, saying, “If you are mine, and will obey my voice, take the heads of the men who are your master’s sons. And come to me, to Jezreel, by tomorrow at this time.” Now the king’s sons, seventy people, were with the great men of the city, who raised them.
7 And when the letter came to them, they took the king’s sons and killed all seventy people and laid their heads in baskets and sent them to him, to Jezreel.
8 Then, a messenger came and told him, saying, “They have brought the heads of the king’s sons.” And he said, “Let them lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning.”
9 And when it was day, he went out and stood and said to all the people, “You are righteous! Behold, I conspired against my master, and killed him. But who killed all these?
10 “Know now that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the Word of the LORD which the LORD spoke concerning the House of Ahab! For the LORD has brought to pass the things that He spoke by his servant Elijah!”
11 So Jehu killed all who remained of the House of Ahab in Jezreel, and all who were great with him, and his friends, and his priests, so that he let no one remain.
12 And he arose and departed and came to Samaria. And as Jehu was on the road, by a house where the shepherds sheared,
13 he met with the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judah, and said, “Who are you?” And they answered, “We are the brethren of Ahaziah, and go down to greet the children of the king and the children of the queen.”
14 And he said, “Take them alive.” And they took them alive and killed them at the well beside the house where the sheep are shorn, forty-two men. And he did not leave one of them.
15 And when he had departed from there, he met with Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, coming to meet him. And he blessed him, and said to him, “Is your heart right, as my heart is toward yours?” And Jehonadab answered, “Yes, doubtless.” “Give me your hand.” And when he had given him his hand, he took him up to himself, into the chariot.
16 And he said, “Come with me, and see the zeal that I have for the LORD!” So, they made him ride in his chariot.
17 And when he came to Samaria, he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed according to the Word of the LORD which He spoke to Elijah.
18 Then Jehu assembled all the people, and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little! Jehu shall serve him much more!
19 “Now, therefore, call to me all the prophets of Baal — all his servants and all his priests — and do not let a man be missing! For I have a great sacrifice for Baal! Whoever is missing, he shall not live!” But Jehu did so with subtlety, to destroy the servants of Baal.
20 And Jehu said, “Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal!” And they proclaimed it.
21 So Jehu sent to all Israel; and all the servants of Baal came. And there was not a man left who did not come. And they came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was full, from end to end.
22 Then he said to him who had the charge of the vestry, “Bring forth vestments for all the servants of Baal.” And he brought out vestments for them.
23 And when Jehu and Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, went into the house of Baal, he said to the servants of Baal, “Search diligently and look, lest there be here with you any of the servants of the LORD, and not just the servants of Baal.”
24 And when they went in to make sacrifice and burnt offering, Jehu appointed eighty men outside, and said, “If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escapes, his soul shall be for his soul.”
25 And when he finished the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard, and to the captains, “Go in. Kill them. Do not let a man come out.” And they struck them with the edge of the sword. And the guard and the captains cast them out and went to the city, to the temple of Baal.
26 And they brought out the images of the temple of Baal and burnt them.
27 And they destroyed the image of Baal, and threw down the house of Baal, and made a latrine of it to this day.
28 So Jehu destroyed Baal from out of Israel.
29 But from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, Jehu did not depart (the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan).
30 And the LORD said to Jehu, “Because you have diligently executed that which was right in My Eyes and have done to the House of Ahab according to all things that were in My Heart, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.”
31 But Jehu was not careful to walk in the Law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin.
32 In those days, the LORD began to loathe Israel. And Hazael struck them in all the territories of Israel,
33 from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and those who were of Manasseh, from Aroer (which is by the river Arnon) and Gilead and Bashan.
34 Concerning the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his valiant deeds, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
35 And Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz, his son, reigned in his place.
36 And the time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
11 Then Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, when she saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the king’s seed.
2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister to Ahaziah, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons who were to be killed, he and his nurse, from the bedchamber. And they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not killed.
3 And he was hidden in the House of the LORD with her for six years. And Athaliah reigned over the land.
4 And the seventh year, Jehoiada sent and took the captains over hundreds, with captains and those of the guard, and had them come to him, into the House of the LORD, and made a covenant with them, and took an oath from them in the House of the LORD and showed them the king’s son.
5 And he commanded them, saying, “This is what you must do: One third of you, who comes on the Sabbath, shall keep watch over the king’s house,
6 “and one third on the gate of Sur, and one third on the gate behind those of the guard. And you shall keep watch on the House of Massah.
7 “And two parts of you, all who go out on the Sabbath Day, shall keep the watch of the House of the LORD for the king.
8 “And you shall surround the king, all around, each man with his weapon in his hand. And whoever comes within range, let him be killed. You be with the king, as he goes out and in.”
9 And the captains of the hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the Priest commanded. And they took every man from his men who entered on the Sabbath, with those who went out on the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the Priest.
10 And the Priest gave the spears and the shields that were King David’s, and were in the House of the LORD, to the captains of hundreds.
11 And the guards stood, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the House to the left side, around the Altar and around the House, all around the king.
12 Then he brought out the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the Testimony. And they made him king. They also anointed him, and clapped their hands, and said, “God save the king!”
13 And when Athaliah heard the noise of the running of the people, she came in to the people in the House of the LORD.
14 And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar (as the manner was). And the princes and the trumpeters were by the king. And all the people of the land rejoiced and blew trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and cried, “Treason! Treason!”
15 But Jehoiada the Priest commanded the captains of the hundreds who had the rule of the army, and said to them, “Take her forth between the ranks, and he who follows her, let him die by the sword.” For the Priest had said, “Do not let her be killed in the House of the LORD.”
16 Then they laid hands on her. And she went by the way which the horses take to the house of the king. And she was killed there.
17 And Jehoiada made a Covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, so that they would be the LORD’s people, and also between the king and the people.
18 Then all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and destroyed it with its altars, and they courageously broke down its images, and killed Mattan, the Priest of Baal, before the altars. And the Priest set a guard over the House of the LORD.
19 Then he took the captains of hundreds, and the other captains, and the guard, and all the people of the land, and they brought the king from the House of the LORD and came by way of the gate of the guard to the king’s house. And he sat down on the throne of the kings.
20 And all the people of the land rejoiced. And the city was quiet. For they had killed Athaliah with the sword, beside the king’s house.
21 Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.
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