1Now Elisha the prophet called out to one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, “Gird up your loins, and take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead.
2When you arrive there, look there for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi. Go in, get him up from among his brothers, and bring him into an inner chamber within a chamber.
3Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head, and say, ‘Thus says Yahweh: I have anointed you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee; do not wait.
4So the young man—the young man, the prophet—went to Ramoth-gilead.
5When he arrived, there were the commanders of the army sitting. He said, “I have a word for you, commander.” And Jehu said, “For which one of us all?” He said, “For you, commander.”
6So he got up and went into the house, and he poured the oil on his head and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: I have anointed you king over the people of Yahweh, over Israel.
7You shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the servants of Yahweh from the hand of Jezebel.
8The whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, both bond and free in Israel.
9I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah.
10As for Jezebel, the dogs shall eat her in the plot of Jezreel, with no one to bury her.” Then he opened the door and fled.
11When Jehu came out to the servants of his master, one said to him, “Is it peace? Why did this madman come to you?” And he said to them, “You yourselves know the man and his talk.”
12But they said, “A lie! Tell us now.” And he said, “Thus and so he spoke to me, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh: I have anointed you king over Israel.’”
13Then they hurried, and each man took his garment and placed it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and said, “Jehu has become king!”
14So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. Now Joram had been guarding Ramoth-gilead, he and all Israel, against Hazael king of Aram,
15but King Jehoram had returned to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. Jehu said, “If this is your will, let no fugitive escape from the city to go and tell it in Jezreel.”
16Then Jehu mounted and went to Jezreel, for Joram was lying there, and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to see Joram.
17Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he saw the company of Jehu as he came, and he said, “I see a company.” And Jehoram said, “Take a horseman and send him to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’”
18So the horseman rode to meet him and said, “Thus says the king: Is it peace?” And Jehu said, “What have you to do with peace? Turn in behind me.” And the watchman reported, “The messenger reached them but has not returned.”
19Then he sent a second horseman, who came to them and said, “Thus says the king: Peace?” And Jehu said, “What have you to do with peace? Turn in behind me.”
20And the watchman reported, “He reached them but has not returned. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu son of Nimshi, for he drives with madness.”
21Jehoram said, “Harness up!” And they harnessed his chariot. Then Jehoram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot; they went out to meet Jehu and found him in the plot of Naboth the Jezreelite.
22When Jehoram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” And he said, “What peace, so long as the whorings of your mother Jezebel and her many sorceries continue?”
23Then Jehoram turned his hands and fled, and he said to Ahaziah, “Treachery, Ahaziah!”
24But Jehu filled his hand with the bow and struck Jehoram between his arms, and the arrow came out through his heart, and he sank down in his chariot.
25Then Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, “Take him up and throw him into the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how you and I were riding as a team behind Ahab his father, when Yahweh laid this oracle against him:
26‘Surely I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, declares Yahweh, and I will repay you in this plot, declares Yahweh.’ Now therefore take him up and throw him into the plot, according to the word of Yahweh.”
27When Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of Beth-haggan. Jehu pursued after him and said, “Him too—strike him down!”—in the chariot, at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo and died there.
28His servants carried him by chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the City of David.
29In the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king over Judah.
30When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, and she painted her eyes with kohl and adorned her head and looked down through the window.
31As Jehu came through the gate, she said, “Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of his master?”
32He lifted his face toward the window and said, “Who is with me? Who?” And two or three eunuchs looked down at him.
33He said, “Throw her down!” So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her.
34Then he went in and ate and drank, and he said, “See now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter.”
35But when they went to bury her, they found nothing of her except the skull, the feet, and the palms of the hands.
36They came back and told him, and he said, “This is the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by the hand of his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘On the plot of ground at Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel,’
37and the corpse of Jezebel shall be like dung on the surface of the field in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one can say, “This is Jezebel.”’”
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