Jehu

Also anoint Yehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Isra'el, and anoint Elisha the son of Shafat of Avel-M'cholah to be prophet after you.

Yehu will kill whoever escapes the sword of Haza'el, and Elisha will kill whoever escapes the sword of Yehu.

When you get there, look for Yehu the son of Y'hoshafat, the son of Nimshi. Enter, have him step away from his companions, and take him to an inside room.

When he arrived, he found the senior army officers sitting there. He said, "I have a message for you, commander." Yehu asked, "For which one of us?" "For you, commander," he said.

Yehu returned to the servants of his lord, and one of them said to him, "Is everything all right? Why did this meshugga come to you?" He answered them, "You know the kind and how they babble."

At this, they hurried each one to take his cloak and put it under Yehu at the top of the stairs. Then they blew the shofar and proclaimed, "Yehu is king!"

Yehu the son of Y'hoshafat, the son of Nimshi, formed a conspiracy against Yoram. (At the time, Yoram was guarding Ramot-Gil'ad, he and all Isra'el, because of Haza'el king of Aram;

but Yoram himself had returned to Yizre'el to recover from the wounds Aram had inflicted on him when fighting Haza'el king of Aram.) "If you agree," said Yehu, "then don't allow anyone to leave town and take the news to Yizre'el."

So Yehu, riding in a chariot, went to Yizre'el, for Yoram was laid up there. Achazyah king of Y'hudah had come down to visit Yoram.

The lookout standing on the watchtower in Yizre'el saw Yehu's troops approaching and said, "I see some troops coming." Yoram said, "Have a horseman go to meet him and ask, "Are you coming in peace?"

So a man on horseback went to meet him and said, "The king asks if you are coming in peace." Yehu answered, "Peace? What business is that of yours? Turn around, and get behind me!" The watchman reported, "The messenger reached them, but he isn't coming back."

So he sent out a second man on horseback, who, on coming to him, said, "The king asks if you are coming in peace." Yehu answered, "Peace? What business is that of yours? Turn around, and get behind me!"

The watchman reported, "He reached them, but he isn't coming back. Also, it looks like the driving of Yehu Nimshi's [grand]son - he's driving like a maniac!"

"Harness my chariot!" ordered Yoram. They got it ready. Then Yoram king of Isra'el and Achazyah king of Y'hudah, each in his chariot, went out to meet Yehu. They met him in the field of Navot the Yizre'eli.

When Yoram saw Yehu he said, "Are you coming in peace, Yehu?" He answered, "Peace? With your mother Izevel continuing all her cult prostitution and witchcraft? What a question!"

Yehu drew his bow with all his strength and struck Yoram between the shoulder-blades; the arrow went through his heart, and he collapsed in his chariot.

"Pick him up," said Yehu to Bidkar his servant, "and throw him into the field of Navot the Yizre'eli; for remember how, when you and I were riding together after Ach'av his father, ADONAI pronounced this sentence against him:

But when Achazyah the king of Y'hudah saw this, he fled on the road past Beit-HaGan. Yehu pursued him and ordered, "Strike him too in his chariot!" [So they struck him] at the Gur ascent, near Yivle'am. He fled to Megiddo, but there he died.

When Yehu reached Yizre'el, and Izevel heard of it, she put on eye make-up, fixed her hair and looked out the window.

As Yehu came through the city gate, she asked, "Are you here in peace, you Zimri, you murderer of your master?"

There were seventy descendants of Ach'av in Shomron. Yehu wrote letters and sent them to Shomron to the rulers of Yizre'el, to the leaders, and to the guardians of Ach'av's sons. The letters said,

So the administrator of the palace, the governor of the city, the leaders and the children's guardians sent this message to Yehu: "We are your servants. We will do everything you ask us to; we won't appoint anyone king. Do as you see fit."

So Yehu killed everyone who remained from the house of Ach'av in Yizre'el, all his leading men, his close friends and his cohanim, until not one of them was left alive.

where he encountered relatives of Achazyah king of Y'hudah. "Who are you?" he asked. "We're relatives of Achazyah," they answered, "and we're going down to pay our respects to the families of the king and of the queen mother."

Next, Yehu assembled all the people and said to them, "Ach'av served Ba'al in limited measure, but Yehu will serve him with full zeal.