Jehu

You shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah to be prophet in your place.

It shall happen, that he who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and he who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill.

When you come there, find Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brothers, and carry him to an inner room.

When he came, behold, the captains of the army were sitting. Then he said, “I have a message for you, captain.” Jehu said, “To which of us all?” He said, “To you, O captain.”

Then Jehu came out to the servants of his lord: and one said to him, “Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?” He said to them, “You know the man and what his talk was.”

Then they hurried, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the shofar, saying, “Jehu is king.”

So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram was keeping Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria;

but king Joram was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) Jehu said, “If this is your thinking, then let no one escape and go out of the city, to go to tell it in Jezreel.”

So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.

Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, “I see a company.” Joram said, “Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’”

So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, “Thus says the king, ‘Is it peace?’” Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!” The watchman said, “The messenger came to them, but he isn’t coming back.”

Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, “Thus says the king, ‘Is it peace?’” Jehu answered, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!”

The watchman said, “He came to them, and isn’t coming back. The driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he drives furiously.”

Joram said, “Get ready!” They got his chariot ready. Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu, and found him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.

When Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?”

Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and struck Joram between his arms; and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot.

Then Jehu said to Bidkar his captain, “Pick him up, and throw him in the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how, when you and I rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden on him:

But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu followed after him, and said, “Strike him also in the chariot!” They struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. He fled to Megiddo, and died there.

When Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and attired her head, and looked out at the window.

As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, “Do you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?”

Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and to those who brought up the sons of Ahab, saying,

He who was over the household, and he who was over the city, the elders also, and those who raised the children, sent to Jehu, saying, “We are your servants, and will do all that you ask us. We will not make any man king. You do that which is good in your eyes.”

So Jehu struck all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, with all his great men, his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him no one remaining.

Jehu met with the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, “Who are you?” They answered, “We are the brothers of Ahaziah. We are going down to greet the children of the king and the children of the queen.”

Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu will serve him much.