2 Kings 9:1-23

1Then Elisha the prophet summoned one of the sons of the prophets and told him, “Strap up your cloak, take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead.

2When you arrive there, look out there for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi. Then go in, get him to rise up from among his fellows, and bring him to an inner room.

3Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, thus says Adonai: ‘I have anointed you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee—don’t wait around.”

4So the young man, a young prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead.

5Now when he arrived, behold, the army commanders were sitting. So he said, “I have a word for you, commander.” Jehu asked, “For which one of us?” He replied, “For you, commander.”

6Then he rose and went inside the house, and the prophet poured the oil on his head and said to him, “Thus says Adonai, God of Israel: I have anointed you king over the people of Adonai, over Israel.

7So you will strike down the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of Adonai shed by Jezebel.

8For the whole house of Ahab will perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, slave or free, in Israel.

9I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasa son of Ahijah.

10The dogs will eat Jezebel in the field of Jezreel, and there will be none to bury her.” Then he opened the door and fled.

11Then Jehu came out to the officers of his master, and one asked him, “Is everything all right? Why did this crazy fellow come to you?” He said to them, “You know the man and his babbling.”

12But they said, “It’s a lie! Tell us now.” So he said, “He said something like this to me, saying ‘Thus says Adonai, I have anointed you king over Israel.’”

13Then they hurried and every man took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and blew the shofar, saying, “Jehu is king!”

14So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. Now Joram had been defending Ramoth-gilead, he and all Israel, against King Hazael of Aram.

15But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him, when he fought with King Hazael of Aram. Then Jehu said, “If this is your wish, then let no one escape and go out of the city to go to tell the news in Jezreel.”

16So Jehu mounted a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was lying there. Meanwhile, King Ahaziah of Judah came down to see Joram.

17Now the watchman stationed on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu’s troop approaching and said, “I am seeing a troop.” Then Joram said, “Take a horseman and dispatch him to meet them, and let him ask: ‘Is it peace?’”

18So the horse rider went to meet him, and said, “Thus says the king: ‘Is it peace?’” But Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace? Turn behind me.” So the watchman reported, saying, “The messenger reached them, but didn’t come back.”

19Then he dispatched out another horseman, who went to them and said, “Thus says the king: ‘Is it peace?’” But Jehu answered, “What do you have to do with peace? Turn behind me.”

20So the watchman reported, saying, “He reached them, but didn’t come back—and the driving is like the driving of Jehu son of Nimshi, for he is driving on like a maniac!”

21Then Joram ordered, “Hitch up the chariot!” So he hitched up his chariot. Then King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah went out each in his chariot to meet Jehu, and found him at the field of Naboth the Jezreelite.

22Now when Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Is it peace, Jehu?” So he answered, “What peace, so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?”

23So Joram turned his horses around and fled, crying out to Ahaziah, “Treason, Ahaziah!”