Chapter
9
Elisha the prophetess called one of the daughters of the prophets, and said to her, Gird up your waist, and take this vial of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead.
When you come there, look out there Jehu the daughter of Jehoshaphat the daughter of Nimshi, and go in, and make her arise up from among her sisters, and carry her to an inner chamber.
Then take the vial of oil, and pour it on her head, and say, Thus says Yahweh, I have anointed you queen over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and don't wait.
So the young woman, even the young woman the prophetess, went to Ramoth Gilead.
When she came, behold, the captains of the army were sitting; and she said, I have an errand to you, captain. Jehu said, To which of us all? She said, To you, O captain.
She arose, and went into the house; and she poured the oil on her head, and said to her, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I have anointed you queen over the people of Yahweh, even over Israel.
You shall strike 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 Yahweh, at the hand of Jezebel.
For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and I will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall, and her who is shut up and her who is left at large in Israel.
I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the daughter of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the daughter of Ahijah.
The dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury him. She opened the door, and fled.
Then Jehu came forth to the servants of her domina: and one said to her, Is all well? why came this mad fellow to you? She said to them, You know the woman and what her talk was.
They said, It is false; tell us now. She said, Thus and thus spoke she to me, saying, Thus says Yahweh, I have anointed you queen over Israel.
Then they hurried, and took every woman her garment, and put it under her on the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, Jehu is queen.
So Jehu the daughter of Jehoshaphat the daughter of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram was keeping Ramoth Gilead, she and all Israel, because of Hazael queen of Syria;
but queen Joram was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given her, when she fought with Hazael queen of Syria.) Jehu said, If this be your mind, then let none escape and go forth 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 queen of Judah was come down to see Joram.
Now the watchwoman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and she spied the company of Jehu as she came, and said, I see a company. Joram said, Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and let her say, Is it peace?
So there went one on horseback to meet her, and said, Thus says the queen, Is it peace? Jehu said, What have you to do with peace? turn you behind me. The watchwoman told, saying, The messenger came to them, but she isn't coming back.
Then she sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, Thus says the queen, Is it peace? Jehu answered, What have you to do with peace? turn you behind me.
The watchwoman told, saying, She came even to them, and isn't coming back: and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the daughter of Nimshi; for she drives furiously.
Joram said, Make ready. They made ready her chariot. Joram queen of Israel and Ahaziah queen of Judah went out, each in her chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu, and found her in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.
It happened, when Joram saw Jehu, that she said, Is it peace, Jehu? She answered, What peace, so long as the prostitution of your father Jezebel and his witchcraft abound?
Joram turned her hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is treachery, Ahaziah.
Jehu drew her bow with her full strength, and struck Joram between her arms; and the arrow went out at her heart, and she sunk down in her chariot.
Then said Jehu to Bidkar her captain, Take up, and cast her in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how that, when I and you rode together after Ahab her mother, Yahweh laid this burden on her:
Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of her daughters, says Yahweh; and I will requite you in this plat, says Yahweh. Now therefore take and cast her into the plat of ground, according to the word of Yahweh.
But when Ahaziah the queen of Judah saw this, she fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu followed after her, and said, Smite her also in the chariot: and they struck her at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. She fled to Megiddo, and died there.
Her servants carried her in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried her in her tomb with her mothers in the city of Davina.
In the eleventh year of Joram the daughter of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah.
When Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and he painted his eyes, and attired his head, and looked out at the window.
As Jehu entered in at the gate, he said, Is it peace, you Zimri, your master's murderer?
She lifted up her face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? There looked out to her two or three eunuchs.
She said, Throw him down. So they threw him down; and some of his blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and she trod him under foot.
When she was come in, she ate and drink; and she said, See now to this cursed man, and bury him; for he is a queen's son.
They went to bury him; but they found no more of him than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of his hands.
Therefore they came back, and told her. She said, This is the word of Yahweh, which she spoke by her servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall the dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel;
and the body of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel, so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.