Study Desk

Jehu Anointed King of Israel

The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company^(a) of the prophets and said to him, "Tuck your cloak into your belt,^(b) take this flask of olive oil^(c) with you and go to Ramoth Gilead.^(d)

When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room.

Then take the flask and pour the oil^(e) on his head and declare, ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.' Then open the door and run; don't delay!"

So the young prophet went to Ramoth Gilead.

When he arrived, he found the army officers sitting together. "I have a message for you, commander," he said. "For which of us?" asked Jehu. "For you, commander," he replied.

Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the prophet poured the oil^(f) on Jehu's head and declared, "This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘I anoint you king over the Lord 's people Israel.

You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge^(g) the blood of my servants^(h) the prophets and the blood of all the Lord 's servants shed by Jezebel.⁽ⁱ⁾

The whole house^(j) of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male^(k) in Israel—slave or free.^[a]

I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam^(l) son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha^(m) son of Ahijah.

As for Jezebel, dogs⁽ⁿ⁾ will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.'" Then he opened the door and ran.

When Jehu went out to his fellow officers, one of them asked him, "Is everything all right? Why did this maniac^(o) come to you?" "You know the man and the sort of things he says," Jehu replied.

"That's not true!" they said. "Tell us." Jehu said, "Here is what he told me: ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.'"

They quickly took their cloaks and spread^(p) them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet^(q) and shouted, "Jehu is king!"

So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. (Now Joram and all Israel had been defending Ramoth Gilead^(s) against Hazael king of Aram,

but King Joram^[b] had returned to Jezreel to recover^(t) from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him in the battle with Hazael king of Aram.) Jehu said, "If you desire to make me king, don't let anyone slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel."

Then he got into his chariot and rode to Jezreel, because Joram was resting there and Ahaziah^(u) king of Judah had gone down to see him.

When the lookout^(v) standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu's troops approaching, he called out, "I see some troops coming." "Get a horseman," Joram ordered. "Send him to meet them and ask, ‘Do you come in peace?^(w)'"

The horseman rode off to meet Jehu and said, "This is what the king says: ‘Do you come in peace?'" "What do you have to do with peace?" Jehu replied. "Fall in behind me." The lookout reported, "The messenger has reached them, but he isn't coming back."

So the king sent out a second horseman. When he came to them he said, "This is what the king says: ‘Do you come in peace?'" Jehu replied, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me."

The lookout reported, "He has reached them, but he isn't coming back either. The driving is like^(x) that of Jehu son of Nimshi—he drives like a maniac."

"Hitch up my chariot," Joram ordered. And when it was hitched up, Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah rode out, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu. They met him at the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth^(y) the Jezreelite.

When Joram saw Jehu he asked, "Have you come in peace, Jehu?" "How can there be peace," Jehu replied, "as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel^(z) abound?"

Joram turned about and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, "Treachery,^(aa) Ahaziah!"

Then Jehu drew his bow^(ab) and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot.

Jehu said to Bidkar, his chariot officer, "Pick him up and throw him on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together in chariots behind Ahab his father when the Lord spoke this prophecy^(ac) against him:

‘Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth^(ad) and the blood of his sons, declares the Lord , and I will surely make you pay for it on this plot of ground, declares the Lord .'^[c] Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in accordance with the word of the Lord ."^(ae)

When Ahaziah king of Judah saw what had happened, he fled up the road to Beth Haggan.^[d] Jehu chased him, shouting, "Kill him too!" They wounded him in his chariot on the way up to Gur near Ibleam,^(af) but he escaped to Megiddo^(ag) and died there.

His servants took him by chariot^(ah) to Jerusalem and buried him with his ancestors in his tomb in the City of David.

(In the eleventh^(ai) year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king of Judah.)

Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she put on eye makeup,^(aj) arranged her hair and looked out of a window.

As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, "Have you come in peace, you Zimri,^(ak) you murderer of your master?"^[e]

He looked up at the window and called out, "Who is on my side? Who?" Two or three eunuchs looked down at him.

"Throw her down!" Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot.^(al)

Jehu went in and ate and drank. "Take care of that cursed woman," he said, "and bury her, for she was a king's daughter."^(am)

But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet and her hands.

They went back and told Jehu, who said, "This is the word of the Lord that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs^(an) will devour Jezebel's flesh.^[f](ao)

Jezebel's body will be like dung^(ap) on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel.'"

Ahab's Family Killed

Now there were in Samaria^(a) seventy sons^(b) of the house of Ahab. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria: to the officials of Jezreel,^[a](c) to the elders and to the guardians^(d) of Ahab's children. He said,

"You have your master's sons with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons. Now as soon as this letter reaches you,

choose the best and most worthy of your master's sons and set him on his father's throne. Then fight for your master's house."

But they were terrified and said, "If two kings could not resist him, how can we?"

So the palace administrator, the city governor, the elders and the guardians sent this message to Jehu: "We are your servants^(e) and we will do anything you say. We will not appoint anyone as king; you do whatever you think best."

Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying, "If you are on my side and will obey me, take the heads of your master's sons and come to me in Jezreel by this time tomorrow." Now the royal princes, seventy of them, were with the leading men of the city, who were rearing them.

When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy^(f) of them. They put their heads^(g) in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel.

When the messenger arrived, he told Jehu, "They have brought the heads of the princes." Then Jehu ordered, "Put them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning."

The next morning Jehu went out. He stood before all the people and said, "You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him, but who killed all these?

Know, then, that not a word the Lord has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail. The Lord has done what he announced^(h) through his servant Elijah."⁽ⁱ⁾

So Jehu^(j) killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor.^(k)

Jehu then set out and went toward Samaria. At Beth Eked of the Shepherds,

he met some relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah and asked, "Who are you?" They said, "We are relatives of Ahaziah,^(l) and we have come down to greet the families of the king and of the queen mother.^(m)"

"Take them alive!" he ordered. So they took them alive and slaughtered them by the well of Beth Eked—forty-two of them. He left no survivor.⁽ⁿ⁾

After he left there, he came upon Jehonadab^(o) son of Rekab,^(p) who was on his way to meet him. Jehu greeted him and said, "Are you in accord with me, as I am with you?" "I am," Jehonadab answered. "If so," said Jehu, "give me your hand."^(q) So he did, and Jehu helped him up into the chariot.

Jehu said, "Come with me and see my zeal^(r) for the Lord ." Then he had him ride along in his chariot.

When Jehu came to Samaria, he killed all who were left there of Ahab's family;^(s) he destroyed them, according to the word of the Lord spoken to Elijah.

Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, "Ahab served^(t) Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much.

Now summon^(u) all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live." But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal.

Jehu said, "Call an assembly^(v) in honor of Baal." So they proclaimed it.

Then he sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from one end to the other.

And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, "Bring robes for all the servants of Baal." So he brought out robes for them.

Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went into the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the servants of Baal, "Look around and see that no one who serves the Lord is here with you—only servants of Baal."

So they went in to make sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had posted eighty men outside with this warning: "If one of you lets any of the men I am placing in your hands escape, it will be your life for his life."^(w)

As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: "Go in and kill^(x) them; let no one escape."^(y) So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal.

They brought the sacred stone^(z) out of the temple of Baal and burned it.

They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple^(aa) of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.

So Jehu^(ab) destroyed Baal worship in Israel.

However, he did not turn away from the sins^(ac) of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit—the worship of the golden calves^(ad) at Bethel^(ae) and Dan.

The Lord said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation."^(af)

Yet Jehu was not careful^(ag) to keep the law of the Lord , the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins^(ah) of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.

In those days the Lord began to reduce^(ai) the size of Israel. Hazael^(aj) overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory

east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer^(ak) by the Arnon^(al) Gorge through Gilead to Bashan.

As for the other events of Jehu's reign, all he did, and all his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals^(am) of the kings of Israel?

Jehu rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son succeeded him as king.

The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

Athaliah and Joash^(a)

When Athaliah^(b) the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family.

But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram^[a] and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash^(c) son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes, who were about to be murdered. She put him and his nurse in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah; so he was not killed.^(d)

He remained hidden with his nurse at the temple of the Lord for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.

In the seventh year Jehoiada sent for the commanders of units of a hundred, the Carites^(e) and the guards and had them brought to him at the temple of the Lord . He made a covenant with them and put them under oath at the temple of the Lord . Then he showed them the king's son.

He commanded them, saying, "This is what you are to do: You who are in the three companies that are going on duty on the Sabbath^(f)—a third of you guarding the royal palace,^(g)

a third at the Sur Gate, and a third at the gate behind the guard, who take turns guarding the temple—

and you who are in the other two companies that normally go off Sabbath duty are all to guard the temple for the king.

Station yourselves around the king, each of you with weapon in hand. Anyone who approaches your ranks^[b] is to be put to death. Stay close to the king wherever he goes."

The commanders of units of a hundred did just as Jehoiada the priest ordered. Each one took his men—those who were going on duty on the Sabbath and those who were going off duty—and came to Jehoiada the priest.

Then he gave the commanders the spears and shields^(h) that had belonged to King David and that were in the temple of the Lord .

The guards, each with weapon in hand, stationed themselves around the king—near the altar and the temple, from the south side to the north side of the temple.

Jehoiada brought out the king's son and put the crown on him; he presented him with a copy of the covenant⁽ⁱ⁾ and proclaimed him king. They anointed^(j) him, and the people clapped their hands^(k) and shouted, "Long live the king!"^(l)

When Athaliah heard the noise made by the guards and the people, she went to the people at the temple of the Lord .

She looked and there was the king, standing by the pillar,^(m) as the custom was. The officers and the trumpeters were beside the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets.⁽ⁿ⁾ Then Athaliah tore^(o) her robes and called out, "Treason! Treason!"^(p)

Jehoiada the priest ordered the commanders of units of a hundred, who were in charge of the troops: "Bring her out between the ranks^[c] and put to the sword anyone who follows her." For the priest had said, "She must not be put to death in the temple^(q) of the Lord ."

So they seized her as she reached the place where the horses enter^(r) the palace grounds, and there she was put to death.^(s)

Jehoiada then made a covenant^(t) between the Lord and the king and people that they would be the Lord 's people. He also made a covenant between the king and the people.^(u)

All the people of the land went to the temple^(v) of Baal and tore it down. They smashed^(w) the altars and idols to pieces and killed Mattan the priest^(x) of Baal in front of the altars. Then Jehoiada the priest posted guards at the temple of the Lord .

He took with him the commanders of hundreds, the Carites,^(y) the guards and all the people of the land, and together they brought the king down from the temple of the Lord and went into the palace, entering by way of the gate of the guards. The king then took his place on the royal throne.

All the people of the land rejoiced,^(z) and the city was calm, because Athaliah had been slain with the sword at the palace.

Joash^[d] was seven years old when he began to reign.^[e]