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¹Now Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, " Gird up your loins (prepare for action), take this flask of oil in your hand and go to Ramoth-gilead.

²When you arrive there, look for Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in and have him arise from among his brothers, and take him into an inner room.

³Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, 'Thus says the LORD: "I have anointed you king over Israel."' Then open the door and flee and do not delay."

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

⁵When he arrived, the captains of the army were sitting [outside]; and he said, "I have a message for you, O captain." Jehu said, "To which one of us?" And he said, "For you, O captain."

⁶So Jehu got up, and they went into the house. And he poured the oil on Jehu's head and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel.

⁷You shall strike the house of Ahab your master, so that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, [who have died] at the hands of Jezebel.

⁸For the entire house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, both bond and free, in Israel.

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

¹⁰And the dogs will eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and there will be no one to bury her.'" Then he opened the door and fled.

¹¹When Jehu came out to the servants of his master, one said to him, "Is all well? Why did this madman come to you?" And he said to them, "You know [very well] the man and his talk."

¹²And they said, "It is a lie; tell us now." And he said, "Thus and thus he spoke to me, saying, 'Thus says the LORD: "I have anointed you king over Israel."'"

¹³Then they hurried and each man took his garment and placed it [as a cushion] under Jehu on the top of the [outside] stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, "Jehu is king!"

¹⁴So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram [to dethrone and kill him]. Now Joram with all Israel was protecting Ramoth-gilead against Hazael king of Aram (Syria),

¹⁵but King Joram had returned to Jezreel to heal from the wounds which the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought with Hazael king of Aram. So Jehu said, "If this is your intent, let no one survive and leave the city (Ramoth-gilead) to go and tell of the plan in Jezreel [the capital]."

¹⁶So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was lying there. And Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.

¹⁷Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel and he saw the crowd with Jehu as he approached, and said, "I see a company." And Joram said, "Send a horseman to meet them and have him ask, ' Do you come in peace?'"

¹⁸So the horseman went to meet him and said, "Thus says the king: 'Do you come in peace?'" And Jehu said, "What have you to do with peace? Rein in behind me." And the watchman reported, "The messenger approached them, but he has not returned."

¹⁹Then Joram sent out a second horseman, who approached them and said, "Thus says the king: 'Do you come in peace?'" Jehu replied, "What have you to do with peace? Rein in behind me."

²⁰And the watchman reported, "He approached them, but he has not returned; and the driving [of the chariot] is like that of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously."

²¹Then Joram said, "Harness [the chariot]." When they harnessed his chariot horses, Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu and met him on the property of Naboth the Jezreelite.

²²When Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Do you come in peace, Jehu?" And he answered, "What peace [can exist] as long as the fornications of your mother Jezebel and her sorceries are so many?"

²³So Joram reined [his chariot] around and fled, and he said to Ahaziah, "Treachery and betrayal, Ahaziah!"

²⁴But Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and shot Joram between his shoulders; and the arrow went out through his heart and he sank down in his chariot.

²⁵Then Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, "Pick him up and throw him on the property of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for I remember when you and I were riding together after his father Ahab, that the LORD uttered this prophecy against him:

²⁶'I certainly saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday,' says the LORD, 'and I will repay you on this property,' says the LORD. Now then, pick him up and throw him into the property [of Naboth], in accordance with the word of the LORD."

²⁷When Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu pursued him and said, "Shoot him too, [while he is] in the chariot." So they shot him at the ascent to Gur, which is by Ibleam. And Ahaziah fled to Megiddo and died there.

²⁸Then his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his grave with his fathers in the City of David.

²⁹In the eleventh year of Joram, the son of Ahab, Ahaziah became king over Judah.

³⁰So when Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard about it, and she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked down from the [upper] window.

³¹As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, "Is it well, Zimri, your master's murderer?"

³²Then Jehu raised his face toward the window and said, "Who is on my side? Who?" And two or three officials looked down at him.

³³And he said, "Throw her down." So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her underfoot.

³⁴When he came in, he ate and drank, and said, "See now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king's daughter."

³⁵They went to bury her, but they found nothing left of her except the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.

³⁶So they returned and told Jehu. Then he said, "This is the word of the LORD, which He spoke through His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 'In the property of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel.

³⁷The corpse of Jezebel will be like dung on the surface of the field in the property of Jezreel, so they cannot say, "This is Jezebel."'"

¹Ahab had seventy sons [and grandsons] in Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders, and to the guardians of the children of Ahab, saying,

²"Now as soon as this letter comes to you, since your master's sons (male descendants) are with you, as well as chariots and horses and a fortified city and weapons,

³select the best and most capable of your master's sons, and set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's [royal] house."

⁴But they were extremely afraid and said, "Look, the two kings did not stand before Jehu; so how can we stand?"

⁵And the one who was in charge of the household, and the one who was overseer of the city, the elders, and the guardians [of the children] sent word to Jehu, saying, "We are your servants and we will do whatever you tell us, but we will not make any man king; do what is good in your eyes."

⁶Then Jehu wrote a second letter to them, saying, "If you are with me and will obey me, take the heads of your master's sons, and come to me at Jezreel tomorrow about this time." Now the [dead] king's sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who were rearing them.

⁷When the letter came to them, they took the king's sons and slaughtered them, seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to Jehu at Jezreel.

⁸When a messenger came and told him, "They have brought the heads of the king's sons," he said, "Put them in two heaps at the entrance of the city gate until morning."

⁹The next morning he went out and stood and said to all the people, "You are just and innocent; behold, I conspired against [Joram] my master and killed him, but who killed all these?

¹⁰Know then [without any doubt] that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the LORD, which the LORD spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for the LORD has done what He said through His servant Elijah."

¹¹So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men and his familiar friends and his priests, until he left him without a survivor.

¹²And he set out and went to Samaria. On the way as he was at the place of the sand heaps [meeting place] for the shepherds,

¹³Jehu met the relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah and said, "Who are you?" They answered, "We are the relatives of Ahaziah; and we came down to greet the royal princes and the sons of the queen mother [Jezebel]."

¹⁴Then Jehu said, "Take them alive." So they took them alive and [later] slaughtered them at the well by the place of the sand heaps, forty-two men; he left none of them [alive].

¹⁵When Jehu went on from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. He greeted him and said to him, "Is your heart right, as my heart is with yours?" Jehonadab answered, "It is." Jehu said "If it is, give me your hand." He gave him his hand, and Jehu pulled him up into the chariot.

¹⁶And he said, "Come with me and see my zeal for the LORD." So he had Jehonadab in his chariot.

¹⁷When Jehu came to Samaria, he killed everyone who remained of Ahab's family in Samaria, until he had destroyed all of them, in accordance with the word of the LORD which He spoke to Elijah.

¹⁸Jehu assembled all the people and said [in pretense] to them, "Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much [more].

¹⁹Now, summon unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his worshipers and all his priests. Let no one be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal; whoever is missing shall not live." But Jehu did it with trickery, in order to destroy the worshipers of Baal.

²⁰Jehu said, "Consecrate a festive assembly (celebration) for Baal." And they proclaimed it.

²¹Then Jehu sent throughout Israel, and all the worshipers of Baal came; there was no one left who did not come. They went to the house (temple) of Baal, and the house of Baal was filled from one end to the other.

²²He said to the man in charge of the wardrobe, "Bring out garments for all the worshipers of Baal." And he brought the garments out to them.

²³Then Jehu with Jehonadab the son of Rechab went into the house of Baal; and he said to the worshipers of Baal, "Search carefully and see that there are no servants of the LORD here with you, but only the worshipers of Baal."

²⁴Then they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside for himself and said, "If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, the one who lets him go shall forfeit his own life for that man's life."

²⁵Then it came about, as soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guards and to the royal officers, "Go in and kill them; let no one come out." And they killed them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the royal officers threw their bodies out, and went to the inner room of the house of Baal.

²⁶They brought out the sacred pillars (obelisks) of the house of Baal and burned them.

²⁷They also tore down the sacred pillar of Baal and tore down the house of Baal, and made it into a latrine [forever unclean] to this day.

²⁸Thus Jehu eradicated Baal from Israel.

²⁹However, Jehu did not turn from the [idolatrous] sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, that is, [led them to worship] the golden calves which were at Bethel and Dan.

³⁰The LORD said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in executing what is right in My eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab in accordance with everything that was in My heart, your sons (descendants) shall sit on Israel's throne to the fourth generation."

³¹But Jehu did not take care to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart; he did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin.

³²So in those days the LORD began to cut off portions of Israel; Hazael [of Aram] defeated them throughout the territory of Israel:

³³from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites and the Reubenites and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the Arnon River, even Gilead and Bashan.

³⁴Now the rest of the acts of Jehu and everything that he did and all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

³⁵Jehu slept with his fathers [in death], and they buried him in Samaria. Jehoahaz his son became king in his place.

³⁶The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.