II Kings 9, Jehu at Jezreel

God had told Elijah to anoint Jehu king of Israel (in 1 Kings 19: 16.) Our story of the kings of Israel and Judah has then described the ministries of Elijah and Elisha but now returns to that mandated ordination.

2 Kings 9: 1-3, "Go anoint Jehu"

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

Elisha assigns a young assistant to go and anoint Jehu king of Israel in place of Jehoram of Israel.

2 Kings 9: 4-10, Anointing of Jehu

So the young man, the 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 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 the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the LORD's servants shed by Jezebel. The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel--slave or free. I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah.  As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.'" 

Then he opened the door and ran.
 

Jehu is anointed because he will be used to destroy the remnants of Ahab. After the anointing of Jehu, the young unnamed prophet flees.

2 Kings 9: 11-15, Response of officers

When Jehu went out to his fellow officers, one of them asked him, "Is everything all right? Why did this madman 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 hurried and took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet 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 against Hazael king of Aram, but King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him in the battle with Hazael king of Aram.) 

Jehu said, "If this is the way you feel, don't let anyone slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel."

Jehu's commanders support the anointment that has been made by the young prophet. Jehu accepts their loyalty and makes plans to defeat Jehoram/Joram of Israel.

2 Kings 9: 16-20, Jehu at Jezreel

Then he got into his chariot and rode to Jezreel, because Joram was resting there and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to see him.  When the lookout 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?'"
 

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 that of Jehu son of Nimshi--he drives like a madman."

Jehu goes to the royal palace at Jezreel.  As he approaches, two messengers go out to greet Jehu and end up joining his group instead of returning to report to Jehoram. Hubbard says that the question translated here "Do you come in peace?" is really a question about the results of the war with Hazael: "Is it peace?", that is, "Are we victorious?" There is no anticipation that Jehu is an assassin.

2 Kings 9: 21-24, Death of Jehoram

"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 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 abound?"

Joram turned about and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, "Treachery, Ahaziah!"

 

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

Jehu confronts Jehoram outside the palace. He accuses Jehoram's mother, Jezebel, of idolatry (zenunim, literally "fornication" or "harlotry") and witchcraft. When Jehoram flees, Jehu shoots him between the shoulders.

2 Kings 9: 25-26, Field of Naboth

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 made this prophecy about him:`Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth 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.' Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in accordance with the word of the LORD."

Jehu has Jehoram's body thrown into the vineyard of Naboth, avenging the murder of Naboth by Ahab. Jehu recalls the prediction by Elisha in 1 Kings 21: 18-19. 

2 Kings 9: 27-29, Ahaziah also killed

When Ahaziah king of Judah saw what had happened, he fled up the road to Beth Haggan. Jehu chased him, shouting, "Kill him too!" They wounded him in his chariot on the way up to Gur near Ibleam, but he escaped to Megiddo and died there. His servants took him by chariot to Jerusalem and buried him with his fathers in his tomb in the City of David.

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

After killing the king of Israel, Jehu chases the king of Judah and kills him.

2 Kings 9: 30-33, Jehu confronts Jezebel

Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she painted her eyes, arranged her hair and looked out of a window. As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, "Have you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?"

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.
 

After killing two kings, Jehu goes into Jezreel and finds Jezebel. She seems prepared to meet him; she arranges her hair and make-up and then taunts him. Jehu orders her servants to throw her from the window, which they do.  Her body is trampled by horses and her blood splatters on a nearby wall. (We remember Elijah's prophecy in 1 Kings 21:23.)

2 Kings 9: 34-37, "Take care of that cursed woman"

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."

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 will devour Jezebel's flesh. Jezebel's body will be like refuse on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, `This is Jezebel.'"

After eating and drinking in the palace, Jehu decides that Jezebel's body should be treated better.  But it is too late.  Already the dogs have eaten most of her. The ugly reign of both Ahab and Jezebel is over; its ending is consistent with its reign, in blood.