2 Kings 9:14-26

Jehu Assassinates Joram and Ahaziah

14Thus Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. ( aNow Joram with all Israel had been on guard at Ramoth-gilead against bHazael king of Syria, 15 cbut King Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) So Jehu said, “If this is your decision, then let no one slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel.” 16Then Jehu mounted his chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. And Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to visit Joram.

17Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he saw the company of Jehu as he came and said, “I see a company.” And Joram said, “Take a horseman and send to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’” 18So a man on horseback went to meet him and said, “Thus says the king, ‘Is it peace?’” And Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace? Turn around and ride behind me.” And the watchman reported, saying, “The messenger reached them, but he is not coming back.” 19Then he sent out a second horseman, who came to them and said, “Thus the king has said, ‘Is it peace?’” And Jehu answered, “What do you have to do with peace? Turn around and ride behind me.” 20Again the watchman reported, “He reached them, but he is not coming back. And the driving dis like the driving of Jehu ethe son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.”

21Joram said, f“Make ready.” And they made ready his chariot. gThen Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah set out, each in his chariot, and went to meet Jehu, and met him hat the property of Naboth the Jezreelite. 22And when Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace can there be, so long as ithe whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many?” 23Then Joram reined about and fled, saying to Ahaziah, “Treachery, O Ahaziah!” 24And Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and shot Joram between the shoulders, so that the arrow pierced his heart, and he sank in his chariot. 25Jehu said to Bidkar jhis aide, “Take him up and throw him kon the plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. For remember, when you and I rode side by side behind Ahab his father, how lthe Lord made this mpronouncement against him: 26‘As surely as I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sonsdeclares the Lord—I will repay you on this plot of ground.’ Now therefore take him up and throw him on the plot of ground, in accordance with the word of the Lord.”

2 Kings 10:6-11

6Then he wrote to them a second letter, saying, “If you are on my side, and if you are ready to obey me, take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me at Jezreel tomorrow at this time.” Now the king’s sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, nwho were bringing them up. 7And as soon as the letter came to them, they took the king’s sons oand slaughtered them, seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel. 8When the messenger came and told him, “They have brought the heads of the king’s sons,” he said, “Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning.” 9Then in the morning, when he went out, he stood and said to all the people, “You are innocent. pIt was I who conspired against my master and killed him, but who struck down all these? 10Know then that there shall qfall to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for the Lord has done rwhat he said by his servant Elijah.” 11So Jehu struck down all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, all his great men and his close friends and his priests, until he left him none remaining.

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