Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made himself horns of iron, and said, “Yahweh says, ‘With these you will push the Syrians, until they are consumed.’”
All the prophets prophesied so, saying, “Go up to Ramoth Gilead, and prosper; for Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king.”
The messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, “See now, the prophets declare good to the king with one mouth. Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak good.”
The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?”
Yahweh said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ One said one thing; and another said another.
A spirit came out and stood before Yahweh, and said, ‘I will entice him.’
Yahweh said to him, ‘How?’ He said, ‘I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ He said, ‘You will entice him, and will also prevail. Go out and do so.’
Now therefore, behold, Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and Yahweh has spoken evil concerning you.”
Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did Yahweh’s Spirit go from me to speak to you?”
Micaiah said, “Behold, you will see on that day, when you go into an inner room to hide yourself.”
The king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah, and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king’s son.
The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself, and go into the battle; but you put on your robes.” The king of Israel disguised himself, and went into the battle.
When the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.
A certain man drew his bow at random, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of the armor. Therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn your hand, and carry me out of the battle; for I am severely wounded.”
The battle increased that day. The king was propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians, and died at evening. The blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot.
A cry went throughout the army about the going down of the sun, saying, “Every man to his city, and every man to his country!”
They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood where the prostitutes washed themselves; according to Yahweh’s word which he spoke.
The remnant of the sodomites, that remained in the days of his father Asa, he put away out of the land.
Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel.
He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, in which he made Israel to sin.
He served Baal and worshiped him, and provoked Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger, in all the ways that his father had done so.
Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.
Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his upper room that was in Samaria, and was sick. So he sent messengers, and said to them, “Go, inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover of this sickness.”
Elijah answered to the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty!” Then fire came down from the sky, and consumed him and his fifty.
Elijah answered them, “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty!” Then God’s fire came down from the sky, and consumed him and his fifty.
The men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold, please, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land is barren.”
He went up from there to Bethel. As he was going up by the way, some youths came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldy! Go up, you baldy!”
He looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in Yahweh’s name. Then two female bears came out of the woods, and mauled forty-two of those youths.
He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, but not like his father, and like his mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made.
Nevertheless he held to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. He didn’t depart from them.
The king of Israel said, “Alas! For Yahweh has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”
Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father, and to the prophets of your mother.” The king of Israel said to him, “No, for Yahweh has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”
You shall strike every fortified city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.’”
They rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone on the water, and the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood.
They said, “This is blood. The kings are surely destroyed, and they have struck each other. Now therefore, Moab, to the plunder!”
When they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they went forward into the land attacking the Moabites.
They beat down the cities; and on every good piece of land each man cast his stone, and filled it. They also stopped all the springs of water, and felled all the good trees, until in Kir Hareseth all they left was its stones; however the men armed with slings went around it, and attacked it.
When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too severe for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew a sword, to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not.
Then he took his oldest son who would have reigned in his place, and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. There was great wrath against Israel; and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.
So they poured out for the men to eat. As they were eating some of the stew, they cried out, and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.
The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman’s wife.
The man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, “Beware that you not pass this place; for the Syrians are coming down there.”
He said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and get him.” He was told, “Behold, he is in Dothan.”
Therefore he sent horses, chariots, and a great army there. They came by night, and surrounded the city.
When they came down to him, Elisha prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please strike this people with blindness.” He struck them with blindness according to Elishah’s word.
Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, neither is this the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” He led them to Samaria.
After this, Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria.
The king said to her, “What is your problem?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’
So we boiled my son, and ate him: and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him;’ and she has hidden her son.”
When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. Now he was passing by on the wall, and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth underneath on his body.
Then he said, “God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat stays on him today.”
But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. Then the king sent a man from before him; but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, “Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? Behold, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and hold the door shut against him. Isn’t the sound of his master’s feet behind him?”
While he was still talking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him. Then he said, “Behold, this evil is from Yahweh. Why should I wait for Yahweh any longer?”
Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate. They said to one another, “Why do we sit here until we die?
If we say, ‘We will enter into the city,’ then the famine is in the city, and we will die there. If we sit still here, we also die. Now therefore come, and let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we will live; and if they kill us, we will only die.”
Hazael said, “Why do you weep, my lord?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds on fire, and you will kill their young men with the sword, and will dash their little ones in pieces, and rip up their pregnant women.”
Hazael said, “But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he could do this great thing?” Elisha answered, “Yahweh has shown me that you will be king over Syria.”
On the next day, he took a thick cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died. Then Hazael reigned in his place.
He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did Ahab’s house; for he married Ahab’s daughter. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight.
In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves.
So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time.
Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri king of Israel.
He walked in the way of Ahab’s house, and did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, as did Ahab’s house; for he was the son-in-law of Ahab’s house.
He went with Joram the son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth Gilead, and the Syrians wounded Joram.
You must strike your master Ahab’s house, 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 will perish. I will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall, both him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel.
I will make Ahab’s house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah.
The dogs will eat Jezebel on the plot of ground of Jezreel, and there shall be no one to bury her.’” Then he opened the door and fled.
So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram was keeping Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria;
So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.
The watchman said, “He came to them, and isn’t coming back. The driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.”
Joram said, “Get ready!” They got his chariot ready. Then Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu, and found him on Naboth the Jezreelite’s land.
When Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?”
Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, “This is treason, Ahaziah!”
‘Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,’ says Yahweh; ‘and I will repay you in this plot of ground,’ says Yahweh. Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to Yahweh’s word.”
But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu followed after him, and said, “Strike him also in the chariot!” They struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. He fled to Megiddo, and died there.
In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah.
When Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out at the window.
As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, “Do you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?”
He lifted up his face to the window, and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him.
He said, “Throw her down!” So they threw her down; and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses. Then he trampled her under foot.
They went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands.
and the body of Jezebel will be as dung on the face of the field on Jezreel’s land, so that they won’t say, “This is Jezebel.”’”
Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and to those who brought up Ahab’s sons, saying,
“Now as soon as this letter comes to you, since your master’s sons are with you, and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and armor,
Select the best and fittest of your master’s sons, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.”
Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, “If you are on my side, and if you will listen to my voice, take the heads of the men who are your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time.” Now the king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who brought them up.
When the letter came to them, they took the king’s sons and killed them, even seventy people, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him to Jezreel.
A 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.”
In the morning, he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, “You are righteous. Behold, I conspired against my master and killed him, but who killed all these?
So Jehu struck all that remained of Ahab’s house in Jezreel, with all his great men, his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him no one remaining.
He said, “Take them alive!” They took them alive, and killed them at the pit of the shearing house, even forty-two men. He didn’t leave any of them.
When he came to Samaria, he struck all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to Yahweh’s word, which he spoke to Elijah.
Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu will serve him much.
Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, all of his worshipers, and all of his priests. Let no one be absent; for I have a great sacrifice to Baal. Whoever is absent, he shall not live.” But Jehu did deceptively, intending to destroy the worshipers of Baal.
Jehu said, “Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal!” So they proclaimed it.
Jehu sent through all Israel; and all the worshipers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that didn’t come. They came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was filled from one end to another.
So they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed for himself eighty men outside, and said, “If any of the men whom I bring into your hands escape, he who lets him go, his life shall be for the life of him.”
As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, “Go in and kill them! Let no one escape.” So they struck them with the edge of the sword. The guard and the captains threw the bodies out, and went to the inner shrine of the house of Baal.
They brought out the pillars that were in the house of Baal, and burned them.












