Jehu Kills Joram and Ahaziah
Jehu conspires against Joram and drives to Jezreel while Joram recovers from battle wounds and Ahaziah visits him. From the tower, the watchman sees the troop coming, but the king’s messengers do not return.
T14hus Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. 15(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 he had suffered at the hands of the Arameans in the battle against Hazael their king.) 16Then Jehu got into his chariot and went to Jezreel, because Joram was laid up there. And Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to see him. 17Now the watchman standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu’s troops approaching, and he called out, “I see a company of troops!” 18So a horseman rode off to meet Jehu and said, “This is what the king asks: ‘Have you come in peace?’” 19So the king sent out a second horseman, who went to them and said, “This is what the king asks: ‘Have you come in peace?’” 20Again the watchman reported, “He reached them, but he is not coming back. And the charioteer is driving like Jehu son of Nimshi — he is driving like a madman!”
Joram rides out to meet Jehu and asks about peace, but Jehu answers with the continuing evils tied to Jezebel. He shoots Joram, then orders his body thrown onto Naboth’s field, recalling the LORD’s word against Ahab there.
21“Harness!” Joram shouted, and they harnessed his chariot. 22When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?” 23Joram turned around and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, “Treachery, Ahaziah!” 24Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart, and he slumped down in his chariot. 25And Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, “Pick him up and throw him into the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. For remember that when you and I were riding together behind his father Ahab, the LORD lifted up this burden against him: 26‘As surely as I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday, declares the LORD, so will I repay you on this plot of ground, declares the LORD.’ Now then, according to the word of the LORD, pick him up and throw him on the plot of ground.”
Ahaziah sees Joram fall and flees, but Jehu’s men wound him and he dies at Megiddo. His servants bring him to Jerusalem for burial, and the narrative briefly notes the year his reign began.
27When King Ahaziah of Judah saw this, he fled up the road toward Beth-haggan. 28So they shot Ahaziah in his chariot on the Ascent of Gur, near Ibleam, and he fled to Megiddo and died there. Then his servants carried him by chariot to Jerusalem and buried him with his fathers in his tomb in the City of David. 29(In the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king over Judah.)