1Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, "Tie up your clothes ready to travel, take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramothgilead."
2"When you get there, look for Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go in, make him get up from among his brothers, and take him into an inner room."
3"Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head, and say, 'This is what the LORD says: I have anointed you king over Israel.' Then open the door and run. Do not wait."
4So the young man, the young prophet, went to Ramothgilead.
5When he came in, the commanders of the army were sitting there. He said, "I have a message for you, commander." Jehu said, "For which one of us?" He said, "For you, commander."
6Jehu got up and went into the house. The young man poured the oil on his head and said to him, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel."
7"You are to strike down the house of Ahab your master. In this way I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, which Jezebel shed."
8"The whole house of Ahab will die. I will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both those shut up and those left free."
9"I 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."
10"And the dogs will eat Jezebel in the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her." Then he opened the door and ran away.
11Then Jehu came out to the servants of his lord, and one of them said to him, "Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?" He said to them, "You know the man, and how he talks."
12They said, "That is not true. Tell us now." So he said, "He said this and that to me. He said, 'This is what the LORD says: I have anointed you king over Israel.'"
13Then they hurried, and each man took his cloak and put it under Jehu on the top of the stairs. They blew the trumpets and said, "Jehu is king."
14So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, plotted against Joram. (Now Joram had been holding Ramothgilead, he and all Israel, against Hazael king of Syria.
15But King Joram had gone back to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds the Syrians had given him when he fought against Hazael king of Syria.) Jehu said, "If this is what you want, then let no one slip out of the city and get away to tell the news in Jezreel."
16So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was lying ill there. And Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.
17A watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel. He saw Jehu's company coming and said, "I see a company of men." Joram said, "Take a horseman and send him to meet them, and let him say, 'Is it peace?'"
18So a man went out on horseback to meet him and said, "The king says, 'Is it peace?'" Jehu said, "What have you to do with peace? Fall in behind me." And the watchman reported, "The messenger reached them, but he is not coming back."
19Then the king sent out a second horseman. He came to them and said, "The king says, 'Is it peace?'" Jehu answered, "What have you to do with peace? Fall in behind me."
20And the watchman reported, "He reached them, and he is not coming back. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously."
21Joram said, "Get ready." So his chariot was made ready. Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his own chariot. They went out to meet Jehu, and they found him in the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite.
22When Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" He answered, "What peace can there be, while your mother Jezebel's whoredoms and her witchcrafts are so many?"
23Joram turned his hands and fled, and he said to Ahaziah, "There is treachery, Ahaziah."
24Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and struck Joram between his arms. The arrow came out at his heart, and he sank down in his chariot.
25Then Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, "Pick him up and throw him into the plot of ground that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I rode together behind Ahab his father, and the LORD spoke this word against him:"
26"'Surely I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,' says the LORD, 'and I will pay you back in this very plot,' says the LORD. So now pick him up and throw him into that plot of ground, just as the LORD said."
27When Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu chased after him and said, "Strike him down too, in his chariot." They did so, at the slope up to Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo and died there.
28His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David.
30When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard about it. She painted her face and arranged her hair, and she looked down out of a window.
31As Jehu came in at the gate, she said, "Did Zimri have peace, who killed his master?"
32He looked up at the window and said, "Who is on my side? Who?" And two or three officials looked down at him.
33He said, "Throw her down." So they threw her down. Some of her blood splashed on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her under foot.
34Then he went in and ate and drank. He said, "See to this cursed woman now, and bury her, for she is a king's daughter."
35But when they went to bury her, they found nothing left of her but the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands.