Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 251
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SAMUEL–KINGS
239
So a horseman went out to meet Jehu and said, “The king wants to know
if you are coming in peace.”
Jehu replied, “What do you know about peace? Fall in behind me!”
The watchman called out to the king, “The messenger has met them,
but he’s not returning.”
So the king sent out a second horseman. He rode up to them and said,
“The king wants to know if you come in peace.”
Again Jehu answered, “What do you know about peace? Fall in behind me!”
The watchman exclaimed, “The messenger has met them, but he isn’t
returning either! It must be Jehu son of Nimshi, for he’s driving like a
madman.”
“Quick! Get my chariot ready!” King Joram commanded.
Then King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah rode out in their
chariots to meet Jehu. They met him at the plot of land that had belonged
to Naboth of Jezreel. King Joram demanded, “Do you come in peace,
Jehu?”
Jehu replied, “How can there be peace as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother, Jezebel, are all around us?”
Then King Joram turned the horses around and fled, shouting to King
Ahaziah, “Treason, Ahaziah!” But Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart, and he sank down dead
in his chariot.
Jehu said to Bidkar, his officer, “Throw him into the plot of land that
belonged to Naboth of Jezreel. Do you remember when you and I were
riding along behind his father, Ahab? The Lord pronounced this message against him: ‘I solemnly swear that I will repay him here on this
plot of land, says the Lord, for the murder of Naboth and his sons that
I saw yesterday.’ So throw him out on Naboth’s property, just as the
Lord said.”
When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what was happening, he fled along the
road to Beth-haggan. Jehu rode after him, shouting, “Shoot him, too!” So
they shot Ahaziah in his chario t at the Ascent of Gur, near Ibleam. He was
able to go on as far as Megiddo, but he died there. His servants took him
by chariot to Jerusalem, where they buried him with his ancestors in the
City of David. Ahaziah had become king over Judah in the eleventh year
of the reign of Joram son of Ahab.
When Jezebel, the queen mother, heard that Jehu had come to Jezreel,
she painted her eyelids and fixed her hair and sat at a window. When Jehu
entered the gate of the palace, she shouted at him, “Have you come in
peace, you murderer? You’re just like Zimri, who murdered his master!”
Jehu looked up and saw her at the window and shouted, “Who is on my