Israel's reforming king and God's instrument of judgment
Le royaume diviséKingMilitary commanderWarriorc. 841–814 BC (reign)
Jehu was an Israelite military commander who was anointed king by one of the prophets Elisha's disciples. He carried out God's judgment against Ahab's house and eradicated Baal worship in Israel, but he himself continued in Jeroboam's sins with calf idolatry.
1Then Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, "Tuck in your cloak, take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead.
3Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head, and say, 'This is what the LORD says: I anoint you king over Israel.' Then open the door and run; do not wait."
5When he arrived, the commanders of the army were sitting together. He said, "I have a word for you, commander." "For which of us?" Jehu asked. "For you, commander," he said.
6So Jehu got up and went into the house, and the young man poured the oil on his head and said to him, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I anoint you king over the LORD's people, over Israel.
7You are to strike down the house of Ahab your master, so that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the LORD's servants, shed by Jezebel's hand.
21"Hitch up my chariot," Joram ordered. And when it was hitched up, Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah rode out, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu. They met him at the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite.
22When Joram saw Jehu he asked, "Do you come in peace, Jehu?" "How can there be peace," Jehu replied, "as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel go on?"
25Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, "Pick him up and throw him on the plot of ground that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together behind his father Ahab when the LORD pronounced this oracle against him:
26'As surely as I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday, declares the LORD, I will repay you on this plot of ground, declares the LORD.' Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in keeping with the word of the LORD."
36They went back and told Jehu, who said, "This is the word of the LORD that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: 'On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel's flesh.'
1Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria, to the officials of Jezreel, to the elders, and to the guardians of Ahab's sons. He wrote:
5So the palace administrator, the governor of the city, the elders, and the guardians sent word to Jehu: "We are your servants, and we will do whatever you tell us. We will not make anyone king. Do whatever you think best."
6Then Jehu wrote them a second letter: "If you are on my side and will obey me, take the heads of your master's sons and come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow." Now the king's sons, seventy of them, were with the leading men of the city, who were raising them.
7When the letter reached them, they took the king's sons and slaughtered all seventy. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu at Jezreel.
8When the messenger came and told him, "They have brought the heads of the king's sons," Jehu said, "Pile them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning."
9In the morning he went out, stood before all the people, and said, "You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him—but who struck down all these?
10Know then that not one word the LORD spoke against the house of Ahab will fall to the ground. The LORD has done what he promised through his servant Elijah."
11Then Jehu struck down everyone left of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, along with all his leading men, his close friends, and his priests, leaving him no survivor.
19Now summon to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. Let no one be missing, for I am holding a great sacrifice for Baal. Whoever is missing will not live." But Jehu was acting deceitfully, in order to destroy the servants of Baal.
21Then Jehu sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was filled from wall to wall.
23Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rechab entered the temple of Baal, and Jehu said to the servants of Baal, "Search and make sure that no servant of the LORD is here among you—only servants of Baal."
24So they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside, and he had told them, "If any man lets one of these escape whom I am placing in your hands, his own life will be forfeit."
25As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, Jehu ordered the guards and the officers, "Go in and strike them down; let no one escape." So they cut them down with the sword. Then the guards and officers threw the bodies out and went on into the inner shrine of the temple of Baal.[^1]
[^1]: The Hebrew word here normally means "city"; the sense of the phrase is uncertain, and it may refer to an inner room or citadel of the temple.
30The LORD said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all that I had in mind, your descendants to the fourth generation will sit on the throne of Israel."
31Yet Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, who had led Israel into sin.