2 Kings 9: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Elisha sends a young prophet to Ramoth-gilead to anoint Jehu, an army commander, as king over Israel, with orders to strike down the house of Ahab and avenge the prophets killed by Jezebel. The other commanders proclaim Jehu king, and he rides to Jezreel, where he shoots King Joram of Israel and has his body thrown into Naboth's field. Jehu's men also shoot Ahaziah king of Judah, who dies at Megiddo and is buried in Jerusalem. At Jezreel, Jezebel is thrown from a window and killed, and when her body is found nearly gone, Jehu names it as the word the LORD spoke through Elijah.

Claim by Claim

1. 9:1
   • Elisha the prophet summoned one of the sons of the prophets.
   • Elisha told him to gird up his loins.
   • Elisha told him to take a flask of oil in his hand.
   • Elisha told him to go to Ramoth-gilead.
2. 9:2
   • Elisha told him that when he arrived he was to look there for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi.
   • Elisha told him to go in and raise Jehu up from among his companions.
   • Elisha told him to bring Jehu into an inner room.
3. 9:3
   • Elisha told him to take the flask of oil and pour it on Jehu's head.
   • Elisha told him to say, 'Thus says the LORD: I have anointed you king over Israel.'
   • Elisha told him to open the door and flee afterward.
   • Elisha told him not to wait.
4. 9:4
   • The young man, the young prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead.
5. 9:5
   • He arrived.
   • The commanders of the army were sitting there.
   • He said, 'I have a message for you, commander.'
   • Jehu asked, 'For which of us all?'
   • He said, 'For you, commander.'
6. 9:6
   • Jehu got up and went into the house.
   • The young prophet poured the oil on Jehu's head.
   • He said to Jehu, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel.'
7. 9:7
   • The message said Jehu was to strike down the house of Ahab his master.
   • The LORD said this was so that he might avenge the blood of his servants the prophets.
   • The LORD said this was so that he might avenge the blood of all the servants of the LORD shed by the hand of Jezebel.
8. 9:8
   • The LORD said the whole house of Ahab would perish.
   • The LORD said he would cut off from Ahab every male.
   • The LORD said he would cut off both those confined and those at large in Israel.
9. 9:9
   • The LORD said he would make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat.
   • The LORD said he would make the house of Ahab like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah.
10. 9:10
    • The LORD said the dogs would eat Jezebel in the plot of ground at Jezreel.
    • The LORD said there would be no one to bury her.
    • The young prophet opened the door and fled.
11. 9:11
    • Jehu went out to the servants of his master.
    • One of them asked him whether all was well.
    • One of them asked why this madman had come to him.
    • Jehu said to them that they knew the man and his talk.
12. 9:12
    • They said it was false.
    • They told him to tell them.
    • Jehu said the man had spoken to him in such and such a way.
    • Jehu reported the man's words: 'Thus says the LORD: I have anointed you king over Israel.'
13. 9:13
    • They hurried.
    • Each man took his garment.
    • They put the garments under Jehu on the bare steps.
    • They blew the ram's horn.
    • They said, 'Jehu is king.'
14. 9:14
    • Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi conspired against Joram.
    • Joram had been guarding Ramoth-gilead.
    • Joram and all Israel were there guarding it.
    • They were guarding it because of Hazael king of Aram.
15. 9:15
    • King Joram had returned to Jezreel to be healed.
    • The wounds had been given him by the Arameans.
    • He had received the wounds when he fought against Hazael king of Aram.
    • Jehu said that if this was their will, no fugitive should leave the city to go and tell it in Jezreel.
16. 9:16
    • Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel.
    • Joram was lying there.
    • Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.
17. 9:17
    • A watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel.
    • The watchman saw Jehu's company as he approached.
    • The watchman said he saw a company.
    • Joram ordered that a horseman be taken and sent to meet them.
    • Joram ordered that the rider ask whether it was peace.
18. 9:18
    • A horseman went to meet Jehu.
    • The horseman said, 'Thus says the king: Is it peace?'
    • Jehu said, 'What have you to do with peace?'
    • Jehu told him to turn and fall in behind him.
    • The watchman reported that the messenger reached them but was not returning.
19. 9:19
    • A second horseman was sent out.
    • The second horseman came to them.
    • He said, 'Thus says the king: Is it peace?'
    • Jehu said, 'What have you to do with peace?'
    • Jehu told him to turn and fall in behind him.
20. 9:20
    • The watchman reported that the second rider reached them and was not returning.
    • The watchman said the driving was like the driving of Jehu son of Nimshi.
    • The watchman said that he drives furiously.
21. 9:21
    • Joram ordered the chariot harnessed.
    • His chariot was harnessed.
    • Joram king of Israel went out.
    • Ahaziah king of Judah went out.
    • Each went out in his own chariot.
    • They went out to meet Jehu.
    • They found Jehu at the plot of ground of Naboth the Jezreelite.
22. 9:22
    • When Joram saw Jehu he asked, 'Is it peace, Jehu?'
    • Jehu answered, 'What peace?'
    • Jehu said the harlotries of Joram's mother Jezebel continued.
    • Jehu said her witchcrafts were many.
23. 9:23
    • Joram turned his hands and fled.
    • Joram said to Ahaziah, 'Treachery, Ahaziah.'
24. 9:24
    • Jehu drew his bow with full strength.
    • Jehu struck Jehoram between his arms.
    • The arrow came out at his heart.
    • Jehoram sank down in his chariot.
25. 9:25
    • Jehu spoke to Bidkar his officer.
    • Jehu told him to pick the body up and throw it into the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite.
    • Jehu told him to remember that the two of them rode together in pairs behind Ahab, Joram's father.
    • Jehu said the LORD laid this oracle upon Ahab.
26. 9:26
    • The LORD said he had seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons.
    • The LORD said he would repay him in this plot of ground.
    • Jehu ordered the body picked up and thrown on the plot of ground according to the word of the LORD.
27. 9:27
    • Ahaziah king of Judah saw this.
    • Ahaziah fled by the way of the garden house.
    • Jehu pursued him.
    • Jehu ordered that Ahaziah also be struck in the chariot.
    • They struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam.
    • Ahaziah fled to Megiddo.
    • Ahaziah died there.
28. 9:28
    • His servants carried him by chariot to Jerusalem.
    • They buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David.
29. 9:29
    • Ahaziah began to reign over Judah in the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab.
30. 9:30
    • Jehu came to Jezreel.
    • Jezebel heard of it.
    • She painted her eyes with kohl.
    • She adorned her head.
    • She looked out through the window.
31. 9:31
    • Jehu entered at the gate.
    • Jezebel said, 'Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of his master?'
32. 9:32
    • Jehu lifted up his face to the window.
    • Jehu said, 'Who is with me? Who?'
    • Two or three eunuchs looked out at him.
33. 9:33
    • Jehu said, 'Throw her down.'
    • They threw her down.
    • Some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses.
    • She was trampled underfoot; the text does not make clear whether Jehu or the horses trampled her.
34. 9:34
    • Jehu went in and ate and drank.
    • Jehu said to attend to this cursed woman and bury her.
    • Jehu said she was a king's daughter.
35. 9:35
    • They went to bury her.
    • They found nothing of her but the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands.
36. 9:36
    • They returned and told Jehu.
    • Jehu said this was the word of the LORD spoken by his servant Elijah the Tishbite.
    • That word said that in the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs would eat the flesh of Jezebel.
37. 9:37
    • That word said the corpse of Jezebel would be like dung on the face of the field in the plot of ground at Jezreel.
    • That word said the result would be that no one could say, 'This is Jezebel.'

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

9:1

"Sons of the prophets" (the group of prophets) were bands of men attached to a senior prophet such as Elisha, living and traveling together. Ramoth-gilead was a fortified town east of the Jordan River, on the frontier with Aram (Syria), and changed hands repeatedly in the wars between Israel and Damascus.

9:2

Jehu was a senior officer in Israel's army with no royal blood and no claim to the throne. Anointing him while a king was alive and on the throne was treason, which is why the whole errand is done behind a closed door and the messenger is told to run.

9:3

Pouring olive oil over a man's head was the ceremony that made him king; "anointed" simply means "had oil poured on him." Israel's kings were normally anointed by a priest or prophet, so a prophet's messenger doing it here amounts to declaring the reigning king illegitimate, which is why the young man is told to run.

9:5

Commanders were the leaders of the army. Israel's soldiers were camped at Ramoth-gilead to guard the town.

9:7

Ahab had been king of Israel a few years earlier; his sons Ahaziah and then Joram succeeded him, so his "house" (family, dynasty) still holds the throne. Jezebel, his widow and Joram's mother, was a Phoenician princess who promoted the worship of Baal in Israel and, according to 1 Kings 18, had prophets of the LORD hunted down and killed.

9:8

The King James "him that pisseth against the wall" is a blunt Hebrew idiom for males. "Him that is shut up and left" is a stock legal phrase whose exact sense is disputed, traditionally "bond and free," i.e. everyone without exception. The point is that no male of the family is to survive to claim the throne.

9:9

Jeroboam and Baasha were earlier kings of Israel whose whole families were killed off when the next man seized power (1 Kings 15–16). Naming them is a way of saying this dynasty will end the same way: wiped out, with no heirs left.

9:10

Dogs in ancient towns were half-wild scavengers, not pets. To be eaten by them and left unburied was the worst end imaginable, since a proper burial in the family tomb was what every person expected as their due.

9:11

Prophets were known for trance-like behavior and strange speech, so "crazy man" was a common half-contemptuous nickname for them among soldiers and officials. Jehu's reply, "you know the man and the kind of talk he makes", is a brush-off playing on that reputation.

9:13

Spreading cloaks under a man's feet was an on-the-spot act of homage, making a walkway fit for royalty out of what the soldiers had to hand. The ram's horn (shofar) was the instrument sounded to announce a new king. The Hebrew phrase rendered "the bare steps" is obscure; it may mean the steps themselves, or a raised platform.

9:14

"Syria" here translates Aram, the kingdom centered on Damascus, not the modern country of the same borders. Joram (also spelled Jehoram) was king of Israel, the northern kingdom; the army was holding Ramoth-gilead as a border fortress against Aramean attack.

9:15

Jezreel was a second royal city, where the kings of Israel had a palace. It sat about a day's ride from Ramoth-gilead.

9:16

Ahaziah king of Judah, the southern kingdom, was Joram's nephew: Ahaziah's mother Athaliah belonged to Ahab's family, so the two royal houses were joined by marriage. That kinship explains both the friendly visit and why Jehu treats him as part of the house of Ahab.

9:17

"Do you come in peace?" translates a question built on the word shalom. It asks both "are your intentions friendly?" and "is the news good?", a natural thing to ask of riders coming from the front line.

9:18

"Turn thee behind me" means fall in line behind my troops. Jehu is telling the rider he now belongs to Jehu's side, not the king's.

9:20

Every driver had his own way of handling the horses. From far off, a watchman could tell who was driving.

9:21

Naboth owned a vineyard next to the royal property at Jezreel. According to 1 Kings 21, Jezebel had him falsely accused and stoned so that Ahab could take the land, and the prophet Elijah met Ahab there and announced the ruin of his family. Everything that happens on this ground in the rest of the chapter is meant to be read against that story.

9:22

The King James "whoredoms" translates a Hebrew word the prophets regularly used for worshiping other gods: the relationship between Israel and the LORD was pictured as a marriage, so serving other gods was described as adultery. "Witchcraft" covers divination and sorcery, the arts used to read or manipulate the future.

9:23

"Turned his hands" means he hauled the reins around; a chariot is steered by hand, so turning the hands turns the horses.

9:24

"Between his arms" in the King James means between the shoulders, from behind, as Joram turns his chariot to flee. "Jehoram" is a longer form of the same name as "Joram", one man, two spellings.

9:25

Jehu and Bidkar had been junior officers riding in the escort behind King Ahab when Elijah delivered his sentence. The King James "laid this burden upon him" uses "burden" in its old prophetic sense: a solemn pronouncement of doom, something loaded onto its target.

9:26

"Yesterday" is idiomatic, the LORD saw the killing and has not forgotten it, not that it happened the previous day. The mention of Naboth's sons is not in the account in 1 Kings 21, but the family would have had to be wiped out for the crown to take the land, since it would otherwise pass to Naboth's heirs.

9:27

The "garden house" translates Beth-haggan, which may be a place name rather than a building. Megiddo was a fortified city guarding the main pass through the Carmel ridge. 2 Chronicles 22 tells the story of Ahaziah's death differently, with him captured in Samaria and executed.

9:28

The City of David is the oldest part of Jerusalem, the ridge David captured; the kings of Judah were buried there in the royal tombs. Being carried home and laid "with his ancestors" is a mark of honor, the opposite of what happens to Joram and Jezebel.

9:29

This dating note does not match 2 Kings 8:25, which puts Ahaziah's accession in Joram's twelfth year. Ancient systems counted a king's years in more than one way, and the two figures were evidently drawn from different sources.

9:30

Painting the eyes meant outlining them with kohl, a black powder; "arranged her hair" translates a word for dressing the head, probably with an ornate headdress. This is a queen presenting herself in full state at the palace window, not a woman trying to seduce Jehu, though the scene has often been read that way.

9:31

Zimri was a chariot commander who murdered King Elah of Israel, seized the throne, and held it for seven days before the army besieged him and he burned the palace down over himself (1 Kings 16). Calling Jehu "Zimri" means: assassins who take thrones do not keep them long.

9:32

The Hebrew word can mean a castrated man or simply a high court official; in a royal household such men typically served in the women's quarters and had direct access to the queen. Their instant obedience to Jehu shows the palace staff switching sides.

9:33

Driving the chariot horses over the body was a deliberate act of contempt, not an accident of the moment. It also leaves the corpse in a state that makes the burial Jehu later orders impossible.

9:34

Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Phoenician city of Sidon. Even after ordering her death, Jehu observes the convention that royalty is buried rather than left out, a courtesy owed to her rank and to her father's house.

9:36

Elijah was a prophet before Elisha. He came from a town called Tishbe. He spoke these words years earlier, back when Ahab was king.

9:37

Manure was carted out and spread over ploughland, so "like manure on the open field" means scattered, worthless, and impossible to gather up. Without a grave there is no marked spot and no name attached to it, which is the force of "no one will be able to say, This is Jezebel."