WATCHMAN33
A young prophet pours oil over Jehu in a private chamber as captains spread their garments on the stairs and chariots race toward Jezreel.
KING JAMES VERSION

2 KINGS 9

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CHAPTER VISUAL

2 Kings 9 — Jehu is secretly anointed, acclaimed by the captains, and drives to Jezreel as judgment falls on Ahab’s house.

About this illustration

The anointing and urgent drive dominate the composition. The deaths of Joram, Ahaziah, and Jezebel are conveyed through distant halted chariots and an empty palace window, avoiding graphic bodies and animal violence.

Scripture basis: 2 Kings 9:1–37
  1. 1And Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets, and said unto him, Gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead:
  2. 2And when thou comest thither, look out there Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brethren, and carry him to an inner chamber;
  3. 3Then take the box of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith the LORD, I have anointed thee king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and tarry not.
  4. 4 So the young man, even the young man the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead.
  5. 5And when he came, behold, the captains of the host were sitting; and he said, I have an errand to thee, O captain. And Jehu said, Unto which of all us? And he said, To thee, O captain.
  6. 6And he arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I have anointed thee king over the people of the LORD, even over Israel.
  7. 7And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel.
  8. 8For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel:
  9. 9And 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. 10And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her. And he opened the door, and fled.
  11. 11 Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said unto him, Is all well? wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? And he said unto them, Ye know the man, and his communication.
  12. 12And they said, It is false; tell us now. And he said, Thus and thus spake he to me, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I have anointed thee king over Israel.
  13. 13Then they hasted, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king.
  14. 14So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram had kept Ramoth-gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria.
  15. 15But king Joram was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) And Jehu said, If it be your minds, then let none go forth nor escape out of the city to go to tell it in Jezreel.
  16. 16So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there. And Ahaziah king of Judah was come down to see Joram.
  17. 17And there stood a watchman on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, I see a company. And Joram said, Take an horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, Is it peace?
  18. 18So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace? And Jehu said, What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me. And the watchman told, saying, The messenger came to them, but he cometh not again.
  19. 19Then he sent out a second on horseback, which came to them, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace? And Jehu answered, What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me.
  20. 20And the watchman told, saying, He came even unto them, and cometh not again: and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously.
  21. 21And Joram said, Make ready. And his chariot was made ready. And Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out against Jehu, and met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.
  22. 22And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?
  23. 23And Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is treachery, O Ahaziah.
  24. 24And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength, and smote Jehoram between his arms, and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot.
  25. 25Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite: for remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden upon him;
  26. 26Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons, saith the LORD; and I will requite thee in this plat, saith the LORD. Now therefore take and cast him into the plat of ground, according to the word of the LORD.
  27. 27 But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. And Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the chariot. And they did so at the going up to Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo, and died there.
  28. 28And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David.
  29. 29And in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah.
  30. 30 And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.
  31. 31And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?
  32. 32And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs.
  33. 33And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot.
  34. 34And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king’s daughter.
  35. 35And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands.
  36. 36Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel:
  37. 37And the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.

King James Version · Standardized 1769 text with Strong’s numbering · Public domain outside the United Kingdom

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Archaeological Evidence

ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEInscription
Late ninth century BC

Tel Dan Stele: The 'House of David'

Fragments of a ninth-century BC Aramaic victory monument name a king of Israel and, in the mainstream reading, the House of David—the earliest widely accepted extra-biblical reference to Judah's Davidic dynasty.

2 Samuel 7:8–16 · 1 Kings 12:19–20 · 1 Kings 15:4
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ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEInscription
Approximately 825 BC; Jehu register concerns 841 BC

The Black Obelisk: Jehu and Assyria

Shalmaneser III's Black Obelisk names tribute from Jehu of the House of Omri and illustrates the Israelite delegation, placing Jehu within the westward reach of Assyrian power in 841 BC.

2 Kings 9:1–37 · 2 Kings 10:1–36 · 1 Kings 19:15–17
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ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEArtifact
Ninth–eighth centuries BC

The Samaria Ivories

More than twelve thousand carved ivory objects and fragments from Samaria’s royal acropolis preserve the fittings of elite furniture, boxes, and architectural display in the capital criticized by Amos for its ivory houses and beds.

1 Kings 22:39 · Amos 3:15 · Amos 6:4–6
Open evidence file
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEArchitecture
Iron Age IIA–IIB, approximately tenth–eighth centuries BC across multiple phases

Megiddo’s Monumental Gates and “Stables”

Megiddo’s successive gates and vast pillared compounds reveal generations of royal investment at a strategic Israelite center; the equid buildings are now strongly identified as eighth-century BC stables, not the tenth-century ‘stables of Solomon’ once celebrated in excavation reconstructions.

1 Kings 9:15 · 1 Kings 9:19 · 1 Kings 10:26
Open evidence file

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