2 Kings 9

21-22 Then Joram and Ahaziah themselves went out to meet Jehu; it so happened they met at the plot of ground that had once belonged to Naboth (1 Kings 21:1-3). This time, when Joram asked Jehu if he came in peace, the answer was “No.” There could be no peace while the sins of the house of Ahab continued.³⁸ Joram realized too late that Jehu had come to punish him and his family for the idolatry and witchcraft of his mother Jezebel, both of those sins being punishable by death.

23-26 Jehu killed Joram with an arrow as he tried to flee (verse 24). Then Jehu quoted a PROPHECY that the blood of Ahab and his sons would fall on Naboth’s plot of ground as payment for Naboth’s murder by Jezebel (1 Kings 21:11-16). This prophecy is recorded nowhere else; perhaps Jehu was thinking of Elijah’s prophecy against Ahab in which the prophet said that Ahab’s blood would be licked up in the same place Naboth’s blood had been licked up—presumably in his own vineyard (1 Kings 21:19). Jehu saw that he was now in a position to fulfill Elijah’s prophecy indirectly—by casting the body of Ahab’s son Joram into the vineyard. Ahab himself had died elsewhere (1 Kings 22:34-37).

27-29 Jehu then ordered his men to pursue Ahaziah. Although he had not been commissioned to kill a king of Judah, Jehu evidently felt justified in doing so because Ahaziah was the son of Ahab’s daughter Athaliah.³⁹

Jezebel Killed (9:30-37)

30-33 After chasing Ahaziah, Jehu then returned to Jezreel to deal with Jezebel. Knowing her end was near, Jezebel arranged herself befitting a queen; when Jehu arrived she taunted him by calling him Zimri (verse 31)—that is, traitor.⁴⁰ Jehu called to some eunuchs⁴¹ to throw her down from the window, which they did; and as she lay on the ground Jehu’s horses trampled her underfoot (verse 32).

34 -37 Jehu then went in to eat in Jezebel’s royal palace, thus letting everyone in Jezreel know that he was now king. While he was eating, the dogs were eating too: when Jehu’s men went out to bury Jezebel, there was almost nothing left of her. Jehu commented to his men that Elijah’s prophecy concerning Jezebel had now been fulfilled (1 Kings 21:23).