Jehu Slaughters Ahab's Descendants

¹Now Ahab had seventy sons in pSamaria. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria, to the rulers of the city,1 to the elders, and to qthe guardians of the sons2 of Ahab, saying, ²“Now then, as soon as this letter comes to you, seeing your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, fortified cities also, and weapons, ³select the best and fittest of your master's sons and set him on his father's throne and fight for your master's house.” ⁴But they were exceedingly afraid and said, “Behold, the two kings could not stand before him. How then can we stand?” ⁵So he who was over the palace, and he who was over the city, together with the elders and the guardians, sent to Jehu, saying, r“We are your servants, and we will do all that you tell us. We will not make anyone king. Do whatever is good in your eyes.” ⁶Then he wrote to them a second letter, saying, “If you are on my side, and if you are ready to obey me, take the heads of your master's sons and come to me at Jezreel tomorrow at this time.” Now the king's sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, qwho were bringing them up. ⁷And as soon as the letter came to them, they took the king's sons sand slaughtered them, seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel. ⁸When the messenger came and told him, “They have brought the heads of the king's sons,” he said, “Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning.” ⁹Then in the morning, when he went out, he stood and said to all the people, “You are innocent. tIt was I who conspired against my master and killed him, but who struck down all these? ¹⁰Know then that there shall ufall to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for the Lord has done vwhat he said by his servant Elijah.” ¹¹So Jehu struck down all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, all his great men and his close friends and his priests, until he left him none remaining.

¹²Then he set out and went to Samaria. On the way, when he was at Beth-eked of the Shepherds, ¹³Jehu met wthe relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah, and he said, “Who are you?” And they answered, “We are the relatives of Ahaziah, and we came down to visit the royal princes and the sons of the queen mother.” ¹⁴He said, “Take them alive.” And they took them alive and slaughtered them at the pit of Beth-eked, forty-two persons, and he spared none of them.

¹⁵And when he departed from there, he met xJehonadab the son of yRechab coming to meet him. And he greeted him and said to him, “Is your heart true to my heart as mine is to yours?” And Jehonadab answered, “It is.” Jehu said,3 “If it is, zgive me your hand.” So he gave him his hand. And Jehu took him up with him into the chariot. ¹⁶And he said, “Come with me, and see amy zeal for the Lord.” So he4 had him ride in his chariot. ¹⁷And when he came to Samaria, bhe struck down all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had wiped them out, according to the word of the Lord vthat he spoke to Elijah.

Jehu Strikes Down the Prophets of Baal

¹⁸Then Jehu assembled all the people and said to them, c“Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much. ¹⁹Now therefore call to me all the dprophets of Baal, all his worshipers and all his priests. Let none be missing, for I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal. Whoever is missing shall not live.” But Jehu did it with cunning in order to destroy the worshipers of Baal. ²⁰And Jehu ordered, e“Sanctify fa solemn assembly for Baal.” So gthey proclaimed it. ²¹And Jehu sent throughout all Israel, and all the worshipers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left who did not come. And they entered hthe house of Baal, and the house of Baal was filled from one end to the other. ²²He said to him who was in charge of the wardrobe, “Bring out the vestments for all the worshipers of Baal.” So he brought out the vestments for them. ²³Then Jehu went into the house of Baal with Jehonadab the son of Rechab, and he said to the worshipers of Baal, “Search, and see that there is no servant of the Lord here among you, but only the worshipers of Baal.” ²⁴Then they5 went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings.

Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside and said, “The man who allows any of those whom I give into your hands to escape ishall forfeit his life.” ²⁵So as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the officers, j“Go in and strike them down; let not a man escape.” So when they put them to the sword, the guard and the officers cast them out and went into the inner room of the house of Baal, ²⁶and they brought out the kpillar that was in hthe house of Baal and burned it. ²⁷And they demolished the kpillar of Baal, and demolished the house of Baal, and made it la latrine to this day.

Jehu Reigns in Israel

²⁸Thus Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel. ²⁹But Jehu did not turn aside from mthe sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, nwhich he made Israel to sin—that is, the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan. ³⁰And the 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 according to all that was in my heart, oyour sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” ³¹But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. pHe did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin.

³²In those days the Lord qbegan to cut off parts of Israel. rHazael defeated them throughout the territory of Israel: ³³from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from sAroer, which is by the Valley of the Arnon, that is, tGilead and Bashan. ³⁴Now the rest of the acts of Jehu and all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ³⁵So Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place. ³⁶The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

Greeting

¹Paul, aan apostle of Christ Jesus bby the will of God according to cthe promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus,

²To Timothy, dmy beloved child:

eGrace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Guard the Deposit Entrusted to You

³fI thank God gwhom I serve, as did my ancestors, hwith a clear conscience, as I remember you iconstantly in my prayers night and day. ⁴jAs I remember your tears, kI long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. ⁵I am reminded of lyour sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and myour mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. ⁶For this reason I remind you nto fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, ⁷for God gave us oa spirit not of fear but pof power and love and self-control.

⁸Therefore qdo not be ashamed of rthe testimony about our Lord, nor of sme his prisoner, but tshare in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, ⁹uwho saved us and vcalled us to1 a holy calling, wnot because of our works but because of vhis own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus xbefore the ages began,2 ¹⁰and which now has ybeen manifested through zthe appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, awho abolished death and bbrought life and cimmortality to light through the gospel, ¹¹dfor which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, ¹²ewhich is why I suffer as I do. But fI am not ashamed, for gI know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until hthat day iwhat has been entrusted to me.3 ¹³jFollow kthe pattern of lthe sound4 words mthat you have heard from me, in nthe faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴By the Holy Spirit owho dwells within us, guard ithe good deposit entrusted to you.

¹⁵You are aware that pall who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. ¹⁶May the Lord grant mercy to qthe household of Onesiphorus, for he often rrefreshed me and was not ashamed of smy chains, ¹⁷but when he arrived in Rome the searched for me earnestly and found me— ¹⁸may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on uthat day!—and you well know all the service he vrendered at Ephesus.

Israel's Unfaithfulness Punished

¹1 Say to your brothers, x“You are my people,”2 and to your sisters, y“You have received mercy.”3

²“Plead with your mother, plead—

for zshe is not my wife,

and I am not her husband—

that she put away aher whoring from her face,

and her adultery from between her breasts;

³lest bI strip her naked

and make her as cin the day she was born,

and dmake her like a wilderness,

and make her like a parched land,

and kill her with thirst.

⁴eUpon her children also I will have no mercy,

fbecause they are children of whoredom.

⁵For gtheir mother has played the whore;

she who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For hshe said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

who igive me my bread and my water,

my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

⁶Therefore jI will hedge up her4 way with thorns,

and kI will build a wall against her,

so that she cannot find her paths.

⁷She shall pursue her lovers

but not overtake them,

and she shall seek them

but shall not find them.

lThen she shall say,

‘I will go and return to mmy first husband,

lfor it was better for me then than now.’

⁸And nshe did not know

that it was oI who gave her

pthe grain, the wine, and the oil,

and who lavished on qher silver and gold,

rwhich they used for Baal.

⁹Therefore sI will take back

my grain in its time,

and my wine in its season,

and sI will take away my wool and my flax,

which were to cover her nakedness.

¹⁰Now tI will uncover her lewdness

in the sight of her lovers,

and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

¹¹uAnd I will put an end to all her mirth,

her feasts, her vnew moons, her vSabbaths,

and all her wappointed feasts.

¹²And xI will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,

yof which she said,

‘These are zmy wages,

which my lovers have given me.’

I will make them a forest,

aand the beasts of the field shall devour them.

¹³And bI will punish her for cthe feast days of the Baals

when she burned offerings to them

and dadorned herself with her ring and jewelry,

and went after her lovers

and forgot me, declares the Lord.

The Lord's Mercy on Israel

¹⁴“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and ebring her into the wilderness,

and fspeak tenderly to her.

¹⁵And there I will give her her vineyards

and make the Valley of Achor5 a door of hope.

And there she shall answer gas in the days of her youth,

as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶“And hin that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ ¹⁷For iI will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. ¹⁸And jI will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And kI will abolish6 the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in lsafety. ¹⁹And I will betroth you to me mforever. nI will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. ²⁰nI will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And oyou shall know the Lord.

²¹“And pin that day qI will answer, declares the Lord,

I will answer the heavens,

and they shall answer the earth,

²²and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and they shall answer rJezreel,7

²³and sI will sow her for myself in the land.

And tI uwill have mercy on No Mercy,8

and vI will say to Not My People,9 w‘You are my people’;

and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

Mem

⁹⁷Oh how xI love your law!

It is my ymeditation all the day.

⁹⁸Your commandment makes me zwiser than my enemies,

for it is ever with me.

⁹⁹I have more understanding than all my teachers,

for ayour testimonies are my meditation.

¹⁰⁰I understand more than bthe aged,8

for I ckeep your precepts.

¹⁰¹I dhold back my feet from every evil way,

in order to keep your word.

¹⁰²I do not turn aside from your rules,

for you have taught me.

¹⁰³How esweet are your words to my taste,

sweeter than honey to my mouth!

¹⁰⁴Through your precepts I get understanding;

therefore fI hate every false way.

Nun

¹⁰⁵gYour word is a lamp to my feet

and a light to my path.

¹⁰⁶I have hsworn an oath and confirmed it,

to keep your irighteous rules.

¹⁰⁷I am severely jafflicted;

kgive me life, O Lord, according to your word!

¹⁰⁸Accept lmy freewill offerings of praise, O Lord,

and mteach me your rules.

¹⁰⁹I hold my life nin my hand continually,

but I do not oforget your law.

¹¹⁰The wicked have laid pa snare for me,

but qI do not stray from your precepts.

¹¹¹Your testimonies are rmy heritage forever,

for they are sthe joy of my heart.

¹¹²I tincline my heart to perform your statutes

forever, uto the end.9

Samekh

¹¹³I hate vthe double-minded,

but I love wyour law.

¹¹⁴You are my xhiding place and my yshield;

I zhope in your word.

¹¹⁵aDepart from me, you evildoers,

that I may bkeep the commandments of my God.

¹¹⁶Uphold me caccording to your promise, that I may live,

and let me not be dput to shame in my ehope!

¹¹⁷fHold me up, that I may be safe

and have regard for your statutes continually!

¹¹⁸You gspurn all who hgo astray from your statutes,

for their cunning is in vain.

¹¹⁹All the wicked of the earth you discard like idross,

therefore jI love your testimonies.

¹²⁰My flesh ktrembles for fear of you,

and I am afraid of your judgments.