 1 Ahab had 70 sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters and sent to Samaria to the rulers of Jezreel to the elders and to the supporters of Ahab saying, 2 Now as soon as this letter comes to you, since your master's sons are with you and chariots and horses are with you, also a fortified city and armor. 3 Look for the best and fittest of your master's sons and set him on his father's throne and fight for your master's house. 4 They were exceedingly afraid and said, Behold, two kings did not stand before him. How then will we stand? 5 The one who was over the house and the one over the city, the elders also, and the guardians, sent to Jehu saying, We are your servants and will do all that you will say to us. We will not make any king. Do what is good in your eyes. 6 He wrote a letter the second time to them saying, If you are mine, and will listen to my voice, take the heads of the men, your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by this time tomorrow. And the king's sons, 70 persons, were with the great men of the city who brought them up. 7 When the letter came to them, they took the king's sons and killed them, 70 persons, and put their heads in baskets and sent to him in Jezreel. 8 A messenger came and told him saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons. And he said, Lay them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning. 9 In the morning, he went out, stood, and said to all the people, You are righteous. Behold, I plotted against my master and killed him. But who killed all these? 10 Know now that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the Word of the Lord that the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab. For the Lord has done what He spoke by His servant Elijah. 11 Jehu killed all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel and all his great men and his close friends and his priests until he left him none remaining. 12 He rose, departed, and came to Samaria. As he was at the shepherds' shearing house on the way, 13 Jehu met with the brothers of King Ahaziah of Judah and said, Who are you? They answered, The brothers of Ahaziah. And we are going down to greet the king's sons and the queen's sons. 14 He said, Take them alive. They took them alive and killed them at the pit of the shearing house, 42 men. And he left not a man of them. 15 He left there and found Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. He greeted him and said to him, Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is. If it is, give your hand. And he gave his hand. And he took him up to him into the chariot. 16 He said, Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord. Then they made him ride in his chariot. 17 When he came to Samaria, he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria until he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the Lord that he spoke to Elijah. 18 Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them, Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much. 19 Now call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. Let no one be lacking. For I have a great sacrifice to Baal. Whoever will be lacking, he will not live. But Jehu was acting with cunning, to the end that he might destroy the worshipers of Baal. 20 Jehu said, Call a solemn feast for Baal. So they called it. 21 Jehu sent through all Israel and all the worshipers of Baal came so that there was not a man left who did not come. They came into the house of Baal and the house of Baal was full from one end to another. 22 He said to him who was over the robe room, Bring out robes for all the worshipers of Baal. And he brought them out for them. 23 Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rechab, into the house of Baal. And he said to the servants of Baal, Search and look, that there may not be here with you any of the servants of the Lord, but only the servants of Baal. 24 They went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. And Jehu had appointed 80 men outside and said, If any of the men whom I have brought to you escapes, his life shall be for the life of him. 25 When he stopped offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the commanders, Go in. Kill them. Do not let any come out. So they struck them with the edge of the sword and the guard and the commanders threw them out. Then they went to the city, to the house of Baal. 26 Then they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal and burned them. 27 They broke down the image of Baal and broke down the house of Baal and made it a sewer house until this day. 28 Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. 29 Only, Jehu did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, going after them, the golden calves in Bethel and in Dan. 30 The Lord said to him, Jehu, because you have done well in doing the right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. 31 But Jehu did not care to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart, for he did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin. 32 In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short. And Hazael struck them in all the border of Israel, 33 from Jordan toward the rising of the sun, all the land of Gilead, the men of Gad and of Reuben and of Manasseh, from Aroer, by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan. 34 The rest of the acts of Jehu and all that he did, and all his might are written in the book of the kings of Israel. 35 Jehu slept with his fathers and they buried him in Samaria and his son Jehoahaz reigned in his place. 36 The days that Jehu reigned over Israel and Samaria were 28 years.
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