¹Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria, to the officials of Jezreel, the elders, and to the guardians of Ahab, saying,

²And now, when this letter comes to you, and your master's sons are with you, and with you the chariots and the horses, and a fortified city and the weapons,

³you will see the good and upright one from among the sons of your master, and you will set him on the throne of his father, and fight for the house of your master.

⁴And they feared exceedingly, and said, Look, the two kings did not stand before his face; so how can we stand?

⁵And the one who was over the house, and the one who was over the city, and the elders, and the guardians sent to Jehu, saying, We are your slaves, and all that you say to us we will do. We will not make anyone king; do what is good in your eyes.

⁶Then he wrote to them a second letter, saying, If you are mine, and you are listening to my voice, take the heads of the men, your master's sons, and come to me at this time tomorrow at Jezreel. Now the king's sons, seventy men were with the great ones of the city, who were making them great.

⁷And when the letter came to them, they took the king's sons and slaughtered seventy men, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him at Jezreel.

⁸The messenger came and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the sons of the king. And he said, Put them in two piles at the entrance of the gate until morning.

⁹And it happened in the morning that he went out and stood, and said to all the people, You are righteous. Look, I conspired against my master and killed him; but who struck down all these?

¹⁰Know then that none of the word of Yahweh will fall to the land, which Yahweh spoke against the house of Ahab; for Yahweh has done what he spoke by the hand of his slave Elijah.

¹¹So Jehu struck down all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his acquaintances, and his priests, until he left him no survivor.

¹²Then he rose, and came, and went to Samaria. He was at Beth-eked of the Shepherds on the way.

¹³And Jehu found the brothers of Ahaziah the king of Judah, and said, Who are you? And they said, We are the brothers of Ahaziah, and we have come down for the wholeness of the sons of the king and the sons of the queen mother.

¹⁴He said, Seize them alive. And they seized them alive, and slaughtered them at the pit of Beth-eked, forty-two men; and he left no one of them.

¹⁵Then he went on from there and found Jehonadab son of Rechab, coming to meet him. He blessed him and said to him, Is your heart right, just as my heart is with your heart? And Jehonadab said, It is. If it is, give me your hand. And he gave his hand, and he brought him up to himself into the chariot.

¹⁶And he said, Come with me and see my jealousy for Yahweh. So they made him ride in his chariot.

¹⁷He came to Samaria and struck down all who remained of Ahab in Samaria, until he had wiped him out, according to the word of Yahweh, which he had spoken to Elijah.

¹⁸Jehu gathered all the people and said to them, Ahab served the Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much.

¹⁹And now summon to me all the prophets of the Baal, all who serve him, and all his priests; let no one be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for the Baal. Anyone who is missing shall not live. But Jehu acted with guile, so as to destroy those who served the Baal.

²⁰And Jehu said, Set apart an assembly for the Baal. And they proclaimed it.

²¹Jehu sent through all Israel, and all who served the Baal came, and no one was left who had not come; and they went into the house of the Baal, and the house of the Baal was filled from end to end.

²²He said to the one who was over the wardrobe, Bring out garments for all who served the Baal. And he brought out for them the attire.

²³Jehu went in, and Jehonadab son of Rechab, into the house of the Baal, and he said to those who serve the Baal, Search and see lest there be here with you any of the slaves of Yahweh, but those who serve the Baal alone.

²⁴And they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed for himself eighty men outside, and he had said, The man who escapes from the men whom I am bringing into your hands, his being shall be in place of his being.

²⁵And it happened, when he had finished offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the runners and to the elites, Go in, strike them down; let no one go out. And they struck them down with the edge of the sword, and the runners and the elites threw them out, and went to the city of the house of the Baal.

²⁶They brought out the pillars of the house of the Baal and burned it.

²⁷They pulled down the pillar of the Baal, and pulled down the house of the Baal, and made it into latrines until this day.

²⁸So Jehu wiped out the Baal from Israel.

²⁹Only Jehu did not turn away from after the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin: the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan.

³⁰And Yahweh said to Jehu, Because you have done well in doing what is 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.

³¹But Jehu did not take care to walk in the instruction of Yahweh the God of Israel with all his heart; he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel sin.

³²In those days Yahweh began to cut away at Israel, and Hazael struck them down throughout the territory of Israel,

³³from the Jordan toward the sunrise, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites and the Reubenites and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the wadi of Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.

³⁴And the rest of the words of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the scroll of the words of the days for the kings of Israel?

³⁵And Jehu lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria; and his son Jehoahaz reigned in his place.

³⁶And the days that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria were twenty-eight years.