4th September

¹ And 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 Ramothgilead:² And 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 Then 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 So the young man, even the young man the prophet, went to Ramothgilead.⁵ And 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 And 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 And 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 For 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 And 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 And 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 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 And 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 Then 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 So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram had kept Ramothgilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria.¹⁵ But 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 So 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 And 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 So 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 Then 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 And 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 And 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 And 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 And Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is treachery, O Ahaziah.²⁴ And 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 Then 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 Surely 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 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 And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David.²⁹ And in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah.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 And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?³² And 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 And 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 And 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 And 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 Wherefore 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 And 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.

¹ Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.² Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.³ We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.⁴ We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.⁵ Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.⁶ We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.⁷ Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.⁸ Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.⁹ We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.¹⁰ Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.¹¹ They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.¹² Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.¹³ They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.¹⁴ The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.¹⁵ The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.¹⁶ The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!¹⁷ For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.¹⁸ Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.¹⁹ Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.²⁰ Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?²¹ Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.²² But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

¹ Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?² Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:³ Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.⁴ And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:⁵ Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;⁶ Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.⁷ But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:⁸ How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?⁹ For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.¹⁰ For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.¹¹ For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.¹² Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:¹³ And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:¹⁴ But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.¹⁵ But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.¹⁶ Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.¹⁷ Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.¹⁸ But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD.

¹ Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;² But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.³ But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:⁴ In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.⁵ For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.⁶ For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.⁸ We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;⁹ Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;¹⁰ Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.¹¹ For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.¹² So then death worketh in us, but life in you.¹³ We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;¹⁴ Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.¹⁵ For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.¹⁶ For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;¹⁸ While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.