* From this point onward, the Assyrian texts which mentioned the twelve kings of the Khati, Irkhulini of Hamath and Adadidri (Ben-hadad) of Damascus, now only name Khazailu of the country of Damascus.

The Israelites were not successful in their methods of carrying on sieges; Joram, wounded in a skirmish, retired to his palace at Jezreel, where Ahaziah joined him a few days later, on the pretext of inquiring after his welfare.  The prophets of both kingdoms and their followers had never forgiven the family of Ahab their half-foreign extraction, nor their eclecticism in the matter of religion.  They had numerous partisans in both armies, and a conspiracy was set on foot against the absent sovereigns; Elisha, judging the occasion to be a propitious one, despatched one of his disciples to the camp with secret instructions.  The generals were all present at a banquet, when the messenger arrived; he took one of them, Jehu, the son of Nimshi, on one side, anointed him, and then escaped.  Jehu returned, and seated himself amongst his fellow-officers, who, unsuspicious of what had happened, questioned him as to the errand.  “Is all well?  Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?  And he said unto them, Ye know the man and what his talk was.  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.  Then they hasted, and took every man his garment and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, Jehu is king.”  He at once marched on Jezreel, and the two kings, surprised at this movement, went out to meet him with scarcely any escort.  The two parties had hardly met when Joram asked, “Is it peace, Jehu?” to which Jehu replied, “What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?” Whereupon Joram turned rein, crying to his nephew, “There is treachery, O Ahaziah.”  But an arrow pierced him through the heart, and he fell forward in his chariot.  Ahaziah, wounded near Ibleam, managed, however, to take refuge in Megiddo, where he died, his servants bringing the body back to Jerusalem.*

* According to the very curtailed account in 2 Chron. xxii. 9, Ahaziah appears to have hidden himself in Samaria, where he was discovered and taken to Jehu, who had him killed.  This account may perhaps have belonged to the different version of which a fragment has been preserved in 2 Kings x. 12-17.

When Jezebel heard the news, she guessed the fate which awaited her.  She painted her eyes and tired her head, and posted herself in one of the upper windows of the palace.  As Jehu entered the gates she reproached him with the words, “Is it peace, thou Zimri—­thy master’s murderer?  And he lifted up his face to the window and said, Who is on my side—­who?  Two or three eunuchs rose up behind the queen, and he called to them, Throw her down.  So they threw