King Ahab of Israel humbled himself in response to God’s judgment against him and his family following his appropriation of Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kings 22).

Ahab’s elder son Ahaziah succeeded him but died two years later after falling through the lattice of an upper room of his palace in Samaria.  Whether Ahaziah’s fall was a true accident or not, 2 Kings 1 does not say, and further speculation belongs to the realm of fiction.

Ahab’s younger son Joram inherited Ahaziah’s place and his father’s enemies, notably Ben-Hadad and then Hazael, kings of Aram (Syria).  Joram and the king of Judah joined forces to attack Hazael at Ramoth Gilead, possibly on the same battle ground where Ahab died in action (1 Kings 22:29-40). When the Arameans wounded Joram, he returned to his palace at Jezreel to recover (2 Kings 8:28-29).  King Ahaziah of Judah followed Joram while the armies of Judah and Israel stayed behind to defend Ramoth Gilead.

The prophet Elisha, Elijah’s successor, chose this opportunity to send a younger prophet to anoint the Israelite commander, Jehu, king over Israel in Joram’s place. Once anointed, Jehu wasted no time in leading his troops to Jezreel to carry out Elisha’s command to wipe outAhab’s family,  Joram went to meet him, accompanied by Ahaziah of Judah, each in his own chariot,

The three met at the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth the Jeszreelite.

When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?”

“How can there be peace,” Jehu replied, “as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”

Joram turned about and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, “Treachery, Ahaziah!”

Then Joram drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot.

Jehu said to Bidkar, his chariot officer, “Pick him up and throw him on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. …”

Amaziah of Judah fled west, pursued by Jehu and his men.

They wounded him in his chariot on the way up to Ibleam, but he escaped to Megiddo and died there.

Jehu meanwhile returned to Jezreel to dispose of Jezebel. He ordered her servants to throw her out of her palace window. Horses trampled her underfoot and dogs devoured her remains, leaving nothing but a skull, hands and feet.

For Joram and Jehu, as Jehu said, their grisly deaths came about according the the word of the Lord that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite.

The ancient battle ground of the plain of Meggido thus became a place of reckoning–a place where injustice and evil meet final defeat,  The deaths of Joram, and Jezebel anticipate the outcome of the final battle at Armageddon.