But in
what manner was this done? At a time when King Joram was
prevented by a wound he had received from being with his army in
the field, a messenger of Elisha went to the camp, called the
captain apart from a banquet at which he found him, to a secret
interview, and anointed him king. When Jehu returned to his
comrades at their wine, they asked him what that mad fellow had
wanted, and, his evasive answers failing to satisfy them, he told
them the truth. They at once raised him on an improvised throne,
and caused the trumpets to proclaim him king: they were quite
ready for such an exploit, not that they cared in the least for
"that mad fellow." Jehu justified their confidence by his
astounding mastery in treachery and bloodshed, but he placed his
reliance entirely on the resources of his own talent for murder.
He was not borne along by any general movement against the dynasty;
the people, which he despised (x. 9), stood motionless and horrified
at the sight of the crimes which came so quickly one after another;
even a hundred years afterwards the horror at the massacre of Jezreel
still lived (Hosea i.
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