2 Kings 9:17

JORAM AND AHAZIAH WERE TAKEN COMPLETELY BY SURPRISE

"Now the watchman was standing 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 a horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, Is it peace? So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace? And Jehu answered, 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 back. Then he sent out a second on horseback, who 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. And the watchman told, saying, he came even unto them, but he cometh not back: and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously."

Joram should have heeded the failure of the first messenger to return. It could have saved him a little time and perhaps enabled him to resist the attack of Jehu; but it was a fault of Ahab and his whole family that they repeated actions which had already proved to be futile. One messenger who did not return was all the warning Joram needed, but he paid no attention to it, but sent another one. Joram's brother, another son of Ahab, sent fifty men to arrest Elijah; and when fire from heaven fell upon them, he sent another captain with his fifty; and the same thing happened again! Could one believe it? He did it the third time! It was evidently a family trait (2 Kings 1:9-13). Here Joram himself became the third attempt to meet Jehu before he arrived in Jezreel.

"The driving is like the driving of Jehu; ... for he driveth furiously" (2 Kings 9:20). "The last clause here has become an amusing proverb in our times referring to reckless drivers of automobile."[13]