When Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. And Jehu pursued him and said, "Shoot him too, in the chariot." So they shot him at the ascent of Gur, which is at Ibleam. But he fled to Megiddo and died there.Why did Jehu kill Ahaziah, as well? I understand him killing Joram, because Joram was the king of Israel, and he'd just been anointed king of Israel by the prophet. But Ahaziah was king of Judah, a completely separate nation. So why kill him as well, when he was running away? He didn't appear to be any threat, and killing him could only antagonize Judah against Israel.
I only have a guess as to why this occurred, but it's all I have. I'm guessing that the answer is two-fold. First, Ahaziah was a wicked king, of the line of Ahab due to intermarriage. The prophet had commanded that all males of Ahab's line be killed, so Jehu was carrying out what he at least thought was God's word (I say thought because Elisha's instructions didn't include that command). Second, Judah was allied with Israel at the time, and the kings were together when Jehu came. He may have considered Ahaziah to be a threat, because he could quickly summon the army of both nations to reclaim the throne for Joram's heir.
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