Open English Translation 2KI Chapter 9

9 Then the prophet Elisha called to one of the prophets-in-training and told him, “Tuck your robe in, take this flask of oil, and hurry to Ramot-Gilead. 2 When you get there, you’ll see Yehu (Jehu) (the son of Nimshi’s son Yehoshafat) there. Take him into a private inner room, away from his brothers, 3 and pour some of the olive oil over his head and tell him that Yahweh says that he’s anointed him as king over Israel. Then open the door and get out of there fast.” 4 So the young prophet went to Ramot-Gilead, 5 and when he arrived, he was surprised to see the army captains sitting there. He said, “I need to talk to you, captain.”

“Which one of us?” Yehu asked.

“It’s a message for you, captain,” he said. 6 So Yehu got up, and went over to the house where the prophet poured the oil on his head and told him, “Israel’s God Yahweh says that he’s anointed you as king over Yahweh’s people—over Israel. 7 You should attack the house of Ahab your master so Yahweh can avenge the murder of his servants, the prophets, and avenge the murder of all his servants who were killed by Izevel (Jezebel). 8 All of Ahab’s household should be killed, and Yahweh won’t allow any of his male descendants to live, either before or after they’ve left home. 9 Yahweh wants Ahab’s descendants to be eliminated like the descendants of Nebat’s son Yarave’am and Ahiyah’s son Baasha were. 10 The dogs will eat Izevel’s body where she dies in Yizre’el—she won’t be buried.” Then he opened the door and rushed away.

11 When Yehu came back to the room where the servants of his masters were, and they asked him, “Is everything okay? What did that madman want with you?”

“You yourselves know that man and the sort of stuff that he says,” he said.

12 “You’re lying,” they insisted. “Tell us what he told you.”

“Well, he said several things,” Yehu answered, “and then he told me that Yahweh says he’s anointed me as king over Israel.”

13 Then they all spread their cloaks on the steps of the building for Yehu to walk out on, and they blew a trumpet and shouted, “Yehu is now the king!”

14 So Yehu (the son of Nimshi’s son, Yehoshafat) conspired against Yoram. Yoram was busy with the army guarding Ramot-Gilead from King Haza’el of Aram. 15 Then King Yoram returned to Yizre’el to heal from the wounds from the Arameans when he’d fought with their King Haza’el.

So Yehu told his men, “If you all want me as king, then don’t let anyone leave this city of Ramot-Gilead in case they go to Yizre’el city and tell them our plans.” 16 Then Yehu rode to Yizre’el himself because Yoram was recuperating there in bed, and King Ahazyah had gone up north from Yehudah to visit him.

17 The watchman was standing on the watchtower in Yizre’el, and he could see Yehu’s party in the distance as they began approaching the city, and he reported, “I can see a large group.”

King Yoram ordered, “Send out a chariot and go and ask them if they’re coming in peace.” 18 So the horse and chariot went out to me them and called out, “The king wants to know if you’re all coming in peace?”

But Yehu answered, “What’s that got to do with you? Turn around and follow us.”

Meanwhile the watchman announced, “The messenger has met them, but he isn’t returning.”

19 So the king sent out a second horse and chariot, and he approached and asked, “The king wants to know if you’re all coming in peace?”

Again Yehu replied, “What’s that got to do with you? Turn around and follow us.”

20 Then the watchman declared, “He also met with them but didn’t return. The leader is riding like Nimshi’s son Yehu, because he’s riding like crazy.”

21 “Quick, get my chariot ready!” Yoram ordered. They harnessed his chariot and King Yoram of Israel and Yehudah’s King Ahazyah both went out—each man in his chariot. They went out to meet Yehu and they found him at Navot’s field (the Yizre’elite). 22 When Yoram saw Yehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Yehu?”

“How could there be peace,” he answered, “when your mother Izevel is serving idols and embracing witchcraft?”

23 Then Yoram swung the chariot reigns around and fled, shouting to Ahazyah, “It’s treason, Ahazyah!” 24 Yehu grabbed his bow, and the arrow struck Yoram between his shoulder blades and came out from his heart, and he slumped down dead in his chariot. 25 Then Yehu said to his third officer Bidkar, “Pick up his body and throw it out into the field of Navot, the Yizre’elite. I’m sure you remember how you and I were riding as pairs after his father Ahab, when Yahweh said this against him: 26 ‘Yesterday I saw Navot and his sons killed here, declared Yahweh, and I will repay you in this very place, declares Yahweh.’ So now, throw his body down here because Yahweh declared that it would happen.”

27 Yehudah’s King Ahazyah saw that happen, and he sped away through the garden by a house with Yehu chasing after him shouting, “Get him too in his chariot when he starts climbing upwards to Gur near Yibleam.” So as he fled towards Megiddo, he was killed there, 28 and his servants took his body to Yerushalem, where they buried him in his ancestral tomb in the City of David.

29 (Ahazyah had become king over Yehudah in the eleventh year of the reign of Ahab’s son Yoram over Israel.)

30 Then Yehu came to Yizre’el and Queen Izevel (Jezebel) heard about it. She painted her eyelids and did her hair nicely, then she looked down through the window, 31 and when Yehu came in the gate, she said, “Greetings, Zimri the second,[ref] murderer of his master.” 32 Yehu looked up at the window and called out, “Who is with me? Who?” And two or three servants poked their heads out windows and looked down to him. 33 “Okay,” he called up, “toss her out!”

So they tossed her out the window, and some of her blood splashed onto the wall and onto the horses as she was trampled by them. 34 Then Yehu and his men went in and ate and drank, and then he said, “Now, you all better attend to that evil woman and bury her, because she’s a king’s daughter.” 35 But when they went to bury her, but they could only find her skull and her hands and feet. 36 They came back inside and told him, “It’s just like what Yahweh said via his servant the Tishbite Eliyyah, when he said that the dogs would eat Izevel’s flesh just outside Yizre’el, 37 and then her body would become like dung on the ground and no one would be able to recognise her specific bones.”