the Fourth Week of Advent
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Hebrew Names Version
2 Kings 9
1 Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and said to him, Gird up your loins, and take this vial of oil in your hand, and go to Ramot-Gil`ad. 2 When you come there, look out there Yehu the son of Yehoshafat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brothers, and carry him to an inner chamber. 3 Then take the vial of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus says the LORD, I have anointed you king over Yisra'el. Then open the door, and flee, and don't wait. 4 So the young man, even the young man the prophet, went to Ramot-Gil`ad. 5 When he came, behold, the captains of the host were sitting; and he said, I have an errand to you, captain. Yehu said, To which of us all? He said, To you, O captain. 6 He arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, Thus says the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD, even over Yisra'el. 7 You shall strike the house of Ach'av your master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Izevel. 8 For the whole house of Ach'av shall perish; and I will cut off from Ach'av every man-child, and him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Yisra'el. 9 I will make the house of Ach'av like the house of Yarov`am the son of Nevat, and like the house of Ba`sha the son of Achiyah. 10 The dogs shall eat Izevel in the portion of Yizre`el, and there shall be none to bury her. He opened the door, and fled.
11 Then Yehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said to him, Is all well? why came this mad fellow to you? He said to them, You know the man and what his talk was. 12 They said, It is false; tell us now. He said, Thus and thus spoke he to me, saying, Thus says the LORD, I have anointed you king over Yisra'el. 13 Then they hurried, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the shofar, saying, Yehu is king. 14 So Yehu the son of Yehoshafat the son of Nimshi conspired against Yoram. (Now Yoram was keeping Ramot-Gil`ad, he and all Yisra'el, because of Haza'el king of Aram; 15 but king Yoram was returned to be healed in Yizre`el of the wounds which the Aram had given him, when he fought with Haza'el king of Aram.) Yehu said, If this be your mind, then let none escape and go forth out of the city, to go to tell it in Yizre`el.
16 So Yehu rode in a chariot, and went to Yizre`el; for Yoram lay there. Achazyah king of Yehudah was come down to see Yoram. 17 Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Yizre`el, and he spied the company of Yehu as he came, and said, I see a company. Yoram said, Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, Is it shalom? 18 So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, Thus says the king, Is it shalom? Yehu said, What have you to do with shalom? turn you behind me. The watchman told, saying, The messenger came to them, but he isn't coming back. 19 Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, Thus says the king, Is it shalom? Yehu answered, What have you to do with shalom? turn you behind me. 20 The watchman told, saying, He came even to them, and isn't coming back: and the driving is like the driving of Yehu the son of Nimshi; for he drives furiously. 21 Yoram said, Make ready. They made ready his chariot. Yoram king of Yisra'el and Achazyah king of Yehudah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Yehu, and found him in the portion of Navot the Yizre`eli. 22 It happened, when Yoram saw Yehu, that he said, Is it shalom, Yehu? He answered, What shalom, so long as the prostitution of your mother Izevel and her witchcraft abound? 23 Yoram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Achazyah, There is treachery, Achazyah. 24 Yehu drew his bow with his full strength, and struck Yoram between his arms; and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot. 25 Then said [Yehu] to Bidgar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Navot the Yizre`eli; for remember how that, when I and you rode together after Ach'av his father, the LORD laid this burden on him: 26 Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Navot, and the blood of his sons, says the LORD; and I will requite you in this plat, says the LORD. Now therefore take and cast him into the plat [of ground], according to the word of the LORD. 27 But when Achazyah the king of Yehudah saw this, he fled by the way of the Beit-Haggan. Yehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the chariot: [and they struck him] at the ascent of Gur, which is by Yivle`am. He fled to Megiddo, and died there. 28 His servants carried him in a chariot to Yerushalayim, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David. 29 In the eleventh year of Yoram the son of Ach'av began Achazyah to reign over Yehudah.
30 When Yehu was come to Yizre`el, Izevel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and attired her head, and looked out at the window. 31 As Yehu entered in at the gate, she said, Is it shalom, you Zimri, your master's murderer? 32 He lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? There looked out to him two or three eunuchs. 33 He said, Throw her down. So they threw her down; and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trod her under foot. 34 When he was come in, he ate and drink; and he said, See now to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king's daughter. 35 They went to bury her; but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. 36 Therefore they came back, and told him. He said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Eliyah the Tishbi, saying, In the portion of Yizre`el shall the dogs eat the flesh of Izevel; 37 and the body of Izevel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the portion of Yizre`el, so that they shall not say, This is Izevel.
