YEHU!

 

YEHU!
2K9

CONTEXT
    Yehu benNimshi–an apparent gloss in v2, 14 inserts benY’hoshafat into his name–a ranking military officer, camped at RamotGil’ad. He was to have been anointed by Eliyahu following his Sound of Silence experience in 1K19:16. The task has fallen to Eliyahu’s assistant and successor, Elisha.
    This tale is the tail end of the King Achav/Ahab disaster. His wife was Izevel, Phoenician princess and Ba’al worship supporter. She it was who arranged the death of Navot, whose vineyard Achav coveted. Eliyahu pronounces the end of that dynasty, which had begun with Omri.(1K21)
    Navi, v1, is “prophet.” B’neyNavi’im, literally “sons of prophets,” seems to be what we might call a member of a guild or a prophet in training. These were the 9th century wizards who preceded the great 8th century figures like Amós and Y’shayahu/Isaiah.
    Quadriga, v17, is a quadruple yoked chariot. The Hebrew is שִׁפְעַת/shif’at/abundance. Most translations see an abundance or multitude of people and render: “troop, company, throng.” Septuagint has κονιορτός/koniortos/raised dust. An ancient war chariot had one or two horses and was manned by three men, one to drive and two with bows or spears. This story features a single chariot, driven by Yehu, who is accompanied by Bidqar, his שָׁלִישׁ/shalish/third. This translation relies on the image of a lot of horses kicking up dust, מִשִּׁפְעַ֥ת סוּסָ֖יו/mishif’at susav/from the multitude of his horses (Ezek. 26:10)
    Hashalom/הֲשָׁלֽוֹם, v17, is a greeting that does not have an adequate translation into English. Shalom by itself means “peace, well being,” and with added הֲ/ha becomes a question, “how are you” (מָה שְׁלוֹמְךָ/mah sh’lomcha in modern Hebrew). But in this story the critical question is about coming in peace as opposed to threat. The narrative requires both meanings, hence the Hebrew. It is the key word in this telling.
    (And in the eleventh year of Yoram benAchav, Achazyah reigned over Y’hudah.)v29 This verse is a gloss, inconsequential to the narrative. The translation deletes it and pastes it here.
    Zimri, v30: Izevel associates Yehu with the rebel who assassinated Elah a few years back, and lasted a week on the throne before burning his palace on himself when Omri attacked.


    1Elisha the navi, called one of the b’neyN’vi’im and said to him, “Gird up your loins and take this flask of oil in your hand and go to RamotGil’ad. 2When you get there, seek out Yehu benNimshi. Stand him up from among his brothers and bring him into an inner room. 3Take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say to him, Thus says Yahh: I anoint you king for Yisrael. Then open the door and flee–don’t delay!”
    4So the young navi went to RamotGil’ad. 5When he arrived the army officers were sitting there and the lad said, “I have a word for you, the officer. Yehu said, “For whom among all of us?” “For you, the officer,” he said.
    6He rose and they entered the house. The lad poured the oil on Yehu’s head and said to him. “Thus said Yahh, god of Yisrael: I have anointed you king for the people of Yahh, Yisrael. 7You shall strike the house of Achav, your lord, and I shall be avenged for my servants the n’vi’im and the blood of all the servants of Yahh by the hand of Izevel. 8Lost be the entire house of Achav and I shall have cut out Achav’s wall pissers, confined or free in Yisrael. 9And I shall have dealt the house of Achav like the house of Yarov’am benN’vat and like the house of Basha benAchiyah. 10And as for Izevel, the dogs will devour her in a section of Yizr’el. No burying.” Then he opened the door and fled.
    11Yehu went out to his lord’s servants and they said to him, “How are you? Why did this crazy one come to you?” He said to them, “You know the type and the blather.” 12“A lie!” they said, “come on, tell us.” “Such and such he told me, saying: Thus says Yahh, I have anointed you king for Yisrael.” 13In haste each man took off his garment and set it on the steps under him. They blew the shofar and proclaimed: “Yehu has become king!”
    14So Yehu benNimshi conspired against Yoram. Yoram was on guard at RamotGil’ad, he and all Yisrael, against Chazael, king of Aram. (15King Y’horam had retreated to recuperate in Yizr’el from the blows the Aramim had given him in fighting with Chazael.) “If,” said Yehu, “you really want this, let no-one escape the city to go tell it in Yizr’el.” 16Yehu got into his chariot for Yizr’el for Yoram was lying there. Achazyah, king of Y’hudah, had gone down to see Yoram.
    17A lookout stood atop the tower in Yizr’el and saw Yehu’s quadriga as it aproached. “I see a quadriga,” he reported, and Yoram said, “Take a horseman and send to meet them and ask hashalom?”
    18The rider went to meet him and spoke, “Thus says the king: Hashalom?”
    “What’s it to you?! For shalom?! Turn around and get behind me.”
    The lookout reported, “The messenger reached them and did not return.” 19He sent a second horseman who arrived and said, “Thus says the king: Shalom!”
    “What’s it to you?! For Shalom?! Turn around and get behind me.”
    20The lookout reported, “He got to them and did not return. The driving is driving like Yehu benNimshi. He drives like crazy.”
    21“Hitch up!,” said Y’horam, and his chariot was hitched up. The king of Yisrael and Achazyah, king of Y’hudah, each in his chariot, went out to meet Yehu and they found him at the section of Navot the Yizr’eli. 22When Y’horam saw him he asked, “Hashalom, Yehu?”
    “What is this hashalom along with your mother Izevel’s many whorings and witchery?!”
    23Y’horam wheeled around and fled, and called to Achazyahu, “Treachery!”
    24Yehu grasped his bow and struck Y’horam between his arms so that the arrow went through his heart and he crumpled in his chariot. 25He said to Bidqar, his third, “Pick him up and throw him on the section of Navot the Yizr”eli. Remember when you and I were riding as partners behind Achav, his father? And Yahh put this load on him: 26‘Didn’t I see blood of Navot and his sons last night? I shall settle with you in this very section.’ Yahh said it! So now pick him up and throw him into the section. It’s like the word of Yahh!”
    27Achazyah, king of Y’hudah, saw and fled by way of BetHagan. Yehu pursued him, calling out, Him too!” They struck him in his chariot at the Gur ascent by Yivl’am. He fled to M’gido and died there. 28His servants carted him to Y’rushalayim and buried him in the tomb of his fathers in DavídTown.
    30When Yehu arrived at Yizr’el and Izevel heard, she applied eye liner and touched up her hair and looked out the window. 31When Yehu arrived at the gate she called out, “Hashalom you Zimri, killing his lord?”
    32He directed his face towards the window and shouted, “Who’s with me?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. “Let her go!” and they let her go. Her blood spattered the wall and the horses and one of them trampled her.
    34Then he entered and ate and drank. Then he said, “Be so kind as to see to this cursed woman. Bury her, for she is the daughter of a king.” 35They went to bury her but they didn’t find any of her but the skull, feet and palms. 36They returned and told him and he said, “It’s the word of Yahh that he spoke to his servant Eliyahu the Tishbi: In the section of Yizr’el the dogs will eat the flesh of Izevel.”
    37The remains of Izevel were like rubbish on the surface of the field in the section of Yizr’el. Such that no one could say, “This is Izevel.”