2 Kings 9:12-13

9:12 But they said, “You’re lying! Tell us what he said.” So he told them what he had said. He also related how he had said, ¹  “This is what the Lord says, ‘I have designated you as king over Israel.’” 9:13 Each of them quickly took off his cloak and they spread them out at Jehu’s ²  feet on the steps. ³  The trumpet was blown ⁴  and they shouted, “Jehu is ⁵  king!”

¹ tn Heb “So he said, ‘Like this and like this he said to me, saying.’” The words “like this and like this” are probably not a direct quote of Jehu’s words to his colleagues. Rather this is the narrator’s way of avoiding repetition and indicating that Jehu repeated, or at least summarized, what the prophet had said to him.

² tn Heb “his”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “and they hurried and took, each one his garment, and they placed [them] beneath him on the bone [?] of the steps.” The precise nuance of גֶרֶם (gerem), “bone,” is unclear. Some suggest the nuance “bare” here; it may be a technical architectural term in this context.

⁴ tn Heb “they blew the trumpet.” This has been translated as a passive to avoid the implication that the same ones who shouted had all blown trumpets.

⁵ tn Or “has become.”