The messenger came: The use of the definite article with messenger seems to indicate that this was the same person who had relayed the earlier messages in this story although he is not specifically mentioned previously.

Told him: Once again the pronoun him refers to Jehu and may be replaced by the proper name “Jehu” in cases where there might be confusion or misunderstanding (so Good News Translation).

The gate refers, of course, to “the city gate” (Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, Nouvelle Bible Segond). Assyrian inscriptions show that it was a practice in the ancient Near East to pile up the heads of captured rebels at the city gate as a warning to others.

The direct quotations of Revised Standard Version in this verse are rendered indirectly in Good News Translation. Translators should feel free to use whichever means is most natural to convey the information in this context. But in either case the passive forms of Good News Translation (“had been brought,” “to be piled up” and “to be left”) will have to be made active in some languages. The following model avoids passive forms and uses indirect speech rather than direct speech:

• When the messenger came and told Jehu that some people had brought the heads of the king’s descendants to Jezreel, he told them to lay the heads in two heaps at the entrance of the city gate until the next morning.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .