2 Raja-raja 8:8-10

8:8 So the king told Hazael, “Take a gift ¹  and go visit the prophet. Request from him an oracle from the Lord. Ask him, ²  ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’” 8:9 So Hazael went to visit Elisha. ³  He took along a gift, ⁴  as well as ⁵  forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son, ⁶  King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question, ⁷  ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’” 8:10 Elisha said to him, “Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover,’ ⁸  but the Lord has revealed to me that he will surely die.”

[8:8]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text also has “in your hand.”

[8:8]  ² tn Heb “Inquire of the Lord through him, saying.”

[8:9]  ³ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:9]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”

[8:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “and.” It is possible that the conjunction is here explanatory, equivalent to English “that is.” In this case the forty camel loads constitute the “gift” and one should translate, “He took along a gift, consisting of forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus.”

[8:9]  ⁶ sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.

[8:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “saying.”

[8:10]  ⁸ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) reads, “Go, say, ‘Surely you will not (לֹא, lo’) recover” In this case the vav beginning the next clause should be translated, “for, because.” The marginal reading (Qere) has, “Go, say to him (לוֹ, lo), ‘You will surely recover.” In this case the vav (ו) beginning the next clause should be translated, “although, but.” The Qere has the support of some medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, and is consistent with v. 14, where Hazael tells the king, “You will surely recover.” It is possible that a scribe has changed לוֹ, “to him,” to לֹא, “not,” because he felt that Elisha would not lie to the king. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 90. Another possibility is that a scribe has decided to harmonize Elisha’s message with Hazael’s words in v. 14. But it is possible that Hazael, once he found out he would become the next king, decided to lie to the king to facilitate his assassination plot by making the king feel secure.