2 Raja-raja 1:3

1:3 But the Lord’s angelic messenger told Elijah the Tishbite, “Get up, go to meet the messengers from the king of Samaria. Say this to them: ‘You must think there is no God in Israel! That explains why you are on your way to seek an oracle from Baal Zebub the god of Ekron. ¹ 

2 Raja-raja 4:13

4:13 Elisha said to Gehazi, ²  “Tell her, ‘Look, you have treated us with such great respect. ³  What can I do for you? Can I put in a good word for you with the king or the commander of the army?’” She replied, “I’m quite secure.” ⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 5:7

5:7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill or restore life? Why does he ask me to cure a man of his skin disease? ⁵  Certainly you must see that he is looking for an excuse to fight me!” ⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 7:1

7:1 Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says, ‘About this time tomorrow a seah ⁷  of finely milled flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’”

2 Raja-raja 7:10

7:10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers ⁸  of the city. They told them, “We entered the Syrian camp and there was no one there. We didn’t even hear a man’s voice. ⁹  But the horses and donkeys are still tied up, and the tents remain up.” ¹⁰ 

2 Raja-raja 7:13

7:13 One of his advisers replied, “Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city. (Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people – we’re all going to die!) ¹¹  Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.” ¹² 

2 Raja-raja 8:9

8:9 So Hazael went to visit Elisha. ¹³  He took along a gift, ¹⁴  as well as ¹⁵  forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son, ¹⁶  King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question, ¹⁷  ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

2 Raja-raja 9:6

9:6 So Jehu ¹⁸  got up and went inside. Then the prophet ¹⁹  poured the olive oil on his head and said to him, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I have designated you as king over the Lord’s people Israel.

2 Raja-raja 9:17

9:17 Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel and saw Jehu’s troops approaching. ²⁰  He said, “I see troops!” ²¹  Jehoram ordered, ²²  “Send a rider out to meet them and have him ask, ‘Is everything all right?’” ²³ 

2 Raja-raja 9:27

9:27 When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what happened, he took off ²⁴  up the road to Beth Haggan. Jehu chased him and ordered, “Shoot him too.” They shot him while he was driving his chariot up the ascent of Gur near Ibleam. ²⁵  He fled to Megiddo ²⁶  and died there.

2 Raja-raja 10:30

10:30 The Lord said to Jehu, “You have done well. You have accomplished my will and carried out my wishes with regard to Ahab’s dynasty. Therefore four generations of your descendants will rule over Israel.” ²⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 11:12

11:12 Jehoiada ²⁸  led out the king’s son and placed on him the crown and the royal insignia. ²⁹  They proclaimed him king and poured olive oil on his head. ³⁰  They clapped their hands and cried out, “Long live the king!”

2 Raja-raja 11:19

11:19 He took the officers of the units of hundreds, the Carians, the royal bodyguard, and all the people of land, and together they led the king down from the Lord’s temple. They entered the royal palace through the Gate of the Royal Bodyguard, ³¹  and the king ³²  sat down on the royal throne.

2 Raja-raja 13:19

13:19 The prophet ³³  got angry at him and said, “If you had struck the ground five or six times, you would have annihilated Syria! ³⁴  But now, you will defeat Syria only three times.”

2 Raja-raja 13:25

13:25 Jehoahaz’s son Jehoash took back from ³⁵  Ben Hadad son of Hazael the cities that he had taken from his father Jehoahaz in war. Joash defeated him three times and recovered the Israelite cities.

2 Raja-raja 17:4

17:4 The king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was planning a revolt. ³⁶  Hoshea had sent messengers to King So ³⁷  of Egypt and had not sent his annual tribute to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria arrested him and imprisoned him. ³⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 18:4

18:4 He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole. ³⁹  He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time ⁴⁰  the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan. ⁴¹ 

2 Raja-raja 19:4

19:4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. ⁴²  When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. ⁴³  So pray for this remnant that remains.’” ⁴⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 20:13

20:13 Hezekiah welcomed ⁴⁵  them and showed them his whole storehouse, with its silver, gold, spices, and high quality olive oil, as well as his armory and everything in his treasuries. Hezekiah showed them everything in his palace and in his whole kingdom. ⁴⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 21:7

21:7 He put an idol of Asherah he had made in the temple, about which the Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon, “This temple in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will be my permanent home. ⁴⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 22:13

22:13 “Go, seek an oracle from ⁴⁸  the Lord for me and the people – for all Judah. Find out about ⁴⁹  the words of this scroll that has been discovered. For the Lord’s fury has been ignited against us, ⁵⁰  because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this scroll by doing all that it instructs us to do.” ⁵¹ 

2 Raja-raja 23:24

23:24 Josiah also got rid of ⁵²  the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits, ⁵³  the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images, ⁵⁴  and all the detestable idols that had appeared in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. In this way he carried out the terms of the law ⁵⁵  recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s temple.

2 Raja-raja 23:35

23:35 Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh the required amount of silver and gold, but to meet Pharaoh’s demands Jehoiakim had to tax the land. He collected an assessed amount from each man among the people of the land in order to pay Pharaoh Necho. ⁵⁶ 

[1:3]  ¹ tn Heb “Is it because there is no God in Israel [that] you are going to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?” The translation seeks to bring out the sarcastic tone of the rhetorical question.

[4:13]  ² tn Heb “he said to him.”

[4:13]  ³ tn Heb “you have turned trembling to us with all this trembling.” The exaggerated language is probably idiomatic. The point seems to be that she has taken great pains or gone out of her way to be kind to them. Her concern was a sign of her respect for the prophetic office.

[4:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “Among my people I am living.” This answer suggests that she has security within the context of her family.

[5:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “Am I God, killing and restoring life, that this one sends to me to cure a man from his skin disease?” In the Hebrew text this is one lengthy rhetorical question, which has been divided up in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[5:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “Indeed, know and see that he is seeking an occasion with respect to me.”

[7:1]  ⁷ sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 7 quarts.

[7:10]  ⁸ tn The MT has a singular form (“gatekeeper”), but the context suggests a plural. The pronoun that follows (“them”) is plural and a plural noun appears in v. 11. The Syriac Peshitta and the Targum have the plural here.

[7:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “and, look, there was no man or voice of a man there.”

[7:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “but the horses are tied up and the donkeys are tied up and the tents are as they were.”

[7:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.” The MT is dittographic here; the words “that remain in it. Look they are like all the people of Israel” have been accidentally repeated. The original text read, “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.”

[7:13]  ¹² tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”

[8:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:9]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”

[8:9]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.

[8:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “saying.”

[9:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the prophet) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the quantity [of the men] of Jehu, when he approached.” Elsewhere שִׁפְעַה (shif’ah), “quantity,” is used of a quantity of camels (Isa 60:6) or horses (Ezek 26:10) and of an abundance of water (Job 22:11; 38:34).

[9:17]  ²¹ tn The term שִׁפְעַת (shifat) appears to be a construct form of the noun, but no genitive follows.

[9:17]  ²² tn Heb “said.”

[9:17]  ²³ tn Heb “Get a rider and send [him] to meet him and let him ask, ‘Is there peace?’”

[9:27]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and Ahaziah king of Judah saw and fled.”

[9:27]  ²⁵ tn After Jehu’s order (“kill him too”), the MT has simply, “to the chariot in the ascent of Gur which is near Ibleam.” The main verb in the clause, “they shot him” (וַיִּכְהוּ, vayyikhhu), has been accidentally omitted by virtual haplography/homoioteleuton. Note that the immediately preceding form הַכֻּהוּ (hakkuhu), “shoot him,” ends with the same suffix.

[9:27]  ²⁶ map For location see Map1 D4; Map2 C1; Map4 C2; Map5 F2; Map7 B1.

[10:30]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Because you have done well by doing what is proper in my eyes – according to all which was in my heart you have done to the house of Ahab – sons of four generations will sit for you on the throne of Israel.” In the Hebrew text the Lord’s statement is one long sentence (with a parenthesis). The translation above divides it into shorter sentences for stylistic reasons.

[10:30]  sn Jehu ruled over Israel from approximately 841-814 b.c. Four of his descendants (Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, and Zechariah) ruled from approximately 814-753 b.c. The dynasty came to an end when Shallum assassinated Zechariah in 753 b.c. See 2 Kgs 15:8-12.

[11:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoiada) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:12]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew term עֵדוּת (’edut) normally means “witness” or “testimony.” Here it probably refers to some tangible symbol of kingship, perhaps a piece of jewelry such as an amulet or neck chain. See the discussion in M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 128. Some suggest that a document is in view, perhaps a copy of the royal protocol or of the stipulations of the Davidic covenant. See HALOT 790-91 s.v. עֵדוּת.

[11:12]  ³⁰ tn Or “they made him king and anointed him.”

[11:19]  ³¹ tn Heb “the Gate of the Runners of the House of the King.”

[11:19]  ³² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:19]  ³³ tn Heb “man of God.”

[13:19]  ³⁴ tn Heb “[It was necessary] to strike five or six times, then you would strike down Syria until destruction.” On the syntax of the infinitive construct, see GKC 349 §114.k.

[13:25]  ³⁵ tn Heb “from the hand of.”

[17:4]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and the king of Assyria found in Hoshea conspiracy.”

[17:4]  ³⁷ sn For discussion of this name, see HALOT 744 s.v. סוֹא and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 196.

[17:4]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and bound him in the house of confinement.”

[18:4]  ³⁹ tn The term is singular in the MT but plural in the LXX and other ancient versions. It is also possible to regard the singular as a collective singular, especially in the context of other plural items.

[18:4]  sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

[18:4]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “until those days.”

[18:4]  ⁴¹ tn In Hebrew the name sounds like the phrase נְחַשׁ הַנְּחֹשֶׁת (nÿkhash hannÿkhoshet), “bronze serpent.”

[19:4]  ⁴² tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”

[19:4]  ⁴³ tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”

[19:4]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”

[20:13]  ⁴⁵ tc Heb “listened to.” Some Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate versions agree with the parallel passage in Isa 39:2 and read, “was happy with.”

[20:13]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “there was nothing which Hezekiah did not show them in his house and in all his kingdom.”

[21:7]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I chose from all the tribes of Israel, I will place my name perpetually (or perhaps “forever”).”

[22:13]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “inquire of.”

[22:13]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “concerning.”

[22:13]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “for great is the anger of the Lord which has been ignited against us.”

[22:13]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “by doing all that is written concerning us.” Perhaps עָלֵינוּ (’alenu), “concerning us,” should be altered to עָלָיו (’alav), “upon it,” in which case one could translate, “by doing all that is written in it.”

[23:24]  ⁵² tn Here בִּעֵר (bi’er) is not the well attested verb “burn,” but the less common homonym meaning “devastate, sweep away, remove.” See HALOT 146 s.v. בער.

[23:24]  ⁵³ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 21:6.

[23:24]  ⁵⁴ sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.

[23:24]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “carrying out the words of the law.”

[23:35]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “And the silver and the gold Jehoiakim gave to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the silver at the command of Pharaoh, [from] each according to his tax he collected the silver and the gold, from the people of the land, to give to Pharaoh Necho.”