2 Raja-raja 4:2

4:2 Elisha said to her, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She answered, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a small jar of olive oil.”

2 Raja-raja 4:13

4:13 Elisha said to Gehazi, ¹  “Tell her, ‘Look, you have treated us with such great respect. ²  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.” ³ 

2 Raja-raja 8:9

8:9 So Hazael went to visit Elisha. ⁴  He took along a gift, ⁵  as well as ⁶  forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son, ⁷  King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question, ⁸  ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

2 Raja-raja 8:21

8:21 Joram ⁹  crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites, who had surrounded him, attacked at night and defeated him and his chariot officers. ¹⁰  The Israelite army retreated to their homeland. ¹¹ 

2 Raja-raja 9:14

9:14 Then Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi conspired against Joram.

Jehu the Assassin

Now Joram had been in Ramoth Gilead with the whole Israelite army, ¹²  guarding against an invasion by King Hazael of Syria.

2 Raja-raja 10:5

10:5 So the palace supervisor, ¹³  the city commissioner, ¹⁴  the leaders, ¹⁵  and the guardians sent this message to Jehu, “We are your subjects! ¹⁶  Whatever you say, we will do. We will not make anyone king. Do what you consider proper.” ¹⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 10:30-31

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.” ¹⁸  10:31 But Jehu did not carefully and wholeheartedly obey the law of the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁹  He did not repudiate the sins which Jeroboam had encouraged Israel to commit. ²⁰ 

2 Raja-raja 11:9

11:9 The officers of the units of hundreds did just as ²¹  Jehoiada the priest ordered. Each of them took his men, those who were on duty during the Sabbath as well as those who were off duty on the Sabbath, and reported ²²  to Jehoiada the priest.

2 Raja-raja 11:14

11:14 Then she saw ²³  the king standing by the pillar, according to custom. The officers stood beside the king with their trumpets and all the people of the land were celebrating and blowing trumpets. Athaliah tore her clothes and screamed, “Treason, treason!” ²⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 11:18-19

11:18 All the people of the land went and demolished ²⁵  the temple of Baal. They smashed its altars and idols ²⁶  to bits. ²⁷  They killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altar. Jehoiada the priest ²⁸  then placed guards at the Lord’s temple. 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, ²⁹  and the king ³⁰  sat down on the royal throne.

2 Raja-raja 12:9

12:9 Jehoiada the priest took a chest and drilled a hole in its lid. He placed it on the right side of the altar near the entrance of ³¹  the Lord’s temple. The priests who guarded the entrance would put into it all the silver brought to the Lord’s temple.

2 Raja-raja 12:12-13

12:12 as well as masons and stonecutters. They bought wood and chiseled stone to repair the damage to the Lord’s temple and also paid for all the other expenses. ³²  12:13 The silver brought to the Lord’s temple was not used for silver bowls, trimming shears, basins, trumpets, or any kind of gold or silver implements.

2 Raja-raja 13:12

13:12 The rest of the events of Joash’s ³³  reign, including all his accomplishments and his successful war with King Amaziah of Judah, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. ³⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 14:28

14:28 The rest of the events of Jeroboam’s reign, including all his accomplishments, his military success in restoring Israelite control over Damascus and Hamath, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. ³⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 15:20

15:20 Menahem got this silver by taxing all the wealthy men in Israel; he took fifty shekels of silver from each one of them and paid it to the king of Assyria. ³⁶  Then the king of Assyria left; he did not stay there in the land.

2 Raja-raja 16:10-11

16:10 When King Ahaz went to meet with King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria in Damascus, he saw the altar there. ³⁷  King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a drawing of the altar and a blueprint for its design. ³⁸  16:11 Uriah the priest built an altar in conformity to the plans King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. ³⁹  Uriah the priest finished it before King Ahaz arrived back from Damascus. ⁴⁰ 

2 Raja-raja 17:9

17:9 The Israelites said things about the Lord their God that were not right. ⁴¹  They built high places in all their cities, from the watchtower to the fortress. ⁴² 

2 Raja-raja 17:23

17:23 Finally ⁴³  the Lord rejected Israel ⁴⁴  just as he had warned he would do ⁴⁵  through all his servants the prophets. Israel was deported from its land to Assyria and remains there to this very day.

2 Raja-raja 18:12

18:12 This happened because they did not obey ⁴⁶  the Lord their God and broke his agreement with them. ⁴⁷  They did not pay attention to and obey all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded. ⁴⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 18:21

18:21 Now look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If a man leans for support on it, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him.

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. ⁴⁹  When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. ⁵⁰  So pray for this remnant that remains.’” ⁵¹ 

2 Raja-raja 19:15

19:15 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord: “Lord God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubs! ⁵²  You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky ⁵³  and the earth.

2 Raja-raja 19:35

19:35 That very night the Lord’s messenger went out and killed 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. When they ⁵⁴  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses. ⁵⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 20:17

20:17 ‘Look, a time is ⁵⁶  coming when everything in your palace and the things your ancestors have accumulated to this day will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord.

2 Raja-raja 20:20

20:20 The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign and all his accomplishments, including how he built a pool and conduit to bring ⁵⁷  water into the city, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. ⁵⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 21:3

21:3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole just like King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky ⁵⁹  and worshiped ⁶⁰  them.

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. ⁶¹ 

2 Raja-raja 21:11

21:11 “King Manasseh of Judah has committed horrible sins. ⁶²  He has sinned more than the Amorites before him and has encouraged Judah to sin by worshiping his disgusting idols. ⁶³ 

2 Raja-raja 22:16

22:16 “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to bring disaster on this place and its residents, the details of which are recorded in the scroll which the king of Judah has read. ⁶⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 22:20

22:20 ‘Therefore I will allow you to die and be buried in peace. ⁶⁵  You will not have to witness ⁶⁶  all the disaster I will bring on this place.’”’” Then they reported back to the king.

2 Raja-raja 23:5

23:5 He eliminated ⁶⁷  the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices ⁶⁸  on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices ⁶⁹  to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.)

2 Raja-raja 24:7

24:7 The king of Egypt did not march out from his land again, for the king of Babylon conquered all the territory that the king of Egypt had formerly controlled between the Brook of Egypt and the Euphrates River.

2 Raja-raja 25:1

25:1 So King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside ⁷⁰  it. They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign. ⁷¹ 

2 Raja-raja 25:4

25:4 The enemy broke through the city walls, ⁷²  and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. ⁷³  They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden. ⁷⁴  (The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. ⁷⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 25:17

25:17 Each of the pillars was about twenty-seven feet ⁷⁶  high. The bronze top of one pillar was about four and a half feet ⁷⁷  high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its latticework was like it.

[4:13]  ¹ tn Heb “he said to him.”

[4:13]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “Among my people I am living.” This answer suggests that she has security within the context of her family.

[8:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:9]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”

[8:9]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.

[8:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “saying.”

[8:21]  ⁹ sn Joram is a short form of the name Jehoram.

[8:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he arose at night and defeated Edom, who had surrounded him, and the chariot officers.” The Hebrew text as it stands gives the impression that Joram was surrounded and launched a victorious night counterattack. It would then be quite natural to understand the last statement in the verse to refer to an Edomite retreat. Yet v. 22 goes on to state that the Edomite revolt was successful. Therefore, if the MT is retained, it may be better to understand the final statement in v. 21 as a reference to an Israelite retreat (made in spite of the success described in the preceding sentence). The translation above assumes an emendation of the Hebrew text. Adding a third masculine singular pronominal suffix to the accusative sign before Edom (reading אֶתוֹ [’eto], “him,” instead of just אֶת [’et]) and taking Edom as the subject of verbs allows one to translate the verse in a way that is more consistent with the context, which depicts an Israelite defeat, not victory. There is, however, no evidence for this emendation.

[8:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the people fled to their tents.”

[9:14]  ¹² tn Heb “he and all Israel.”

[10:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “the one who was over the house.”

[10:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the one who was over the city.”

[10:5]  ¹⁵ tn Or “elders.”

[10:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “servants.”

[10:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Do what is good in your eyes.”

[10:30]  ¹⁸ 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.

[10:31]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart.”

[10:31]  ²⁰ tn Heb “He did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam which he caused Israel to commit.”

[11:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “according to all that.”

[11:9]  ²² tn Heb “came.”

[11:14]  ²³ tn Heb “and she saw, and look.”

[11:14]  ²⁴ tn Or “conspiracy, conspiracy.”

[11:18]  ²⁵ tn Or “tore down.”

[11:18]  ²⁶ tn Or “images.”

[11:18]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew construction translated “smashed…to bits” is emphatic. The adverbial infinitive absolute (הֵיטֵב [hetev], “well”) accompanying the Piel form of the verb שָׁבַר (shavar), “break,” suggests thorough demolition.

[11:18]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the priest.” Jehoiada’s name is added for clarification.

[11:19]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the Gate of the Runners of the House of the King.”

[11:19]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:9]  ³¹ tn Heb “on the right side of the altar as a man enters.”

[12:12]  ³² tn Heb “and for all that which was going out concerning the house for repair.”

[13:12]  ³³ sn Jehoash and Joash are alternate forms of the same name.

[13:12]  ³⁴ tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Joash, and all which he did and his strength, [and] how he fought with Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel?”

[14:28]  ³⁵ tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jeroboam, and all which he did and his strength, [and] how he fought and how he restored Damascus and Hamath to Judah in Israel, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel?” The phrase “to Judah” is probably not original; it may be a scribal addition by a Judahite scribe who was trying to link Jeroboam’s conquests with the earlier achievements of David and Solomon, who ruled in Judah. The Syriac Peshitta has simply “to Israel.” M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 162) offer this proposal, but acknowledge that it is “highly speculative.”

[15:20]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and Menahem brought out the silver over Israel, over the prominent men of means, to give to the king of Assyria, fifty shekels of silver for each man.”

[16:10]  ³⁷ tn Heb “in Damascus.”

[16:10]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the likeness of the altar and its pattern for all its work.”

[16:11]  ³⁹ tn Heb “according to all that King Ahaz sent from Damascus.”

[16:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “so Uriah the priest did, until the arrival of King Ahaz from Damascus.”

[17:9]  ⁴¹ tn The meaning of the verb וַיְחַפְּאוּ (vayÿkhappÿ’u), translated here “said,” is uncertain. Some relate it to the verbal root חָפַה (khafah), “to cover,” and translate “they did it in secret” (see BDB 341 s.v. חָפָא). However, the pagan practices specified in the following sentences were hardly done in secret. Others propose a meaning “ascribe, impute,” which makes good contextual sense but has little etymological support (see HALOT 339 s.v. חפא). In this case Israel claimed that the Lord authorized their pagan practices.

[17:9]  ⁴² sn That is, from the city’s perimeter to the central citadel.

[17:23]  ⁴³ tn Heb “until.”

[17:23]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “the Lord turned Israel away from his face.”

[17:23]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “just as he said.”

[18:12]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “listen to the voice of.”

[18:12]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “his covenant.”

[18:12]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded, and they did not listen and they did not act.”

[19:4]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”

[19:4]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”

[19:4]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”

[19:15]  ⁵² sn This refers to the cherub images that were above the ark of the covenant.

[19:15]  ⁵³ tn Or “the heavens.”

[19:35]  ⁵⁴ tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.

[19:35]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies.”

[20:17]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “days are.”

[20:20]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “and he brought.”

[20:20]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Hezekiah, and all his strength, and how he made a pool and a conduit and brought water to the city, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”

[21:3]  ⁵⁹ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 17:16.

[21:3]  ⁶⁰ tn Or “served.”

[21:7]  ⁶¹ 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”).”

[21:11]  ⁶² tn Heb “these horrible sins.”

[21:11]  ⁶³ sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.

[22:16]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “all the words of the scroll which the king of Judah has read.”

[22:20]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “Therefore, look, I am gathering you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your tomb in peace.”

[22:20]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “your eyes will not see.”

[23:5]  ⁶⁷ tn Perhaps, “destroyed.”

[23:5]  ⁶⁸ tn Or “burn incense.”

[23:5]  ⁶⁹ tn Or “burned incense.”

[25:1]  ⁷⁰ tn Or “against.”

[25:1]  ⁷¹ sn This would have been Jan 15, 588 b.c. The reckoning is based on the calendar that begins the year in the spring (Nisan = March/April).

[25:4]  ⁷² tn Heb “the city was breached.”

[25:4]  ⁷³ tn The Hebrew text is abrupt here: “And all the men of war by the night.” The translation attempts to capture the sense.

[25:4]  ⁷⁴ sn The king’s garden is mentioned again in Neh 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the city of David. This would have been in the southern part of the city near the Tyropean Valley which agrees with the reference to the “two walls” which were probably the walls on the eastern and western hills.

[25:4]  ⁷⁵ sn Heb “toward the Arabah.” The Arabah was the rift valley north and south of the Dead Sea. Here the intention was undoubtedly to escape across the Jordan to Moab or Ammon. It appears from Jer 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.

[25:17]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “eighteen cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.

[25:17]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “three cubits.” The parallel passage in Jer 52:22 has “five.”