2 Raja-raja 1:2

1:2 Ahaziah fell through a window lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria ¹  and was injured. He sent messengers with these orders, ²  “Go, ask ³  Baal Zebub, ⁴  the god of Ekron, if I will survive this injury.”

2 Raja-raja 1:13

1:13 The king ⁵  sent a third captain and his fifty soldiers. This third captain went up and fell ⁶  on his knees before Elijah. He begged for mercy, “Prophet, please have respect for my life and for the lives of these fifty servants of yours.

2 Raja-raja 2:15

2:15 When the members of the prophetic guild in Jericho, ⁷  who were standing at a distance, ⁸  saw him do this, they said, “The spirit that energized Elijah ⁹  rests upon Elisha.” They went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him.

2 Raja-raja 3:22

3:22 When they got up early the next morning, the sun was shining on the water. To the Moabites, who were some distance away, the water looked red like blood.

2 Raja-raja 4:12

4:12 He told his servant Gehazi, “Ask the Shunammite woman to come here.” ¹⁰  So he did so and she came to him. ¹¹ 

2 Raja-raja 4:15-16

4:15 Elisha told him, “Ask her to come here.” ¹²  So he did so ¹³  and she came and stood in the doorway. ¹⁴  4:16 He said, “About this time next year ¹⁵  you will be holding a son.” She said, “No, my master! O prophet, do not lie to your servant!”

2 Raja-raja 4:27

4:27 But when she reached the prophet on the mountain, she grabbed hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but the prophet said, “Leave her alone, for she is very upset. ¹⁶  The Lord has kept the matter hidden from me; he didn’t tell me about it.”

2 Raja-raja 4:37-38

4:37 She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed down. Then she picked up her son and left.

Elisha Makes a Meal Edible

4:38 Now Elisha went back to Gilgal, while there was famine in the land. Some of the prophets were visiting him ¹⁷  and he told his servant, “Put the big pot on the fire ¹⁸  and boil some stew for the prophets.” ¹⁹ 

2 Raja-raja 4:43-44

4:43 But his attendant said, “How can I feed a hundred men with this?” ²⁰  He replied, “Set it before the people so they may eat, for this is what the Lord says, ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” ²¹  4:44 So he set it before them; they ate and had some left over, just as the Lord predicted. ²² 

2 Raja-raja 5:9

5:9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood in the doorway of Elisha’s house.

2 Raja-raja 5:15

5:15 He and his entire entourage returned to the prophet. Naaman ²³  came and stood before him. He said, “For sure ²⁴  I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel! Now, please accept a gift from your servant.”

2 Raja-raja 5:23

5:23 Naaman said, “Please accept two talents of silver. ²⁵  He insisted, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, along with two suits of clothes. He gave them to two of his servants and they carried them for Gehazi. ²⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 5:25

5:25 When he came and stood before his master, Elisha asked him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” He answered, “Your servant hasn’t been anywhere.”

2 Raja-raja 5:27

5:27 Therefore Naaman’s skin disease will afflict ²⁷  you and your descendants forever!” When Gehazi ²⁸  went out from his presence, his skin was as white as snow. ²⁹ 

2 Raja-raja 6:22

6:22 He replied, “Do not strike them down! You did not capture them with your sword or bow, so what gives you the right to strike them down? ³⁰  Give them some food and water, so they can eat and drink and then go back to their master.”

2 Raja-raja 7:3

7:3 Now four men with a skin disease ³¹  were sitting at the entrance of the city gate. They said to one another, “Why are we just sitting here waiting to die? ³² 

2 Raja-raja 8:9

8:9 So Hazael went to visit Elisha. ³³  He took along a gift, ³⁴  as well as ³⁵  forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son, ³⁶  King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question, ³⁷  ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

2 Raja-raja 8:11

8:11 Elisha ³⁸  just stared at him until Hazael became uncomfortable. ³⁹  Then the prophet started crying.

2 Raja-raja 9:13

9:13 Each of them quickly took off his cloak and they spread them out at Jehu’s ⁴⁰  feet on the steps. ⁴¹  The trumpet was blown ⁴²  and they shouted, “Jehu is ⁴³  king!”

2 Raja-raja 10:8

10:8 The messenger came and told Jehu, ⁴⁴  “They have brought the heads of the king’s sons.” Jehu ⁴⁵  said, “Stack them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning.”

2 Raja-raja 10:21

10:21 Jehu sent invitations throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one was absent. They arrived at the temple of Baal and filled it up from end to end. ⁴⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 11:11

11:11 The royal bodyguard ⁴⁷  took their stations, each holding his weapon in his hand. They lined up from the south side of the temple to the north side and stood near the altar and the temple, surrounding the king. ⁴⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 11:16

11:16 They seized her and took her into the precincts of the royal palace through the horses’ entrance. ⁴⁹  There she was executed.

2 Raja-raja 11:18

11:18 All the people of the land went and demolished ⁵⁰  the temple of Baal. They smashed its altars and idols ⁵¹  to bits. ⁵²  They killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altar. Jehoiada the priest ⁵³  then placed guards at the Lord’s temple.

2 Raja-raja 16:3

16:3 He followed in the footsteps of ⁵⁴  the kings of Israel. He passed his son through the fire, ⁵⁵  a horrible sin practiced by the nations ⁵⁶  whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites.

2 Raja-raja 16:14

16:14 He moved the bronze altar that stood in the Lord’s presence from the front of the temple (between the altar and the Lord’s temple) and put it on the north side of the new ⁵⁷  altar.

2 Raja-raja 17:8

17:8 they observed the practices ⁵⁸  of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before Israel, and followed the example of the kings of Israel. ⁵⁹ 

2 Raja-raja 17:11

17:11 They burned incense on all the high places just like the nations whom the Lord had driven away from before them. Their evil practices made the Lord angry. ⁶⁰ 

2 Raja-raja 18:22

18:22 Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar in Jerusalem.’

2 Raja-raja 19:29

19:29 ⁶¹ This will be your confirmation that I have spoken the truth: ⁶²  This year you will eat what grows wild, ⁶³  and next year ⁶⁴  what grows on its own from that. But in the third year you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce. ⁶⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 19:32

19:32 So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:

“He will not enter this city,

nor will he shoot an arrow here. ⁶⁶ 

He will not attack it with his shield-carrying warriors, ⁶⁷ 

nor will he build siege works against it.

2 Raja-raja 21:2

21:2 He did evil in the sight of ⁶⁸  the Lord and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations ⁶⁹  whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites.

2 Raja-raja 21:9

21:9 But they did not obey, ⁷⁰  and Manasseh misled them so that they sinned more than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed from before the Israelites.

2 Raja-raja 22:10

22:10 Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll.” Shaphan read it out loud before the king.

2 Raja-raja 23:2-3

23:2 The king went up to the Lord’s temple, accompanied by all the people of Judah, all the residents of Jerusalem, the priests, and the prophets. All the people were there, from the youngest to the oldest. He read aloud ⁷¹  all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been discovered in the Lord’s temple. 23:3 The king stood by the pillar and renewed ⁷²  the covenant before the Lord, agreeing to follow ⁷³  the Lord and to obey his commandments, laws, and rules with all his heart and being, ⁷⁴  by carrying out the terms ⁷⁵  of this covenant recorded on this scroll. All the people agreed to keep the covenant. ⁷⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 23:13

23:13 The king ruined the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, ⁷⁷  that King Solomon of Israel had built for the detestable Sidonian goddess Astarte, the detestable Moabite god Chemosh, and the horrible Ammonite god Milcom.

2 Raja-raja 25:7

25:7 Zedekiah’s sons were executed while Zedekiah was forced to watch. ⁷⁸  The king of Babylon ⁷⁹  then had Zedekiah’s eyes put out, bound him in bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon.

[1:2]  ¹ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[1:2]  ² tn Heb “and he sent messengers and said to them.”

[1:2]  ³ tn That is, “seek an oracle from.”

[1:2]  ⁴ sn Apparently Baal Zebub refers to a local manifestation of the god Baal at the Philistine city of Ekron. The name appears to mean “Lord of the Flies,” but it may be a deliberate scribal corruption of Baal Zebul, “Baal, the Prince,” a title known from the Ugaritic texts. For further discussion and bibliography, see HALOT 261 s.v. זְבוּב בַּעַל and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 25.

[1:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “went up and approached and kneeled.”

[2:15]  ⁷ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[2:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the sons of the prophets who were in Jericho, [who were standing] opposite, saw him and said.”

[2:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “the spirit of Elijah.”

[4:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Call for this Shunammite woman.”

[4:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he called for her and she stood before him.”

[4:15]  ¹² tn Heb “Call for her.”

[4:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “and he called her.”

[4:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and he called for her and she stood in the door.”

[4:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “at this appointed time, at the time [when it is] reviving.” For a discussion of the second phrase see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 57.

[4:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “her soul [i.e., ‘disposition’] is bitter.”

[4:38]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the sons of the prophets were sitting before him.”

[4:38]  ¹⁸ tn The words “the fire” are added for clarification.

[4:38]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “sons of the prophets.”

[4:43]  ²⁰ tn Heb “How can I set this before a hundred men?”

[4:43]  ²¹ tn The verb forms are infinitives absolute (Heb “eating and leaving over”) and have to be translated in light of the context.

[4:44]  ²² tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord.”

[5:15]  ²³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Naaman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “look.”

[5:23]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Be resolved and accept two talents.”

[5:23]  ²⁶ tn Heb “before him.”

[5:27]  ²⁷ tn Heb “cling to.”

[5:27]  ²⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gehazi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:27]  ²⁹ tn Traditionally, “he went from before him, leprous like snow.” But see the note at 5:1, as well as M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 66.

[6:22]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Are [they] ones you captured with your sword or your bow (that) you can strike (them) down?”

[7:3]  ³¹ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 5:1.

[7:3]  ³² tn Heb “until we die.”

[8:9]  ³³ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:9]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”

[8:9]  ³⁵ 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]  ³⁶ sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.

[8:9]  ³⁷ tn Heb “saying.”

[8:11]  ³⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:11]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and he made his face stand [i.e., be motionless] and set [his face?] until embarrassment.”

[9:13]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:13]  ⁴¹ 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.

[9:13]  ⁴² 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.

[9:13]  ⁴³ tn Or “has become.”

[10:8]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:8]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:21]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “and the house of Baal was filled mouth to mouth.”

[11:11]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “the runners” (also in v. 19).

[11:11]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “and the runners stood, each with his weapons in his hand, from the south shoulder of the house to the north shoulder of the house, at the altar and at the house, near the king all around.”

[11:16]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and they placed hands on her, and she went the way of the entrance of the horses [into] the house of the king.”

[11:18]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “tore down.”

[11:18]  ⁵¹ tn Or “images.”

[11:18]  ⁵² 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]  ⁵³ tn Heb “the priest.” Jehoiada’s name is added for clarification.

[16:3]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “he walked in the way of.”

[16:3]  ⁵⁵ sn This may refer to child sacrifice, though some interpret it as a less drastic cultic practice. For discussion see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 266-67.

[16:3]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”

[16:14]  ⁵⁷ tn The word “new” is added in the translation for clarification.

[17:8]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “walked in the customs.”

[17:8]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “and [the practices of] the kings of Israel which they did.”

[17:11]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “and they did evil things, angering the Lord.”

[19:29]  ⁶¹ tn At this point the word concerning the king of Assyria (vv. 21-28) ends and the Lord again directly addresses Hezekiah and the people (see v. 20).

[19:29]  ⁶² tn Heb “and this is your sign.” In this case the אוֹת (’ot), “sign,” is a future confirmation of God’s intervention designated before the actual intervention takes place. For similar “signs” see Exod 3:12 and Isa 7:14-25.

[19:29]  ⁶³ sn This refers to crops that grew up on their own (that is, without cultivation) from the seed planted in past years.

[19:29]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “and in the second year.”

[19:29]  ⁶⁵ tn The four plural imperatival verb forms in v. 29b are used rhetorically. The Lord commands the people to plant, harvest, etc. to emphasize the certainty of restored peace and prosperity. See IBHS 572 §34.4.c.

[19:32]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “there.”

[19:32]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “[with] a shield.” By metonymy the “shield” stands for the soldier who carries it.

[21:2]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[21:2]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”

[21:9]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “listen.”

[23:2]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “read in their ears.”

[23:3]  ⁷² tn Heb “cut,” that is, “made, agreed to.”

[23:3]  ⁷³ tn Heb “walk after.”

[23:3]  ⁷⁴ tn Or “soul.”

[23:3]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “words.”

[23:3]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “stood in the covenant.”

[23:13]  ⁷⁷ sn This is a derogatory name for the Mount of Olives, involving a wordplay between מָשְׁחָה (mashÿkhah), “anointing,” and מַשְׁחִית (mashÿkhit), “destruction.” See HALOT 644 s.v. מַשְׁחִית and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 289.

[25:7]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “were killed before his eyes.”

[25:7]  ⁷⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.