2 Raja-raja 21:6

21:6 He passed his son ¹  through the fire ²  and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it. ³  He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 23:24

23:24 Josiah also got rid of ⁵  the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits, ⁶  the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images, ⁷  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 ⁸  recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s temple.

[21:6]  ¹ tc The LXX has the plural “his sons” here.

[21:6]  ² sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.

[21:6]  ³ tn Heb “and he set up a ritual pit, along with conjurers.” The Hebrew אוֹב (’ov), “ritual pit,” refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits. In 1 Sam 28:7 the witch of Endor is called a בַעֲלַת אוֹב (ba’alat ’ov), “owner of a ritual pit.” See H. Hoffner, “Second millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew ’OñBù,” JBL 86 (1967), 385-401.

[21:6]  ⁴ tc Heb “and he multiplied doing what is evil in the eyes of the Lord, angering.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix (“him”) has been accidentally omitted in the MT by haplography (note the vav that immediately follows).

[23:24]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 21:6.

[23:24]  ⁷ sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.

[23:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “carrying out the words of the law.”