2 Raja-raja 10:29

A Summary of Jehu’s Reign

10:29 However, Jehu did not repudiate the sins which Jeroboam son of Nebat had encouraged Israel to commit; the golden calves remained in Bethel ¹  and Dan. ² 

2 Raja-raja 17:4

17:4 The king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was planning a revolt. ³  Hoshea had sent messengers to King So ⁴  of Egypt and had not sent his annual tribute to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria arrested him and imprisoned him. ⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 17:26

17:26 The king of Assyria was told, ⁶  “The nations whom you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the requirements of the God of the land, so he has sent lions among them. They are killing the people ⁷  because they do not know the requirements of the God of the land.”

2 Raja-raja 18:4

18:4 He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole. ⁸  He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time ⁹  the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan. ¹⁰ 

2 Raja-raja 21:6

21:6 He passed his son ¹¹  through the fire ¹²  and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it. ¹³  He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ¹⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 23:5

23:5 He eliminated ¹⁵  the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices ¹⁶  on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices ¹⁷  to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.)

2 Raja-raja 23:11

23:11 He removed from the entrance to the Lord’s temple the statues of horses ¹⁸  that the kings of Judah had placed there in honor of the sun god. (They were kept near the room of Nathan Melech the eunuch, which was situated among the courtyards.) ¹⁹  He burned up the chariots devoted to the sun god. ²⁰ 

2 Raja-raja 23:15

23:15 He also tore down the altar in Bethel ²¹  at the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who encouraged Israel to sin. ²²  He burned all the combustible items at that high place and crushed them to dust; including the Asherah pole. ²³ 

2 Raja-raja 23:19

23:19 Josiah also removed all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria. The kings of Israel had made them and angered the Lord. ²⁴  He did to them what he had done to the high place in Bethel. ²⁵ 

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. ²⁶ 

[10:29]  ¹ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[10:29]  ² tn Heb “Except the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat which he caused Israel to commit, Jehu did not turn aside from after them – the golden calves which [were in] Bethel and which [were] in Dan.”

[17:4]  ³ tn Heb “and the king of Assyria found in Hoshea conspiracy.”

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

[17:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “and bound him in the house of confinement.”

[17:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “and they said to the king of Assyria, saying.” The plural subject of the verb is indefinite.

[17:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “Look they are killing them.”

[18:4]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “until those days.”

[18:4]  ¹⁰ tn In Hebrew the name sounds like the phrase נְחַשׁ הַנְּחֹשֶׁת (nÿkhash hannÿkhoshet), “bronze serpent.”

[21:6]  ¹¹ tc The LXX has the plural “his sons” here.

[21:6]  ¹² sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.

[21:6]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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).

[23:5]  ¹⁵ tn Perhaps, “destroyed.”

[23:5]  ¹⁶ tn Or “burn incense.”

[23:5]  ¹⁷ tn Or “burned incense.”

[23:11]  ¹⁸ tn The MT simply reads “the horses.” The words “statues of” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “who/which was in the […?].” The meaning of the Hebrew term פַּרְוָרִים (parvarim), translated here “courtyards,” is uncertain. The relative clause may indicate where the room was located or explain who Nathan Melech was, “the eunuch who was in the courtyards.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 288-89, who translate “the officer of the precincts.”

[23:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire.”

[23:15]  ²¹ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[23:15]  ²² tn Heb “And also the altar that is in Bethel, the high place that Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin, also that altar and the high place he tore down.” The more repetitive Hebrew text is emphatic.

[23:15]  ²³ tn Heb “he burned the high place, crushing to dust, and he burned the Asherah pole.” High places per se are never referred to as being burned elsewhere. בָּמָה (bamah) here stands by metonymy for the combustible items located on the high place. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 289.

[23:19]  ²⁴ tc Heb “which the kings of Israel had made, angering.” The object has been accidentally omitted in the MT. It appears in the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate versions.

[23:19]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel.”

[23:19]  map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[23:35]  ²⁶ 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.”