2 Raja-raja 17:1--25:30
Konteks17:1 In the twelfth year of King Ahaz’s reign over Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king over Israel. He reigned in Samaria 1 for nine years. 17:2 He did evil in the sight of 2 the Lord, but not to the same degree as the Israelite kings who preceded him. 17:3 King Shalmaneser of Assyria threatened 3 him; Hoshea became his subject and paid him tribute. 17:4 The king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was planning a revolt. 4 Hoshea had sent messengers to King So 5 of Egypt and had not sent his annual tribute to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria arrested him and imprisoned him. 6 17:5 The king of Assyria marched through 7 the whole land. He attacked Samaria and besieged it for three years. 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the people of Israel 8 to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes.
17:7 This happened because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them up from the land of Egypt and freed them from the power of 9 Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped 10 other gods; 17:8 they observed the practices 11 of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before Israel, and followed the example of the kings of Israel. 12 17:9 The Israelites said things about the Lord their God that were not right. 13 They built high places in all their cities, from the watchtower to the fortress. 14 17:10 They set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. 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. 15 17:12 They worshiped 16 the disgusting idols 17 in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command. 18
17:13 The Lord solemnly warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and all the seers, “Turn back from your evil ways; obey my commandments and rules that are recorded in the law. I ordered your ancestors to keep this law and sent my servants the prophets to remind you of its demands.” 19 17:14 But they did not pay attention and were as stubborn as their ancestors, 20 who had not trusted the Lord their God. 17:15 They rejected his rules, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the laws he had commanded them to obey. 21 They paid allegiance to 22 worthless idols, and so became worthless to the Lord. 23 They copied the practices of the surrounding nations in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command. 24 17:16 They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God; they made two metal calves and an Asherah pole, bowed down to all the stars in the sky, 25 and worshiped 26 Baal. 17:17 They passed their sons and daughters through the fire, 27 and practiced divination and omen reading. They committed themselves to doing evil in the sight of the Lord and made him angry. 28
17:18 So the Lord was furious 29 with Israel and rejected them; 30 only the tribe of Judah was left. 17:19 Judah also failed to keep the commandments of the Lord their God; they followed Israel’s example. 31 17:20 So the Lord rejected all of Israel’s descendants; he humiliated 32 them and handed them over to robbers, until he had thrown them from his presence. 17:21 He tore Israel away from David’s dynasty, and Jeroboam son of Nebat became their king. 33 Jeroboam drove Israel away 34 from the Lord and encouraged them to commit a serious sin. 35 17:22 The Israelites followed in the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat and did not repudiate 36 them. 17:23 Finally 37 the Lord rejected Israel 38 just as he had warned he would do 39 through all his servants the prophets. Israel was deported from its land to Assyria and remains there to this very day.
17:24 The king of Assyria brought foreigners 40 from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the cities of Samaria 41 in place of the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. 17:25 When they first moved in, 42 they did not worship 43 the Lord. So the Lord sent lions among them and the lions were killing them. 17:26 The king of Assyria was told, 44 “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 45 because they do not know the requirements of the God of the land.” 17:27 So the king of Assyria ordered, “Take back one of the priests whom you 46 deported from there. He must settle there and teach them the requirements of the God of the land.” 47 17:28 So one of the priests whom they had deported from Samaria went back and settled in Bethel. 48 He taught them how to worship 49 the Lord.
17:29 But each of these nations made 50 its own gods and put them in the shrines on the high places that the people of Samaria 51 had made. Each nation did this in the cities where they lived. 17:30 The people from Babylon made Succoth Benoth, 52 the people from Cuth made Nergal, 53 the people from Hamath made Ashima, 54 17:31 the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, 55 and the Sepharvites burned their sons in the fire as an offering to Adrammelech and Anammelech, 56 the gods of Sepharvaim. 17:32 At the same time they worshiped 57 the Lord. They appointed some of their own people to serve as priests in the shrines on the high places. 58 17:33 They were worshiping 59 the Lord and at the same time serving their own gods in accordance with the practices of the nations from which they had been deported.
17:34 To this very day they observe their earlier practices. They do not worship 60 the Lord; they do not obey the rules, regulations, law, and commandments that the Lord gave 61 the descendants of Jacob, whom he renamed Israel. 17:35 The Lord made an agreement 62 with them 63 and instructed them, “You must not worship other gods. Do not bow down to them, serve them, or offer sacrifices to them. 17:36 Instead you must worship the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt by his great power and military ability; 64 bow down to him and offer sacrifices to him. 17:37 You must carefully obey at all times the rules, regulations, law, and commandments he wrote down for you. You must not worship other gods. 17:38 You must never forget the agreement I made with you, and you must not worship other gods. 17:39 Instead you must worship the Lord your God; then he will rescue you from the power of all your enemies.” 17:40 But they 65 pay no attention; instead they observe their earlier practices. 17:41 These nations are worshiping the Lord and at the same time serving their idols; their sons and grandsons do just as their fathers have done, to this very day.
18:1 In the third year of the reign of Israel’s King Hoshea son of Elah, Ahaz’s son Hezekiah became king over Judah. 18:2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. 66 His mother 67 was Abi, 68 the daughter of Zechariah. 18:3 He did what the Lord approved, just as his ancestor David had done. 69 18:4 He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole. 70 He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time 71 the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan. 72 18:5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; in this regard there was none like him among the kings of Judah either before or after. 73 18:6 He was loyal to 74 the Lord and did not abandon him. 75 He obeyed the commandments which the Lord had given to 76 Moses. 18:7 The Lord was with him; he succeeded in all his endeavors. 77 He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to submit to him. 78 18:8 He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from the watchtower to the city fortress. 79
18:9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah’s reign (it was the seventh year of the reign of Israel’s King Hoshea, son of Elah), King Shalmaneser of Assyria marched 80 up against Samaria 81 and besieged it. 18:10 After three years he captured it (in the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign); in the ninth year of King Hoshea’s reign over Israel Samaria was captured. 18:11 The king of Assyria deported the people of Israel 82 to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes. 18:12 This happened because they did not obey 83 the Lord their God and broke his agreement with them. 84 They did not pay attention to and obey all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded. 85
18:13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 18:14 King Hezekiah of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria, who was at Lachish, “I have violated our treaty. 86 If you leave, I will do whatever you demand.” 87 So the king of Assyria demanded that King Hezekiah of Judah pay three hundred talents 88 of silver and thirty talents of gold. 18:15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver in 89 the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the royal palace. 18:16 At that time King Hezekiah of Judah stripped the metal overlays from the doors of the Lord’s temple and from the posts which he had plated 90 and gave them to the king of Assyria.
18:17 The king of Assyria sent his commanding general, the chief eunuch, and the chief adviser 91 from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, 92 along with a large army. They went up and arrived at Jerusalem. They went 93 and stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. 94 18:18 They summoned the king, so Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to meet them.
18:19 The chief adviser said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: “What is your source of confidence? 95 18:20 Your claim to have a strategy and military strength is just empty talk. 96 In whom are you trusting that you would dare to rebel against me? 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. 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.’ 18:23 Now make a deal 97 with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, provided you can find enough riders for them. 18:24 Certainly you will not refuse one of my master’s minor officials and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen. 98 18:25 Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this place to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March 99 up against this land and destroy it.’”’” 100
18:26 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, 101 for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect 102 in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 18:27 But the chief adviser said to them, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. 103 His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you.” 104
18:28 The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, 105 “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria. 18:29 This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you from my hand! 106 18:30 Don’t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord when he says, “The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 18:31 Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. 107 Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, 18:32 until I come and take you to a land just like your own – a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Then you will live and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.” 18:33 Have any of the gods of the nations actually rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria? 108 18:34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? 109 Indeed, did any gods rescue Samaria 110 from my power? 111 18:35 Who among all the gods of the lands has rescued their lands from my power? So how can the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’” 112 18:36 The people were silent and did not respond, for the king had ordered, “Don’t respond to him.”
18:37 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn 113 and reported to him what the chief adviser had said. 19:1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple. 19:2 He sent Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, 114 clothed in sackcloth, with this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz: 19:3 “This is what Hezekiah says: 115 ‘This is a day of distress, insults, 116 and humiliation, 117 as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through. 118 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. 119 When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. 120 So pray for this remnant that remains.’” 121
19:5 When King Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah, 19:6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘This is what the Lord says: “Don’t be afraid because of the things you have heard – these insults the king of Assyria’s servants have hurled against me. 122 19:7 Look, I will take control of his mind; 123 he will receive 124 a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down 125 with a sword in his own land.”’”
19:8 When the chief adviser heard the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish, he left and went to Libnah, where the king was campaigning. 126 19:9 The king 127 heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was marching out to fight him. 128 He again sent messengers to Hezekiah, ordering them: 19:10 “Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be handed over 129 to the king of Assyria.” 19:11 Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. 130 Do you really think you will be rescued? 131 19:12 Were the nations whom my ancestors destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods? 132 19:13 Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of Lair, 133 Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”
19:14 Hezekiah took the letter 134 from the messengers and read it. 135 Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord. 19:15 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord: “Lord God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubs! 136 You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky 137 and the earth. 19:16 Pay attention, Lord, and hear! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to the message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God! 138 19:17 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands. 19:18 They have burned the gods of the nations, 139 for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them. 140 19:19 Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power, so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you, Lord, are the only God.”
19:20 Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I have heard your prayer concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria. 141 19:21 This is what the Lord says about him: 142
“The virgin daughter Zion 143
despises you, she makes fun of you;
Daughter Jerusalem
shakes her head after you. 144
19:22 Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at?
At whom have you shouted, 145
and looked so arrogantly? 146
At the Holy One of Israel! 147
19:23 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, 148
‘With my many chariots 149
I climbed up the high mountains,
the slopes of Lebanon.
I cut down its tall cedars,
and its best evergreens.
I invaded its most remote regions, 150
its thickest woods.
19:24 I dug wells and drank
water in foreign lands. 151
With the soles of my feet I dried up
all the rivers of Egypt.’
19:25 152 Certainly you must have heard! 153
Long ago I worked it out,
In ancient times I planned 154 it;
and now I am bringing it to pass.
The plan is this:
Fortified cities will crash
into heaps of ruins. 155
19:26 Their residents are powerless, 156
they are terrified and ashamed.
They are as short-lived as plants in the field,
or green vegetation. 157
They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops 158
when it is scorched by the east wind. 159
19:27 I know where you live,
and everything you do. 160
19:28 Because you rage against me,
and the uproar you create has reached my ears; 161
I will put my hook in your nose, 162
and my bridle between your lips,
and I will lead you back the way
you came.”
19:29 163 This will be your confirmation that I have spoken the truth: 164 This year you will eat what grows wild, 165 and next year 166 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. 167 19:30 Those who remain in Judah will take root in the ground and bear fruit. 168
19:31 For a remnant will leave Jerusalem;
survivors will come out of Mount Zion.
The intense devotion of the sovereign Lord 169 to his people 170 will accomplish this.
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. 171
He will not attack it with his shield-carrying warriors, 172
nor will he build siege works against it.
19:33 He will go back the way he came.
He will not enter this city,” says the Lord.
19:34 I will shield this city and rescue it for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant.’” 173
19:35 That very night the Lord’s messenger went out and killed 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. When they 174 got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses. 175 19:36 So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and went on his way. He went home and stayed in Nineveh. 176 19:37 One day, 177 as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, 178 his sons 179 Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. 180 They escaped to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.
20:1 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. 181 The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give your household instructions, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’” 182 20:2 He turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 20:3 “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you 183 faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, 184 and how I have carried out your will.” 185 Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. 186
20:4 Isaiah was still in the middle courtyard when the Lord told him, 187 20:5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. The day after tomorrow 188 you will go up to the Lord’s temple. 20:6 I will add fifteen years to your life and rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will shield this city for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant.”’” 189 20:7 Isaiah ordered, “Get a fig cake.” So they did as he ordered 190 and placed it on the ulcerated sore, and he recovered. 191
20:8 Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, “What is the confirming sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the Lord’s temple the day after tomorrow?” 20:9 Isaiah replied, “This is your sign from the Lord confirming that the Lord will do what he has said. Do you want the shadow to move ahead ten steps or to go back ten steps?” 192 20:10 Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps, but not for it 193 to go back ten steps.” 20:11 Isaiah the prophet called out to the Lord, and the Lord 194 made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz. 195
20:12 At that time Merodach-Baladan 196 son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah was ill. 20:13 Hezekiah welcomed 197 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. 198 20:14 Isaiah the prophet visited King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men say? Where do they come from?” Hezekiah replied, “They come from the distant land of Babylon.” 20:15 Isaiah 199 asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “They have seen everything in my palace. I showed them everything 200 in my treasuries.” 20:16 Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to the word of the Lord, 20:17 ‘Look, a time is 201 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. 20:18 ‘Some of your very own descendants whom you father 202 will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’” 20:19 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The Lord’s word which you have announced is appropriate.” 203 Then he added, 204 “At least there will be peace and stability during my lifetime.” 205
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 206 water into the city, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 207 20:21 Hezekiah passed away 208 and his son Manasseh replaced him as king.
21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 209 His mother 210 was Hephzibah. 21:2 He did evil in the sight of 211 the Lord and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations 212 whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites. 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 213 and worshiped 214 them. 21:4 He built altars in the Lord’s temple, about which the Lord had said, “Jerusalem will be my home.” 215 21:5 In the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple he built altars for all the stars in the sky. 21:6 He passed his son 216 through the fire 217 and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it. 218 He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 219 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. 220 21:8 I will not make Israel again leave the land I gave to their ancestors, 221 provided that they carefully obey all I commanded them, the whole law my servant Moses ordered them to obey.” 21:9 But they did not obey, 222 and Manasseh misled them so that they sinned more than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed from before the Israelites.
21:10 So the Lord announced through 223 his servants the prophets: 21:11 “King Manasseh of Judah has committed horrible sins. 224 He has sinned more than the Amorites before him and has encouraged Judah to sin by worshiping his disgusting idols. 225 21:12 So this is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I am about to bring disaster on Jerusalem and Judah. The news will reverberate in the ears of those who hear about it. 226 21:13 I will destroy Jerusalem the same way I did Samaria 227 and the dynasty of Ahab. 228 I will wipe Jerusalem clean, just as one wipes a plate on both sides. 229 21:14 I will abandon this last remaining tribe among my people 230 and hand them over to their enemies; they will be plundered and robbed by all their enemies, 231 21:15 because they have done evil in my sight 232 and have angered me from the time their ancestors left Egypt right up to this very day!’”
21:16 Furthermore Manasseh killed so many innocent people, he stained Jerusalem with their blood from end to end, 233 in addition to encouraging Judah to sin by doing evil in the sight of the Lord. 234
21:17 The rest of the events of Manasseh’s reign and all his accomplishments, as well as the sinful acts he committed, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 235 21:18 Manasseh passed away 236 and was buried in his palace garden, the garden of Uzzah, and his son Amon replaced him as king.
21:19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. 237 His mother 238 was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz, from Jotbah. 21:20 He did evil in the sight of 239 the Lord, just like his father Manasseh had done. 21:21 He followed in the footsteps of his father 240 and worshiped and bowed down to the disgusting idols 241 which his father had worshiped. 242 21:22 He abandoned the Lord God of his ancestors and did not follow the Lord’s instructions. 243 21:23 Amon’s servants conspired against him and killed the king in his palace. 21:24 The people of the land executed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and they 244 made his son Josiah king in his place.
21:25 The rest of Amon’s accomplishments are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 245 21:26 He was buried 246 in his tomb in the garden of Uzzah, and his son Josiah replaced him as king.
22:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 247 His mother 248 was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah, from Bozkath. 22:2 He did what the Lord approved 249 and followed in his ancestor David’s footsteps; 250 he did not deviate to the right or the left.
22:3 In the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, the king sent the scribe Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, to the Lord’s temple with these orders: 251 22:4 “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him melt down 252 the silver that has been brought by the people to the Lord’s temple and has been collected by the guards at the door. 22:5 Have them hand it over to the construction foremen 253 assigned to the Lord’s temple. They in turn should pay the temple workers to repair it, 254 22:6 including craftsmen, builders, and masons, and should buy wood and chiseled stone for the repair work. 255 22:7 Do not audit the foremen who disburse the silver, for they are honest.” 256
22:8 Hilkiah the high priest informed Shaphan the scribe, “I found the law scroll in the Lord’s temple.” Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan and he read it. 22:9 Shaphan the scribe went to the king and reported, 257 “Your servants melted down the silver in the temple 258 and handed it over to the construction foremen assigned to the Lord’s temple.” 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. 22:11 When the king heard the words of the law scroll, he tore his clothes. 22:12 The king ordered Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s servant, 22:13 “Go, seek an oracle from 259 the Lord for me and the people – for all Judah. Find out about 260 the words of this scroll that has been discovered. For the Lord’s fury has been ignited against us, 261 because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this scroll by doing all that it instructs us to do.” 262
22:14 So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shullam son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the supervisor of the wardrobe. 263 (She lived in Jerusalem in the Mishneh 264 district.) They stated their business, 265 22:15 and she said to them: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Say this to the man who sent you to me: 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. 266 22:17 This will happen because they have abandoned me and offered sacrifices 267 to other gods, angering me with all the idols they have made. 268 My anger will ignite against this place and will not be extinguished!’” 22:18 Say this to the king of Judah, who sent you to seek an oracle from the Lord: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says concerning the words you have heard: 22:19 ‘You displayed a sensitive spirit 269 and humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard how I intended to make this place and its residents into an appalling example of an accursed people. 270 You tore your clothes and wept before me, and I have heard you,’ says the Lord. 22:20 ‘Therefore I will allow you to die and be buried in peace. 271 You will not have to witness 272 all the disaster I will bring on this place.’”’” Then they reported back to the king.
23:1 The king summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. 273 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 274 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 275 the covenant before the Lord, agreeing to follow 276 the Lord and to obey his commandments, laws, and rules with all his heart and being, 277 by carrying out the terms 278 of this covenant recorded on this scroll. All the people agreed to keep the covenant. 279
23:4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests, 280 and the guards 281 to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of 282 Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. 283 The king 284 burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces 285 of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 286 23:5 He eliminated 287 the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices 288 on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices 289 to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.) 23:6 He removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it. 290 He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard. 291 23:7 He tore down the quarters 292 of the male cultic prostitutes in the Lord’s temple, where women were weaving shrines 293 for Asherah.
23:8 He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined 294 the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba. 295 He tore down the high place of the goat idols 296 situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate. 23:9 (Now the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened cakes among their fellow priests.) 297 23:10 The king 298 ruined Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that no one could pass his son or his daughter through the fire to Molech. 299 23:11 He removed from the entrance to the Lord’s temple the statues of horses 300 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.) 301 He burned up the chariots devoted to the sun god. 302 23:12 The king tore down the altars the kings of Judah had set up on the roof of Ahaz’s upper room, as well as the altars Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. He crushed them up 303 and threw the dust in the Kidron Valley. 23:13 The king ruined the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, 304 that King Solomon of Israel had built for the detestable Sidonian goddess Astarte, the detestable Moabite god Chemosh, and the horrible Ammonite god Milcom. 23:14 He smashed the sacred pillars to bits, cut down the Asherah pole, and filled those shrines 305 with human bones.
23:15 He also tore down the altar in Bethel 306 at the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who encouraged Israel to sin. 307 He burned all the combustible items at that high place and crushed them to dust; including the Asherah pole. 308 23:16 When Josiah turned around, he saw the tombs there on the hill. So he ordered the bones from the tombs to be brought; 309 he burned them on the altar and defiled it. This fulfilled the Lord’s announcement made by the prophet while Jeroboam stood by the altar during a festival. King Josiah 310 turned and saw the grave of the prophet who had foretold this. 311 23:17 He asked, “What is this grave marker I see?” The men from the city replied, “It’s the grave of the prophet 312 who came from Judah and foretold these very things you have done to the altar of Bethel.” 23:18 The king 313 said, “Leave it alone! No one must touch his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed, as well as the bones of the Israelite prophet buried beside him. 314
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. 315 He did to them what he had done to the high place in Bethel. 316 23:20 He sacrificed all the priests of the high places on the altars located there, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
23:21 The king ordered all the people, “Observe the Passover of the Lord your God, as prescribed in this scroll of the covenant.” 23:22 He issued this edict because 317 a Passover like this had not been observed since the days of the judges; it was neglected for the entire period of the kings of Israel and Judah. 318 23:23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, such a Passover of the Lord was observed in Jerusalem.
23:24 Josiah also got rid of 319 the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits, 320 the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images, 321 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 322 recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s temple. 23:25 No king before or after repented before the Lord as he did, with his whole heart, soul, and being in accordance with the whole law of Moses. 323
23:26 Yet the Lord’s great anger against Judah did not subside; he was still infuriated by all the things Manasseh had done. 324 23:27 The Lord announced, “I will also spurn Judah, 325 just as I spurned Israel. I will reject this city that I chose – both Jerusalem and the temple, about which I said, “I will live there.” 326
23:28 The rest of the events of Josiah’s reign and all his accomplishments are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 327 23:29 During Josiah’s reign Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt marched toward 328 the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to fight him, but Necho 329 killed him at Megiddo 330 when he saw him. 23:30 His servants transported his dead body 331 from Megiddo in a chariot and brought it to Jerusalem, where they buried him in his tomb. The people of the land took Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, poured olive oil on his head, 332 and made him king in his father’s place.
23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 333 His mother 334 was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 23:32 He did evil in the sight of 335 the Lord as his ancestors had done. 336 23:33 Pharaoh Necho imprisoned him in Riblah in the land of Hamath and prevented him from ruling in Jerusalem. 337 He imposed on the land a special tax 338 of one hundred talents 339 of silver and a talent of gold. 23:34 Pharaoh Necho made Josiah’s son Eliakim king in Josiah’s place, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he died. 340 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. 341
23:36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. 342 His mother was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah, from Rumah. 23:37 He did evil in the sight of 343 the Lord as his ancestors had done.
24:1 During Jehoiakim’s reign, 344 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked. 345 Jehoiakim was his subject for three years, but then he rebelled against him. 346 24:2 The Lord sent against him Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands; he sent them to destroy Judah, as he had warned he would do through his servants the prophets. 347 24:3 Just as the Lord had announced, he rejected Judah because of all the sins which Manasseh had committed. 348 24:4 Because he killed innocent people and stained Jerusalem with their blood, the Lord was unwilling to forgive them. 349
24:5 The rest of the events of Jehoiakim’s reign and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 350 24:6 He passed away 351 and his son Jehoiachin replaced him as king. 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.
24:8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 352 His mother 353 was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan, from Jerusalem. 24:9 He did evil in the sight of 354 the Lord as his ancestors had done.
24:10 At that time the generals 355 of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched to Jerusalem and besieged the city. 356 24:11 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city while his generals were besieging it. 24:12 King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, his servants, his officials, and his eunuchs surrendered 357 to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign, 358 took Jehoiachin 359 prisoner. 24:13 Nebuchadnezzar 360 took from there all the riches in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace. He removed all the gold items which King Solomon of Israel had made for the Lord’s temple, just as the Lord had warned. 24:14 He deported all the residents of Jerusalem, including all the officials and all the soldiers (10,000 people in all). This included all the craftsmen and those who worked with metal. No one was left except for the poorest among the people of the land. 24:15 He deported Jehoiachin from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with the king’s mother and wives, his eunuchs, and the high-ranking officials of the land. 361 24:16 The king of Babylon deported to Babylon all the soldiers (there were 7,000), as well as 1,000 craftsmen and metal workers. This included all the best warriors. 362 24:17 The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s 363 uncle, king in Jehoiachin’s place. He renamed him Zedekiah.
24:18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem. 364 His mother 365 was Hamutal, 366 the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 24:19 He did evil in the sight of 367 the Lord, as Jehoiakim had done. 368
24:20 What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the Lord’s anger; he finally threw them out of his presence. 369 Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 25:1 So King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside 370 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. 371 25:2 The city remained under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year. 25:3 By the ninth day of the fourth month 372 the famine in the city was so severe the residents 373 had no food. 25:4 The enemy broke through the city walls, 374 and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. 375 They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden. 376 (The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. 377 25:5 But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with him in the plains of Jericho, 378 and his entire army deserted him. 25:6 They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, 379 where he 380 passed sentence on him. 25:7 Zedekiah’s sons were executed while Zedekiah was forced to watch. 381 The king of Babylon 382 then had Zedekiah’s eyes put out, bound him in bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon.
25:8 On the seventh 383 day of the fifth month, 384 in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard 385 who served the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem. 386 25:9 He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house. 387 25:10 The whole Babylonian army that came with the captain of the royal guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem. 25:11 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, deported the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. 388 25:12 But he 389 left behind some of the poor of the land and gave them fields and vineyards.
25:13 The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the Lord’s temple, as well as the movable stands and the big bronze basin called the “The Sea.” 390 They took the bronze to Babylon. 25:14 They also took the pots, shovels, 391 trimming shears, 392 pans, and all the bronze utensils used by the priests. 393 25:15 The captain of the royal guard took the golden and silver censers 394 and basins. 25:16 The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the Lord’s temple – including the two pillars, the big bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,” 395 and the movable stands – was too heavy to be weighed. 25:17 Each of the pillars was about twenty-seven feet 396 high. The bronze top of one pillar was about four and a half feet 397 high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its latticework was like it.
25:18 The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah, the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers. 25:19 From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five 398 of the king’s advisers 399 who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens 400 for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city. 25:20 Nebuzaradan, captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 25:21 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed 401 at Riblah in the territory 402 of Hamath. So Judah was deported from its land.
25:22 Now King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, as governor over the people whom he allowed to remain in the land of Judah. 403 25:23 All of the officers of the Judahite army 404 and their troops heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah to govern. So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. The officers who came were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite. 25:24 Gedaliah took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety. 405 He said, “You don’t need to be afraid to submit to the Babylonian officials. Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you.” 25:25 But in the seventh month 406 Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, 407 came with ten of his men and murdered Gedaliah, 408 as well as the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah. 25:26 Then all the people, from the youngest to the oldest, as well as the army officers, left for 409 Egypt, because they were afraid of what the Babylonians might do.
25:27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh 410 day of the twelfth month, 411 King Evil-Merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned 412 King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him 413 from prison. 25:28 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than 414 the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 25:29 Jehoiachin 415 took off his prison clothes and ate daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life. 25:30 He was given daily provisions by the king for the rest of his life until the day he died. 416
[17:1] 1 map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
[17:2] 2 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[17:3] 3 tn Heb “went up against.”
[17:4] 4 tn Heb “and the king of Assyria found in Hoshea conspiracy.”
[17:4] 5 sn For discussion of this name, see HALOT 744 s.v. סוֹא and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 196.
[17:4] 6 tn Heb “and bound him in the house of confinement.”
[17:5] 7 tn Heb “went up against.”
[17:6] 8 tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” as the object of the verb.
[17:7] 9 tn Heb “and from under the hand of.” The words “freed them” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[17:8] 11 tn Heb “walked in the customs.”
[17:8] 12 tn Heb “and [the practices of] the kings of Israel which they did.”
[17:9] 13 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
[17:9] 14 sn That is, from the city’s perimeter to the central citadel.
[17:11] 15 tn Heb “and they did evil things, angering the
[17:12] 17 sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.
[17:12] 18 tn Heb “about which the
[17:13] 19 tn Heb “obey my commandments and rules according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets.”
[17:14] 20 tn Heb and they stiffened their neck like the neck of their fathers.”
[17:15] 21 tn Or “and his warnings he had given them.”
[17:15] 22 tn Heb “They went [or, ‘followed’] after.” This idiom probably does not mean much if translated literally. It is found most often in Deuteronomy or in literature related to the covenant. It refers in the first instance to loyalty to God and to His covenant or His commandments (1 Kgs 14:8; 2 Chr 34:31) with the metaphor of a path or way underlying it (Deut 11:28; 28:14). To “follow other gods” was to abandon this way and this loyalty (to “abandon” or “forget” God, Judg 2:12; Hos 2:13) and to follow the customs or religious traditions of the pagan nations (2 Kgs 17:15). The classic text on “following” God or another god is 1 Kgs 18:18, 21 where Elijah taunts the people with “halting between two opinions” whether the
[17:15] 23 tn Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” The words “to the
[17:15] 24 tn Heb “and [they walked] after the nations which were around them, concerning which the
[17:16] 25 tn The phrase כָל צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם (khol tsÿva’ hashamayim), traditionally translated “all the host of heaven,” refers to the heavenly lights, including stars and planets. In 1 Kgs 22:19 these heavenly bodies are pictured as members of the Lord’s royal court or assembly, but many other texts view them as the illegitimate objects of pagan and Israelite worship.
[17:17] 27 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.
[17:17] 28 tn Heb “they sold themselves to doing what was evil in the eyes of the
[17:18] 29 tn Heb “very angry.”
[17:18] 30 tn Heb “turned them away from his face.”
[17:19] 31 tn Heb “they walked in the practices of Israel which they did.”
[17:21] 33 tn Heb “and they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king.”
[17:21] 34 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) assumes the verb is נָדָא (nada’), an alternate form of נָדָה (nadah), “push away.” The marginal reading (Qere) assumes the verb נָדָח (nadakh), “drive away.”
[17:21] 35 tn Heb “a great sin.”
[17:22] 36 tn Heb “turn away from.”
[17:23] 38 tn Heb “the
[17:23] 39 tn Heb “just as he said.”
[17:24] 40 tn The object is supplied in the translation.
[17:24] 41 sn In vv. 24-29 Samaria stands for the entire northern kingdom of Israel.
[17:25] 42 tn Heb “in the beginning of their living there.”
[17:26] 44 tn Heb “and they said to the king of Assyria, saying.” The plural subject of the verb is indefinite.
[17:26] 45 tn Heb “Look they are killing them.”
[17:27] 46 tc The second plural subject may refer to the leaders of the Assyrian army. However, some prefer to read “whom I deported,” changing the verb to a first person singular form with a third masculine plural pronominal suffix. This reading has some support from Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic witnesses.
[17:27] 47 tc Heb “and let them go and let them live there, and let him teach them the requirements of the God of the land.” The two plural verbs seem inconsistent with the preceding and following contexts, where only one priest is sent back to Samaria. The singular has the support of Greek, Syriac, and Latin witnesses.
[17:28] 48 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
[17:29] 50 sn The verb “make” refers to the production of idols. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 210-11.
[17:29] 51 tn Heb “Samaritans.” This refers to the Israelites who had been deported from the land.
[17:30] 52 sn No deity is known by the name Succoth Benoth in extant Mesopotamian literature. For speculation as to the identity of this deity, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 211.
[17:30] 53 sn Nergal was a Mesopotamian god of the underworld.
[17:30] 54 sn This deity is unknown in extra-biblical literature. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 211-12.
[17:31] 55 sn Nibhaz and Tartak were two Elamite deities. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 212.
[17:31] 56 sn Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of the Sepharvaim are unknown in extra-biblical literature. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 212.
[17:32] 58 tn Heb “and they appointed for themselves from their whole people priests for the high places and they were serving for them in the house[s] of the high places.”
[17:34] 61 tn Heb “commanded.”
[17:35] 63 sn That is, the descendants of Jacob/Israel (see v. 35b).
[17:36] 64 tn Heb “and outstretched arm.”
[17:40] 65 sn This refers to the foreigners whom the king of Assyria settled in the land (see v. 35a).
[18:2] 66 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[18:2] 67 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
[18:2] 68 tn The parallel passage in 2 Chr 29:1 has “Abijah.”
[18:3] 69 tn Heb “he did what was proper in the eyes of the
[18:4] 70 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] 71 tn Heb “until those days.”
[18:4] 72 tn In Hebrew the name sounds like the phrase נְחַשׁ הַנְּחֹשֶׁת (nÿkhash hannÿkhoshet), “bronze serpent.”
[18:5] 73 tn Heb “and after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, and those who were before him.”
[18:6] 75 tn Heb “and did not turn aside from after him.”
[18:6] 76 tn Heb “had commanded.”
[18:7] 77 tn Heb “in all which he went out [to do], he was successful.”
[18:7] 78 tn Heb “and did not serve him.”
[18:8] 79 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 17:9.
[18:9] 80 tn Heb “went” (also in v. 13).
[18:9] 81 map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
[18:11] 82 tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” as the object of the verb.
[18:12] 83 tn Heb “listen to the voice of.”
[18:12] 84 tn Heb “his covenant.”
[18:12] 85 tn Heb “all that Moses, the
[18:14] 86 tn Or “I have done wrong.”
[18:14] 87 tn Heb “Return from upon me; what you place upon me, I will carry.”
[18:14] 88 tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 22,500 pounds of silver and 2,250 pounds of gold.
[18:15] 89 tn Heb “that was found.”
[18:16] 90 tn Heb “At that time Hezekiah stripped the doors of the
[18:17] 91 sn For a discussion of these titles see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 229-30.
[18:17] 92 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[18:17] 93 tn Heb “and they went up and came.”
[18:17] 94 tn Heb “the field of the washer.”
[18:19] 95 tn Heb “What is this object of trust in which you are trusting?”
[18:20] 96 tn Heb “you say only a word of lips, counsel and might for battle.” Sennacherib’s message appears to be in broken Hebrew at this point. The phrase “word of lips” refers to mere or empty talk in Prov 14:23.
[18:23] 97 tn Heb “exchange pledges.”
[18:24] 98 tn Heb “How can you turn back the face of an official [from among] the least of my master’s servants and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?” In vv. 23-24 the chief adviser develops further the argument begun in v. 21. His reasoning seems to be as follows: “In your weakened condition you obviously need military strength. Agree to the king’s terms and I will personally give you more horses than you are capable of outfitting. If I, a mere minor official, am capable of giving you such military might, just think what power the king has. There is no way the Egyptians can match our strength. It makes much better sense to deal with us.”
[18:25] 100 sn In v. 25 the chief adviser develops further the argument begun in v. 22. He claims that Hezekiah has offended the Lord and that the Lord has commissioned Assyria as his instrument of discipline and judgment.
[18:26] 101 sn Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the empire.
[18:27] 103 tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.
[18:27] 104 tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”
[18:27] sn The chief adviser alludes to the horrible reality of siege warfare, when the starving people in the besieged city would resort to eating and drinking anything to stay alive.
[18:28] 105 tn The Hebrew text also has, “and he spoke and said.”
[18:29] 106 tc The MT has “his hand,” but this is due to graphic confusion of vav (ו) and yod (י). The translation reads “my hand,” along with many medieval Hebrew
[18:31] 107 tn Heb “make with me a blessing and come out to me.”
[18:33] 108 tn Heb “Have the gods of the nations really rescued, each his land, from the hand of the king of Assyria?” The infinitive absolute lends emphasis to the main verb. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not!”
[18:34] 109 tn The parallel passage in Isa 36:19 omits “Hena and Ivvah.” The rhetorical questions in v. 34a suggest the answer, “Nowhere, they seem to have disappeared in the face of Assyria’s might.”
[18:34] 110 map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
[18:34] 111 tn Heb “that they rescued Samaria from my hand?” But this gives the impression that the gods of Sepharvaim were responsible for protecting Samaria, which is obviously not the case. The implied subject of the plural verb “rescued” must be the generic “gods of the nations/lands” (vv. 33, 35).
[18:35] 112 tn Heb “that the
[18:37] 113 sn As a sign of grief and mourning.
[19:2] 114 tn Heb “elders of the priests.”
[19:3] 115 tn In the Hebrew text this verse begins with “they said to him.”
[19:3] 116 tn Or “rebuke,” “correction.”
[19:3] 118 tn Heb “when sons come to the cervical opening and there is no strength to give birth.”
[19:4] 119 tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”
[19:4] 120 tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the
[19:4] 121 tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”
[19:6] 122 tn Heb “by which the servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me.”
[19:7] 123 tn Heb “I will put in him a spirit.” The precise sense of רוּחַ (ruakh), “spirit,” is uncertain in this context. It may refer to a spiritual being who will take control of his mind (see 1 Kgs 22:19), or it could refer to a disposition of concern and fear. In either case the
[19:7] 125 tn Heb “cause him to fall,” that is, “kill him.”
[19:8] 126 tn Heb “and the chief adviser returned and he found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish.”
[19:9] 127 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[19:9] 128 tn Heb “heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, ‘Look, he has come out to fight with you.’”
[19:10] 129 tn Heb “will not be given.”
[19:11] 130 tn Heb “Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, annihilating them.”
[19:11] 131 tn Heb “and will you be rescued?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No, of course not!”
[19:12] 132 tn Heb “Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed rescue them – Gozan and Haran, and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who are in Telassar?”
[19:13] 133 sn Lair is a city located in northeastern Babylon. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 235.
[19:14] 134 tc The MT has the plural, “letters,” but the final mem is probably dittographic (note the initial mem on the form that immediately follows). Some Greek and Aramaic witnesses have the singular.
[19:14] 135 tc The MT has the plural suffix, “them,” but this probably reflects a later harmonization to the preceding textual corruption (of “letter” to “letters”). The parallel passage in Isa 37:14 has the singular suffix.
[19:15] 136 sn This refers to the cherub images that were above the ark of the covenant.
[19:15] 137 tn Or “the heavens.”
[19:16] 138 tn Heb “Hear the words of Sennacherib which he sent to taunt the living God.”
[19:18] 139 tn Heb “and they put their gods in the fire.”
[19:18] 140 tn Heb “so they destroyed them.”
[19:20] 141 tn Heb “That which you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.” The verb “I have heard” does not appear in the parallel passage in Isa 37:21, where אֲשֶׁר (’asher) probably has a causal sense, “because.”
[19:21] 142 tn Heb “this is the word which the
[19:21] 143 sn Zion (Jerusalem) is pictured here as a young, vulnerable daughter whose purity is being threatened by the would-be Assyrian rapist. The personification hints at the reality which the young girls of the city would face if the Assyrians conquer it.
[19:21] 144 sn Shaking the head was a mocking gesture of derision.
[19:22] 145 tn Heb “have you raised a voice.”
[19:22] 146 tn Heb “and lifted your eyes on high?”
[19:22] 147 sn This divine title pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.
[19:23] 148 tn The word is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai), “lord,” but some Hebrew
[19:23] 149 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has בְּרֶכֶב (bÿrekhev), but this must be dittographic (note the following רִכְבִּי [rikhbi], “my chariots”). The marginal reading (Qere) בְּרֹב (bÿrov), “with many,” is supported by many Hebrew
[19:23] 150 tn Heb “the lodging place of its extremity.”
[19:24] 151 tn Heb “I dug and drank foreign waters.”
[19:25] 152 tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.
[19:25] 153 tn Heb “Have you not heard?” The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s amazement that anyone might be ignorant of what he is about to say.
[19:25] 155 tn Heb “and it is to cause to crash into heaps of ruins fortified cities.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb תְּהִי (tÿhi) is the implied plan, referred to in the preceding lines with third feminine singular pronominal suffixes.
[19:26] 156 tn Heb “short of hand.”
[19:26] 157 tn Heb “they are plants in the field and green vegetation.” The metaphor emphasizes how short-lived these seemingly powerful cities really were. See Ps 90:5-6; Isa 40:6-8, 24.
[19:26] 158 tn Heb “[they are] grass on the rooftops.” See the preceding note.
[19:26] 159 tc The Hebrew text has “scorched before the standing grain” (perhaps meaning “before it reaches maturity”), but it is preferable to emend קָמָה (qamah), “standing grain,” to קָדִים (qadim), “east wind” (with the support of 1Q Isaa in Isa 37:27).
[19:27] 160 tc Heb “your going out and your coming in.” The MT also has here, “and how you have raged against me.” However, this line is probably dittographic (note the beginning of the next line).
[19:28] 161 tc Heb “and your complacency comes up into my ears.” The parallelism is improved if שַׁאֲנַנְךְ (sha’anankh), “your complacency,” is emended to שַׁאֲוַנְךְ (sha’avankh), “your uproar.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 237-38.
[19:28] 162 sn The word picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.
[19:29] 163 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] 164 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] 165 sn This refers to crops that grew up on their own (that is, without cultivation) from the seed planted in past years.
[19:29] 166 tn Heb “and in the second year.”
[19:29] 167 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.
[19:30] 168 tn Heb “The remnant of the house of Judah that is left will add roots below and produce fruit above.”
[19:31] 169 tn Traditionally “the
[19:31] 170 tn Heb “the zeal of the
[19:32] 172 tn Heb “[with] a shield.” By metonymy the “shield” stands for the soldier who carries it.
[19:34] 173 tn Heb “for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”
[19:35] 174 tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.
[19:35] 175 tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies.”
[19:36] 176 tn Heb “and Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went and returned and lived in Nineveh.”
[19:37] 177 sn The assassination probably took place in 681
[19:37] 178 sn No such Mesopotamian god is presently known. Perhaps the name is a corruption of Nusku.
[19:37] 179 tc Although “his sons” is absent in the Kethib, it is supported by the Qere, along with many medieval Hebrew
[19:37] 180 sn Extra-biblical sources also mention the assassination of Sennacherib, though they refer to only one assassin. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 239-40.
[20:1] 181 tn Heb “was sick to the point of dying.”
[20:1] 182 tn Heb “will not live.”
[20:3] 183 tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.
[20:3] 184 tn Heb “and with a complete heart.”
[20:3] 185 tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”
[20:3] 186 tn Heb “wept with great weeping.”
[20:4] 187 tc Heb “and Isaiah had not gone out of the middle courtyard, and the word of the
[20:5] 188 tn Heb “on the third day.”
[20:6] 189 tn Heb “for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”
[20:7] 190 tn Heb “and they got [a fig cake].”
[20:7] 191 tn Heb “and he lived.”
[20:9] 192 tn The Hebrew הָלַךְ (halakh, a perfect), “it has moved ahead,” should be emended to הֲיֵלֵךְ (hayelekh, an imperfect with interrogative he [ה] prefixed), “shall it move ahead.”
[20:10] 193 tn Heb “the shadow.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“it”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[20:11] 194 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
[20:11] 195 tn Heb “on the steps which [the sun] had gone down, on the steps of Ahaz, back ten steps.”
[20:11] sn These steps probably functioned as a type of sundial. See HALOT 614 s.v. מַעֲלָה and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 256.
[20:12] 196 tc The MT has “Berodach-Baladan,” but several Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses agree with the parallel passage in Isa 39:1 and read “Merodach-Baladan.”
[20:13] 197 tc Heb “listened to.” Some Hebrew
[20:13] 198 tn Heb “there was nothing which Hezekiah did not show them in his house and in all his kingdom.”
[20:15] 199 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Isaiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[20:15] 200 tn Heb “there was nothing I did not show them.”
[20:17] 201 tn Heb “days are.”
[20:18] 202 tn Heb “Some of your sons, who go out from you, whom you father.”
[20:19] 204 tn Heb “and he said.” Many English versions translate, “for he thought.” The verb אָמַר (’amar), “say,” is sometimes used of what one thinks (that is, says to oneself). Cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT.
[20:19] 205 tn Heb “Is it not [true] there will be peace and stability in my days?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, there will be peace and stability.”
[20:20] 206 tn Heb “and he brought.”
[20:20] 207 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?”
[20:21] 208 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
[21:1] 209 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[21:1] 210 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
[21:2] 211 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[21:2] 212 tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”
[21:3] 213 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 17:16.
[21:4] 215 tn Heb “In Jerusalem I will place my name.”
[21:6] 216 tc The LXX has the plural “his sons” here.
[21:6] 217 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.
[21:6] 218 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] 219 tc Heb “and he multiplied doing what is evil in the eyes of the
[21:7] 220 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”).”
[21:8] 221 tn Heb “I will not again make the feet of Israel wander from the land which I gave to their fathers.”
[21:10] 223 tn Heb “spoke by the hand of.”
[21:11] 224 tn Heb “these horrible sins.”
[21:11] 225 sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.
[21:12] 226 tn Heb “so that everyone who hears it, his two ears will quiver.”
[21:13] 227 map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
[21:13] 228 tn Heb “I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab.” The measuring line and plumb line are normally used in building a structure, not tearing it down. But here they are used ironically as metaphors of judgment, emphasizing that he will give careful attention to the task of judgment.
[21:13] 229 tn Heb “just as one wipes a plate, wiping and turning [it] on its face.” The word picture emphasizes how thoroughly the Lord will judge the city.
[21:14] 230 tn Heb “the remnant of my inheritance.” In this context the Lord’s remnant is the tribe of Judah, which had been preserved when the Assyrians conquered and deported the northern tribes. See 17:18 and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 269.
[21:14] 231 tn Heb “they will become plunder and spoils of war for all their enemies.”
[21:15] 232 tn Heb “in my eyes.”
[21:16] 233 tn Heb “and also Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he filled Jerusalem from mouth to mouth.”
[21:16] 234 tn Heb “apart from his sin which he caused Judah to commit, by doing what is evil in the eyes of the
[21:17] 235 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Manasseh, and all which he did, and his sin which he committed, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
[21:18] 236 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
[21:19] 237 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[21:19] 238 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
[21:20] 239 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[21:21] 240 tn Heb “walked in all the way which his father walked.”
[21:21] 241 sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.
[21:21] 242 tn Heb “and he served the disgusting idols which his father served and he bowed down to them.”
[21:22] 243 tn Heb “and did not walk in the way of the
[21:24] 244 tn Heb “the people of the land.” The pronoun “they” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid the repetition of the phrase “the people of the land” from the beginning of the verse.
[21:25] 245 tc Heb “As for the rest of the things of Amon which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?” Many Hebrew
[21:26] 246 tn Heb “he buried him.” Here “he” probably refers to Amon’s son Josiah.
[22:1] 247 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[22:1] 248 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
[22:2] 249 tn Heb “he did what was proper in the eyes of the
[22:2] 250 tn Heb “and walked in all the way of David his father.”
[22:3] 251 tn Heb “with these orders, saying.”
[22:4] 252 tc The MT has וְיַתֵּם (vÿyattem), “and let them add up” (Hiphil of תָּמָם [tammam], “be complete”), but the appearance of הִתִּיכוּ (hitikhu), “they melted down” (Hiphil of נָתַךְ [natakh], “pour out”) in v. 9 suggests that the verb form should be emended to וְיַתֵּךְ (vÿyattekh), “and let him melt down” (a Hiphil of נָתַךְ [natakh]). For a discussion of this and other options see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 281.
[22:5] 253 tn Heb “doers of the work.”
[22:5] 254 tn Heb “and let them give it to the doers of the work who are in the house of the
[22:6] 255 tn Heb “and to buy wood and chiseled stone to repair the house.”
[22:7] 256 tn Heb “only the silver that is given into their hand should not be reckoned with them, for in faithfulness they are acting.”
[22:9] 257 tn Heb “returned the king a word and said.”
[22:9] 258 tn Heb “that was found in the house.”
[22:13] 259 tn Or “inquire of.”
[22:13] 260 tn Heb “concerning.”
[22:13] 261 tn Heb “for great is the anger of the
[22:13] 262 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.”
[22:14] 263 tn Heb “the keeper of the clothes.”
[22:14] 264 tn Or “second.” For a discussion of the possible location of this district, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 283.
[22:14] 265 tn Heb “and they spoke to her.”
[22:16] 266 tn Heb “all the words of the scroll which the king of Judah has read.”
[22:17] 267 tn Or “burned incense.”
[22:17] 268 tn Heb “angering me with all the work of their hands.” The translation assumes that this refers to idols they have manufactured (note the preceding reference to “other gods,” as well as 19:18). However, it is possible that this is a general reference to their sinful practices, in which case one might translate, “angering me by all the things they do.”
[22:19] 269 tn Heb “Because your heart was tender.”
[22:19] 270 tn Heb “how I said concerning this place and its residents to become [an object of] horror and [an example of] a curse.” The final phrase (“horror and a curse”) refers to Judah becoming a prime example of an accursed people. In curse formulations they would be held up as a prime example of divine judgment. For an example of such a curse, see Jer 29:22.
[22:20] 271 tn Heb “Therefore, look, I am gathering you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your tomb in peace.”
[22:20] 272 tn Heb “your eyes will not see.”
[23:1] 273 tn Heb “and the king sent and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem gathered to him.”
[23:1] map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[23:2] 274 tn Heb “read in their ears.”
[23:3] 275 tn Heb “cut,” that is, “made, agreed to.”
[23:3] 276 tn Heb “walk after.”
[23:3] 279 tn Heb “stood in the covenant.”
[23:4] 280 tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.
[23:4] 281 tn Or “doorkeepers.”
[23:4] 283 tn Heb “all the host of heaven” (also in v. 5).
[23:4] 284 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[23:4] 285 tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.
[23:4] 286 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
[23:5] 287 tn Perhaps, “destroyed.”
[23:5] 288 tn Or “burn incense.”
[23:5] 289 tn Or “burned incense.”
[23:6] 290 tn Heb “and he burned it in the Kidron Valley.”
[23:6] 291 tc Heb “on the grave of the sons of the people.” Some Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses read the plural “graves.”
[23:6] tn The phrase “sons of the people” refers here to the common people (see BDB 766 s.v. עַם), as opposed to the upper classes who would have private tombs.
[23:7] 292 tn Or “cubicles.” Heb “houses.”
[23:7] 293 tn Heb “houses.” Perhaps tent-shrines made from cloth are in view (see BDB 109 s.v. בַּיִת). M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 286) understand this as referring to clothes made for images of the goddess.
[23:8] 294 tn Heb “defiled; desecrated,” that is, “made ritually unclean and unusable.”
[23:8] 295 sn These towns marked Judah’s northern and southern borders, respectively, at the time of Josiah.
[23:8] 296 tc The Hebrew text reads “the high places of the gates,” which is problematic in that the rest of the verse speaks of a specific gate. The translation assumes an emendation to בָּמוֹת הַשְּׁעָרִים (bamot hashÿ’arim), “the high place of the goats” (that is, goat idols). Worship of such images is referred to in Lev 17:7 and 2 Chr 11:15. For a discussion of the textual issue, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 286-87.
[23:9] 297 tn Heb “their brothers.”
[23:10] 298 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[23:10] 299 sn Attempts to identify this deity with a god known from the ancient Near East have not yet yielded a consensus. For brief discussions see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor II Kings (AB), 288 and HALOT 592 s.v. מֹלֶךְ. For more extensive studies see George C. Heider, The Cult of Molek, and John Day, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament.
[23:11] 300 tn The MT simply reads “the horses.” The words “statues of” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[23:11] 301 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] 302 tn Heb “and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire.”
[23:12] 303 tc The MT reads, “he ran from there,” which makes little if any sense in this context. Some prefer to emend the verbal form (Qal of רוּץ [ruts], “run”) to a Hiphil of רוּץ with third plural suffix and translate, “he quickly removed them” (see BDB 930 s.v. רוּץ, and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings [AB], 289). The suffix could have been lost in MT by haplography (note the mem [מ] that immediately follows the verb on the form מִשֳׁם, misham, “from there”). Another option, the one reflected in the translation, is to emend the verb to a Piel of רָצַץ (ratsats), “crush,” with third plural suffix.
[23:13] 304 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.
[23:14] 305 tn Heb “their places.”
[23:15] 306 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
[23:15] 307 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] 308 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.
[23:16] 309 tn Heb “and he sent and took the bones from the tombs.”
[23:16] 310 tn Heb “the king”; this has been specified as “King Josiah” in the translation for clarity (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).
[23:16] 311 tc The MT is much shorter than this. It reads, “according to the word of the
[23:16] sn This recalls the prophecy recorded in 1 Kgs 13:2.
[23:17] 312 tn Heb “man of God.”
[23:18] 313 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[23:18] 314 tn Heb “and they left undisturbed his bones, the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.” If the phrase “the bones of the prophet” were appositional to “his bones,” one would expect the sentence to end “from Judah” (see v. 17). Apparently the “prophet” referred to in the second half of the verse is the old prophet from Bethel who buried the man of God from Judah in his own tomb and instructed his sons to bury his bones there as well (1 Kgs 13:30-31). One expects the text to read “from Bethel,” but “Samaria” (which was not even built at the time of the incident recorded in 1 Kgs 13) is probably an anachronistic reference to the northern kingdom in general. See the note at 1 Kgs 13:32 and the discussion in M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 290.
[23:19] 315 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] 316 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.
[23:22] 317 tn The Hebrew text has simply “because.” The translation attempts to reflect more clearly the logical connection between the king’s order and the narrator’s observation. Another option is to interpret כִּי (ki) as asseverative and translate, “indeed.”
[23:22] 318 tn Heb “because there had not been observed [one] like this Passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel and all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.”
[23:24] 319 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] 320 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 21:6.
[23:24] 321 sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.
[23:24] 322 tn Heb “carrying out the words of the law.”
[23:25] 323 tn Heb “and like him there was not a king before him who returned to the
[23:25] sn The description of Josiah’s devotion as involving his whole “heart, soul, and being” echoes the language of Deut 6:5.
[23:26] 324 tn Heb “Yet the
[23:27] 325 tn Heb “Also Judah I will turn away from my face.”
[23:27] 326 tn Heb “My name will be there.”
[23:28] 327 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Josiah, and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
[23:29] 328 tn Heb “went up to.” The idiom עַל…עָלָה (’alah …’al) can sometimes mean “go up against,” but here it refers to Necho’s attempt to aid the Assyrians in their struggle with the Babylonians.
[23:29] 329 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Necho) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[23:29] 330 map For location see Map1 D4; Map2 C1; Map4 C2; Map5 F2; Map7 B1.
[23:30] 331 tn Heb “him, dead.”
[23:30] 332 tn Or “anointed him.”
[23:31] 333 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[23:31] 334 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
[23:32] 335 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[23:32] 336 tn Heb “according to all which his fathers had done.”
[23:33] 337 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has “when [he was] ruling in Jerusalem,” but the marginal reading (Qere), which has support from Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses, has “[preventing him] from ruling in Jerusalem.”
[23:33] 339 tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 7,500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold (cf. NCV, NLT); CEV “almost four tons of silver and about seventy-five pounds of gold.”
[23:34] 340 tn Heb “and he took Jehoahaz, and he came to Egypt and he died there.”
[23:35] 341 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.”
[23:36] 342 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[23:37] 343 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[24:1] 344 tn Heb “In his days.”
[24:1] 345 tn Heb “came up.” Perhaps an object (“against him”) has been accidentally omitted from the text. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 306.
[24:1] 346 tn The Hebrew text has “and he turned and rebelled against him.”
[24:2] 347 tn Heb “he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the
[24:3] 348 tn Heb “Certainly according to the word of the
[24:4] 349 tn Heb “and also the blood of the innocent which he shed, and he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the
[24:5] 350 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jehoiakim, and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
[24:6] 351 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
[24:8] 352 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[24:8] 353 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
[24:9] 354 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[24:10] 355 tn Heb “servants.”
[24:10] 356 tn Heb “went up [to] Jerusalem and the city entered into siege.”
[24:12] 357 tn Heb “came out.”
[24:12] 358 sn That is, the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, 597
[24:12] 359 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[24:13] 360 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Nebuchadnezzar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[24:15] 361 tn Heb “and he deported Jehoiachin to Babylon; the mother of the king and the wives of the king and his eunuchs and the mighty of the land he led into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.”
[24:16] 362 tn Heb “the entire [group], mighty men, doers of war.”
[24:18] 364 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[24:18] 365 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
[24:18] 366 tc Some textual witnesses support the consonantal text (Kethib) in reading “Hamital.”
[24:19] 367 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[24:19] 368 tn Heb “according to all which Jehoiakim had done.”
[24:20] 369 tn Heb “Surely [or, ‘for’] because of the anger of the
[25:1] 371 sn This would have been Jan 15, 588
[25:3] 372 tn The MT has simply “of the month,” but the parallel passage in Jer 52:6 has “fourth month,” and this is followed by almost all English translations. The word “fourth,” however, is not actually present in the MT of 2 Kgs 25:3.
[25:3] sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586
[25:3] 373 tn Heb “the people of the land.”
[25:4] 374 tn Heb “the city was breached.”
[25:4] 375 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] 376 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] 377 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.
[25:5] 378 map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
[25:6] 379 sn Riblah was a strategic town on the Orontes River in Syria. It was at a crossing of the major roads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pharaoh Necho had earlier received Jehoahaz there and put him in chains (2 Kgs 23:33) prior to taking him captive to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his base camp for conducting his campaigns against the Palestinian states there and was now sitting in judgment on prisoners brought to him.
[25:6] 380 tn The Hebrew text has the plural form of the verb, but the parallel passage in Jer 52:9 has the singular.
[25:7] 381 tn Heb “were killed before his eyes.”
[25:7] 382 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[25:8] 383 tn The parallel account in Jer 52:12 has “tenth.”
[25:8] 384 sn The seventh day of the month would have been August 14, 586
[25:8] 385 tn For the meaning of this phrase see BDB 371 s.v. טַבָּח 2, and compare the usage in Gen 39:1.
[25:8] 386 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[25:9] 387 tn Heb “and every large house he burned down with fire.”
[25:11] 388 tc The MT has “the multitude.” But הֶהָמוֹן (hehamon) should probably be emended to הֶאָמוֹן (he’amon).
[25:12] 389 tn Heb “the captain of the royal guard.” However, the subject is clear from the preceding and contemporary English style would normally avoid repeating the proper name and title.
[25:13] 390 sn See the note at 1 Kgs 7:23.
[25:14] 391 sn These shovels were used to clean the altar.
[25:14] 392 sn These were used to trim the wicks.
[25:14] 393 tn Heb “with which they served [or, ‘fulfilled their duty’].”
[25:15] 394 sn These held the embers used for the incense offerings.
[25:16] 395 tc The MT lacks “the twelve bronze bulls under ‘the Sea,’” but these words have probably been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. The scribe’s eye may have jumped from the וְהָ (vÿha-) on וְהַבָּקָר (vÿhabbaqar), “and the bulls,” to the וְהָ on וְהַמְּכֹנוֹת (vÿhammÿkhonot), “and the movable stands,” causing him to leave out the intervening words. See the parallel passage in Jer 52:20.
[25:17] 396 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] 397 tn Heb “three cubits.” The parallel passage in Jer 52:22 has “five.”
[25:19] 398 tn The parallel passage in Jer 52:25 has “seven.”
[25:19] 399 tn Heb “five seers of the king’s face.”
[25:19] 400 tn Heb “the people of the land.”
[25:21] 401 tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”
[25:22] 403 tn Heb “And the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon left, he appointed over them Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan.”
[25:23] 404 tn Heb “of the army.” The word “Judahite” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[25:24] 405 tn The words “so as to give them…some assurance of safety” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[25:25] 406 sn It is not altogether clear whether this is in the same year that Jerusalem fell or not. The wall was breached in the fourth month (= early July; Jer 39:2) and Nebuzaradan came and burned the palace, the temple, and many of the houses and tore down the wall in the fifth month (= early August; Jer 52:12). That would have left time between the fifth month and the seventh month (October) to gather in the harvest of grapes, dates and figs, and olives (Jer 40:12). However, many commentators feel that too much activity takes place in too short a time for this to have been in the same year and posit that it happened the following year or even five years later when a further deportation took place, possibly in retaliation for the murder of Gedaliah and the Babylonian garrison at Mizpah (Jer 52:30). The assassination of Gedaliah had momentous consequences and was commemorated in one of the post exilic fast days lamenting the fall of Jerusalem (Zech 8:19).
[25:25] 407 tn Heb “[was] from the seed of the kingdom.”
[25:25] 408 tn Heb “and they struck down Gedaliah and he died.”
[25:26] 409 tn Heb “arose and went to.”
[25:27] 410 sn The parallel account in Jer 52:31 has “twenty-fifth.”
[25:27] 411 sn The twenty-seventh day would be March 22, 561
[25:27] 412 tn Heb “lifted up the head of.”
[25:27] 413 tn The words “released him” are supplied in the translation on the basis of Jer 52:31.
[25:28] 414 tn Heb “made his throne above the throne of.”
[25:29] 415 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[25:30] 416 tc The words “until the day he died” do not appear in the MT, but they are included in the parallel passage in Jer 52:34. Probably they have been accidentally omitted by homoioteleuton. A scribe’s eye jumped from the final vav (ו) on בְּיוֹמוֹ (bÿyomo), “in his day,” to the final vav (ו) on מוֹתוֹ (moto), “his death,” leaving out the intervening words.
