2 Raja-raja 18:6

18:6 He was loyal to ¹  the Lord and did not abandon him. ²  He obeyed the commandments which the Lord had given to ³  Moses.

2 Raja-raja 17:19

17:19 Judah also failed to keep the commandments of the Lord their God; they followed Israel’s example. ⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 17:37

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.

2 Raja-raja 15:34

15:34 He did what the Lord approved, just as his father Uzziah had done. ⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 17:39

17:39 Instead you must worship the Lord your God; then he will rescue you from the power of all your enemies.”

2 Raja-raja 18:12

18:12 This happened because they did not obey ⁶  the Lord their God and broke his agreement with them. ⁷  They did not pay attention to and obey all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded. ⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 22:2

22:2 He did what the Lord approved ⁹  and followed in his ancestor David’s footsteps; ¹⁰  he did not deviate to the right or the left.

2 Raja-raja 17:34

17:34 To this very day they observe their earlier practices. They do not worship ¹¹  the Lord; they do not obey the rules, regulations, law, and commandments that the Lord gave ¹²  the descendants of Jacob, whom he renamed Israel.

2 Raja-raja 21:8

21:8 I will not make Israel again leave the land I gave to their ancestors, ¹³  provided that they carefully obey all I commanded them, the whole law my servant Moses ordered them to obey.”

2 Raja-raja 23:2

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 ¹⁴  all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been discovered in the Lord’s temple.

2 Raja-raja 23:25

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. ¹⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 21:9

21:9 But they did not obey, ¹⁶  and Manasseh misled them so that they sinned more than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed from before the Israelites.

2 Raja-raja 22:1

Josiah Repents

22:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. ¹⁷  His mother ¹⁸  was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah, from Bozkath.

2 Raja-raja 17:13

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 

2 Raja-raja 4:1

Elisha Helps a Widow and Her Sons

4:1 Now a wife of one of the prophets ²⁰  appealed ²¹  to Elisha for help, saying, “Your servant, my husband is dead. You know that your servant was a loyal follower of the Lord. ²²  Now the creditor is coming to take away my two boys to be his servants.”

2 Raja-raja 5:13

5:13 His servants approached and said to him, “O master, ²³  if the prophet had told you to do some difficult task, ²⁴  you would have been willing to do it. ²⁵  It seems you should be happy that he simply said, “Wash and you will be healed.” ²⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 10:5

10:5 So the palace supervisor, ²⁷  the city commissioner, ²⁸  the leaders, ²⁹  and the guardians sent this message to Jehu, “We are your subjects! ³⁰  Whatever you say, we will do. We will not make anyone king. Do what you consider proper.” ³¹ 

2 Raja-raja 10:29-30

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 ³²  and Dan. ³³  10:30 The Lord said to Jehu, “You have done well. You have accomplished my will and carried out my wishes with regard to Ahab’s dynasty. Therefore four generations of your descendants will rule over Israel.” ³⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 11:9

11:9 The officers of the units of hundreds did just as ³⁵  Jehoiada the priest ordered. Each of them took his men, those who were on duty during the Sabbath as well as those who were off duty on the Sabbath, and reported ³⁶  to Jehoiada the priest.

2 Raja-raja 17:15

17:15 They rejected his rules, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the laws he had commanded them to obey. ³⁷  They paid allegiance to ³⁸  worthless idols, and so became worthless to the Lord. ³⁹  They copied the practices of the surrounding nations in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command. ⁴⁰ 

2 Raja-raja 23:3

23:3 The king stood by the pillar and renewed ⁴¹  the covenant before the Lord, agreeing to follow ⁴²  the Lord and to obey his commandments, laws, and rules with all his heart and being, ⁴³  by carrying out the terms ⁴⁴  of this covenant recorded on this scroll. All the people agreed to keep the covenant. ⁴⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 23:24

23:24 Josiah also got rid of ⁴⁶  the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits, ⁴⁷  the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images, ⁴⁸  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 ⁴⁹  recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s temple.

2 Raja-raja 10:6

10:6 He wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are really on my side and are willing to obey me, ⁵⁰  then take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel at this time tomorrow.” ⁵¹  Now the king had seventy sons, and the prominent ⁵²  men of the city were raising them.

[18:6]  ¹ tn Heb “he hugged.”

[18:6]  ² tn Heb “and did not turn aside from after him.”

[18:6]  ³ tn Heb “had commanded.”

[17:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “they walked in the practices of Israel which they did.”

[15:34]  ⁵ tn Heb “he did what was proper in the eyes of the Lord, according to all which Uzziah his father had done.”

[18:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “listen to the voice of.”

[18:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “his covenant.”

[18:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded, and they did not listen and they did not act.”

[22:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “he did what was proper in the eyes of the Lord.”

[22:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and walked in all the way of David his father.”

[17:34]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fear.”

[17:34]  ¹² tn Heb “commanded.”

[21:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will not again make the feet of Israel wander from the land which I gave to their fathers.”

[23:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “read in their ears.”

[23:25]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and like him there was not a king before him who returned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his being according to all the law of Moses, and after him none arose like him.”

[23:25]  sn The description of Josiah’s devotion as involving his whole “heart, soul, and being” echoes the language of Deut 6:5.

[21:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “listen.”

[22:1]  ¹⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[22:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the name of his mother.”

[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.”

[4:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “a wife from among the wives of the sons of the prophets.”

[4:1]  ²¹ tn Or “cried out.”

[4:1]  ²² tn Heb “your servant feared the Lord.” “Fear” refers here to obedience and allegiance, the products of healthy respect for the Lord’s authority.

[5:13]  ²³ tn Heb “my father,” reflecting the perspective of each individual servant. To address their master as “father” would emphasize his authority and express their respect. See BDB 3 s.v. אָב and the similar idiomatic use of “father” in 2 Kgs 2:12.

[5:13]  ²⁴ tn Heb “a great thing.”

[5:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “would you not do [it]?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you would.”

[5:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “How much more [when] he said, “Wash and be healed.” The second imperative (“be healed”) states the expected result of obeying the first (‘wash”).

[10:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the one who was over the house.”

[10:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the one who was over the city.”

[10:5]  ²⁹ tn Or “elders.”

[10:5]  ³⁰ tn Heb “servants.”

[10:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “Do what is good in your eyes.”

[10:29]  ³² map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[10:29]  ³³ 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.”

[10:30]  ³⁴ tn Heb “Because you have done well by doing what is proper in my eyes – according to all which was in my heart you have done to the house of Ahab – sons of four generations will sit for you on the throne of Israel.” In the Hebrew text the Lord’s statement is one long sentence (with a parenthesis). The translation above divides it into shorter sentences for stylistic reasons.

[10:30]  sn Jehu ruled over Israel from approximately 841-814 b.c. Four of his descendants (Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, and Zechariah) ruled from approximately 814-753 b.c. The dynasty came to an end when Shallum assassinated Zechariah in 753 b.c. See 2 Kgs 15:8-12.

[11:9]  ³⁵ tn Heb “according to all that.”

[11:9]  ³⁶ tn Heb “came.”

[17:15]  ³⁷ tn Or “and his warnings he had given them.”

[17:15]  ³⁸ 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 Lord was the true God or Baal was. The idiom is often found followed by “to serve and to worship” or “they served and worshiped” such and such a god or entity (Jer 8:2; 11:10; 13:10; 16:11; 25:6; 35:15).

[17:15]  ³⁹ tn Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” The words “to the Lord” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context. There is an obvious wordplay on the verb “became worthless” and the noun “worthless thing”, which is probably to be understood collectively and to refer to idols as it does in Jer 8:19; 10:8; 14:22; Jonah 2:8.

[17:15]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and [they walked] after the nations which were around them, concerning which the Lord commanded them not to do like them.”

[23:3]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “cut,” that is, “made, agreed to.”

[23:3]  ⁴² tn Heb “walk after.”

[23:3]  ⁴³ tn Or “soul.”

[23:3]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “words.”

[23:3]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “stood in the covenant.”

[23:24]  ⁴⁶ 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]  ⁴⁷ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 21:6.

[23:24]  ⁴⁸ sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.

[23:24]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “carrying out the words of the law.”

[10:6]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “If you are mine and you are listening to my voice.”

[10:6]  ⁵¹ sn Jehu’s command is intentionally vague. Does he mean that they should bring the guardians (those who are “heads” over Ahab’s sons) for a meeting, or does he mean that they should bring the literal heads of Ahab’s sons with them? (So LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and some mss of the Targum) The city leaders interpret his words in the literal sense, but Jehu’s command is so ambiguous he is able to deny complicity in the executions (see v. 9).

[10:6]  ⁵² tn Heb “great,” probably in wealth, position, and prestige.