2 Raja-raja 2:11-12

2:11 As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a fiery chariot ¹  pulled by fiery horses appeared. ²  They went between Elijah and Elisha, ³  and Elijah went up to heaven in a windstorm. 2:12 While Elisha was watching, he was crying out, “My father, my father! The chariot and horsemen of Israel!” ⁴  Then he could no longer see him. He grabbed his clothes and tore them in two.

2 Raja-raja 2:23-24

2:23 He went up from there to Bethel. ⁵  As he was traveling up the road, some young boys ⁶  came out of the city and made fun of him, saying, “Go on up, baldy! Go on up, baldy!” 2:24 When he turned around and saw them, he called God’s judgment down on them. ⁷  Two female bears came out of the woods and ripped forty-two of the boys to pieces.

2 Raja-raja 5:24

5:24 When he arrived at the hill, he took them from the servants ⁸  and put them in the house. Then he sent the men on their way. ⁹ 

2 Raja-raja 5:27

5:27 Therefore Naaman’s skin disease will afflict ¹⁰  you and your descendants forever!” When Gehazi ¹¹  went out from his presence, his skin was as white as snow. ¹² 

2 Raja-raja 9:32

9:32 He looked up at the window and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three ¹³  eunuchs looked down at him.

2 Raja-raja 10:17

10:17 He went to Samaria and exterminated all the members of Ahab’s family who were still alive in Samaria, ¹⁴  just as the Lord had announced to Elijah. ¹⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 15:19

15:19 Pul ¹⁶  king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem paid ¹⁷  him ¹⁸  a thousand talents ¹⁹  of silver to gain his support ²⁰  and to solidify his control of the kingdom. ²¹ 

2 Raja-raja 18:18

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.

2 Raja-raja 22:18

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:

2 Raja-raja 23:28

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. ²² 

2 Raja-raja 23:33

23:33 Pharaoh Necho imprisoned him in Riblah in the land of Hamath and prevented him from ruling in Jerusalem. ²³  He imposed on the land a special tax ²⁴  of one hundred talents ²⁵  of silver and a talent of gold.

[2:11]  ¹ tn Though the noun is singular here, it may be collective, in which case it could be translated “chariots.”

[2:11]  ² tn Heb “look, a chariot of fire and horses of fire.”

[2:11]  ³ tn Heb “and they made a division between the two of them.”

[2:12]  ⁴ sn Elisha may be referring to the fiery chariot(s) and horses as the Lord’s spiritual army that fights on behalf of Israel (see 2 Kgs 6:15-17; 7:6). However, the juxtaposition with “my father” (clearly a reference to Elijah as Elisha’s mentor), and the parallel in 2 Kgs 13:14 (where the king addresses Elisha with these words), suggest that Elisha is referring to Elijah. In this case Elijah is viewed as a one man army, as it were. When the Lord spoke through him, his prophetic word was as powerful as an army of chariots and horses. See M. A. Beek, “The Meaning of the Expression ‘The Chariots and Horsemen of Israel’ (II Kings ii 12),” The Witness of Tradition (OTS 17), 1-10.

[2:23]  ⁵ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[2:23]  ⁶ tn The word נַעַר (na’ar), here translated “boy,” can refer to a broad age range, including infants as well as young men. But the qualifying term “young” (or “small”) suggests these youths were relatively young. The phrase in question (“young boy”) occurs elsewhere in 1 Sam 20:35; 1 Kgs 3:7 (used by Solomon in an hyperbolic manner); 11:17; 2 Kgs 5:14; and Isa 11:6.

[2:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “he cursed them in the name of the Lord.” A curse was a formal appeal to a higher authority (here the Lord) to vindicate one’s cause through judgment. As in chapter one, this account makes it clear that disrespect for the Lord’s designated spokesmen can be deadly, for it is ultimately rejection of the Lord’s authority.

[5:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “from their hand.”

[5:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “and he sent the men away and they went.”

[5:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “cling to.”

[5:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gehazi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:27]  ¹² tn Traditionally, “he went from before him, leprous like snow.” But see the note at 5:1, as well as M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 66.

[9:32]  ¹³ tn Heb “two, three.” The narrator may be intentionally vague or uncertain here, or the two numbers may represent alternate traditions.

[10:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and he struck down all the remaining ones to Ahab in Samaria until he destroyed him.”

[10:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord which he spoke to Elijah.”

[15:19]  ¹⁶ sn Pul was a nickname of Tiglath-pileser III (cf. 15:29). See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 171-72.

[15:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “gave.”

[15:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Pul.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[15:19]  ¹⁹ 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 75,000 pounds of silver (cf. NCV “about seventy-four thousand pounds”); NLT “thirty-seven tons”; CEV “over thirty tons”; TEV “34,000 kilogrammes.”

[15:19]  ²⁰ tn Heb “so his hands would be with him.”

[15:19]  ²¹ tn Heb “to keep hold of the kingdom in his hand.”

[23:28]  ²² 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?”

[23:33]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ tn Or “fine.”

[23:33]  ²⁵ 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.”