2 Raja-raja 5:7

5:7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill or restore life? Why does he ask me to cure a man of his skin disease? ¹  Certainly you must see that he is looking for an excuse to fight me!” ² 

2 Raja-raja 9:5

9:5 When he arrived, the officers of the army were sitting there. ³  So he said, “I have a message for you, O officer.” ⁴  Jehu asked, “For which one of us?” ⁵  He replied, “For you, O officer.”

2 Raja-raja 10:5

10:5 So the palace supervisor, ⁶  the city commissioner, ⁷  the leaders, ⁸  and the guardians sent this message to Jehu, “We are your subjects! ⁹  Whatever you say, we will do. We will not make anyone king. Do what you consider proper.” ¹⁰ 

2 Raja-raja 10:24

10:24 They went inside to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside. He had told them, “If any of the men inside get away, you will pay with your lives!” ¹¹ 

2 Raja-raja 14:9

14:9 King Jehoash of Israel sent this message back to King Amaziah of Judah, “A thornbush in Lebanon sent this message to a cedar in Lebanon, ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ Then a wild animal ¹²  of Lebanon came by and trampled down the thorn. ¹³ 

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. ¹⁴  They paid allegiance to ¹⁵  worthless idols, and so became worthless to the Lord. ¹⁶  They copied the practices of the surrounding nations in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command. ¹⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 17:35

17:35 The Lord made an agreement ¹⁸  with them ¹⁹  and instructed them, “You must not worship other gods. Do not bow down to them, serve them, or offer sacrifices to them.

2 Raja-raja 19:29

19:29 ²⁰ This will be your confirmation that I have spoken the truth: ²¹  This year you will eat what grows wild, ²²  and next year ²³  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. ²⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 20:5

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 ²⁵  you will go up to the Lord’s temple.

[5:7]  ¹ tn Heb “Am I God, killing and restoring life, that this one sends to me to cure a man from his skin disease?” In the Hebrew text this is one lengthy rhetorical question, which has been divided up in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[5:7]  ² tn Heb “Indeed, know and see that he is seeking an occasion with respect to me.”

[9:5]  ³ tn Heb “and he arrived and look, the officers of the army were sitting.”

[9:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “[there is] a word for me to you, O officer.”

[9:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “To whom from all of us?”

[10:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “the one who was over the house.”

[10:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “the one who was over the city.”

[10:5]  ⁸ tn Or “elders.”

[10:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “servants.”

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

[10:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “The man who escapes from the men whom I am bringing into your hands, [it will be] his life in place of his life.”

[14:9]  ¹² tn Heb “the animal of the field.”

[14:9]  ¹³ sn Judah is the thorn in the allegory. Amaziah’s success has deceived him into thinking he is on the same level as the major powers in the area (symbolized by the cedar). In reality he is not capable of withstanding an attack by a real military power such as Israel (symbolized by the wild animal).

[17:15]  ¹⁴ tn Or “and his warnings he had given them.”

[17:15]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and [they walked] after the nations which were around them, concerning which the Lord commanded them not to do like them.”

[17:35]  ¹⁸ tn Or “covenant.”

[17:35]  ¹⁹ sn That is, the descendants of Jacob/Israel (see v. 35b).

[19:29]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ 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]  ²² sn This refers to crops that grew up on their own (that is, without cultivation) from the seed planted in past years.

[19:29]  ²³ tn Heb “and in the second year.”

[19:29]  ²⁴ 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.

[20:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “on the third day.”