2:7 “Now send me a man who is skilled in working with gold, silver, bronze, and iron, as well as purple, crimson, and violet colored fabrics, and who knows how to engrave. He will work with my skilled craftsmen here in Jerusalem 1 and Judah, whom my father David provided.
12:5 Shemaiah the prophet visited Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who were assembled in Jerusalem because of Shishak. He said to them, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have rejected me, so I have rejected you and will hand you over to Shishak.’” 16
15:9 He assembled all Judah and Benjamin, as well as the settlers 17 from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had come to live with them. Many people from Israel had come there to live 18 when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.
23:1 In the seventh year Jehoiada made a bold move. He made a pact 29 with the officers of the units of hundreds: Azariah son of Jehoram, Ishmael son of Jehochanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zikri.
25:5 Amaziah assembled the people of Judah 36 and assigned them by families to the commanders of units of a thousand and the commanders of units of a hundred for all Judah and Benjamin. He counted those twenty years old and up and discovered there were 300,000 young men of fighting age 37 equipped with spears and shields. 38
27:5 He launched a military campaign 45 against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them. That year the Ammonites paid him 100 talents 46 of silver, 10,000 kors 47 of wheat, and 10,000 kors 48 of barley. The Ammonites also paid this same amount of annual tribute the next two years. 49
This royal edict read: 51 “O Israelites, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so he may return 52 to you who have been spared from the kings of Assyria. 53
1 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
2 tn Heb “who has given to David a wise son [who] knows discernment and insight, who will build a house for the
3 tn Heb “like one were the trumpeters and the musicians, causing one voice to be heard, praising and giving thanks to the
4 tn Heb “and the house was filled with a cloud, the house of the
5 tn Heb “saying.”
6 tn Heb “to build a house for my name to be there.” Here “name” is used by metonymy for the
7 tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
8 tn Heb “and the priests were standing at their posts, and the Levites with the instruments of music of the
9 tn Heb “which David the king made to give thanks to the
10 tn Heb “opposite them”; the referent (the Levites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tc The Hebrew text omits reference to the grain offerings at this point, but note that they are included both in the list in the second half of the verse (see note on “offerings” at the end of this verse) and in the parallel account in 1 Kgs 8:64. The construction וְאֶת־הַמִּנְחָה (vÿ’et-hamminkhah; vav [ו] + accusative sign + noun with article; “grain offerings”) was probably omitted accidentally by homoioarcton. Note the וְאֶת (vÿ’et) that immediately follows.
12 tn Heb “to hold the burnt sacrifices, grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings.” Because this is redundant, the translation employs a summary phrase: “all these offerings.”
13 tc The Hebrew text reads, “I will make heavy your yoke,” but many medieval Hebrew
14 tn Heb “but I will add to your yoke.”
15 tn Heb “My father punished you with whips, but I [will punish you] with scorpions.” “Scorpions” might allude to some type of torture, but more likely it refers to a type of whip that inflicts an especially biting, painful wound.
16 tn Heb “also I have rejected you into the hand of Shishak.”
17 tn Or “resident aliens.”
18 tn Heb “had fallen upon him.”
19 tn Heb “to seek the
20 tn Or “hate.”
21 tn Heb “all his days.”
22 tn The words “his name is” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
23 tn Or “seer.”
24 tn Heb “went out to his face.”
25 tn Heb “and love those who hate the
26 tn Heb “and because of this upon you is anger from before the
27 tn Heb “all Judah.” The words “you people of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew text uses the name “Judah” by metonymy for the people of Judah. Unlike the previous instance in v. 13 where infants, wives, and children are mentioned separately, this reference appears to include them all.
28 tn Or perhaps “don’t get discouraged.”
29 tn Or “covenant.”
30 tn Heb “ranks.”
31 tn Heb “for the priest had said, ‘Do not put her to death in the house of the
32 tn Heb “though with a small amount of men the army of Aram came, the
33 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people of Judah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
34 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Syrians) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
35 tn Heb “executed judgments [on] Joash.”
36 tn Heb “Judah.” The words “the people of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew text uses the name “Judah” by metonymy here for the people of Judah.
37 tn Heb “young men going out to war.”
38 tn Heb “holding a spear and a shield.”
39 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Amaziah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
40 tn Heb “Stop yourself! Why should they strike you down?”
41 tn The verb יָעַץ (ya’ats, “has decided”) is from the same root as יוֹעֵץ (yo’ets, “counselor”) in v. 16 and עֵצָה (’etsah, “advice”) later in v. 16. The wordplay highlights the appropriate nature of the divine punishment. Amaziah rejected the counsel of God’s prophet; now he would be the victim of God’s “counsel.”
42 tn Heb “400 cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the distance would have been about 600 feet (180 m).
43 tn Heb “angry.”
44 tn Traditionally “leprosy,” but this was probably a skin disorder of some type, not leprosy (technically known today as Hansen’s disease). See 2 Kgs 5:1.
45 tn Heb “he fought with.”
46 tn The Hebrew word כִּכַּר (kikar, “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, by extension, to a standard unit of weight. According to the older (Babylonian) standard the “talent” weighed 130 lbs. (58.9 kg), but later this was lowered to 108.3 lbs. (49.1 kg). More recent research suggests the “light” standard talent was 67.3 lbs. (30.6 kg). Using this as the standard for calculation, the weight of the silver was 6,730 lbs. (3,060 kg).
47 sn As a unit of dry measure a kor was roughly equivalent to six bushels (about 220 liters).
48 tn Heb “10,000 kors of wheat and 10,000 of barley.” The unit of measure of the barley is omitted in the Hebrew text, but is understood to be “kors,” the same as the measures of wheat.
49 tn Heb “This the sons of Ammon brought to him, and in the second year and the third.”
50 tn Heb “the runners.”
51 tn Heb “and according to the command of the king, saying.”
52 tn The jussive with vav conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.
53 tn Heb “to the survivors who are left to you from the palm of the kings of Assyria.”
54 tn Heb “turn [his] face from you.”
55 tn Heb “and speaking against him, saying.”
56 tn Heb “Like the gods of the nations of the lands who did not rescue their people from my hand, so the god of Hezekiah will not rescue his people from my hand.”
57 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Neco) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
58 tn Heb “What to me and to you, king of Judah?”
59 tn Heb “Not against you, you, today, but against the house of my battle.”
60 tn Heb “Stop yourself from [opposing] God who is with me and let him not destroy you.”
61 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
62 tn Heb “Whoever [is] among you from all his people – may the