2 Kings 1:13

1:13 The king¹ sent a third captain and his fifty soldiers. This third captain went up and fell² on his knees before Elijah. He begged for mercy, “Prophet, please have respect for my life and for the lives of these fifty servants of yours.

2 Kings 2:15

2:15 When the members of the prophetic guild in Jericho,³ who were standing at a distance,⁴ saw him do this, they said, “The spirit that energized Elijah⁵ rests upon Elisha.” They went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him.

2 Kings 4:39

4:39 Someone went out to the field to gather some herbs and found a wild vine.⁶ He picked some of its fruit,⁷ enough to fill up the fold of his robe. He came back, cut it up, and threw the slices⁸ into the stew pot, not knowing they were harmful.⁹

2 Kings 7:10

7:10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers¹⁰ of the city. They told them, “We entered the Syrian camp and there was no one there. We didn’t even hear a man’s voice.¹¹ But the horses and donkeys are still tied up, and the tents remain up.”¹²

2 Kings 8:9

8:9 So Hazael went to visit Elisha.¹³ He took along a gift,¹⁴ as well as¹⁵ forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son,¹⁶ King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question,¹⁷ ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

2 Kings 8:29

8:29 King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians¹⁸ in Ramah when he fought against King Hazael of Syria. King Ahaziah son of Jehoram of Judah went down to visit¹⁹ Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he was ill.

2 Kings 9:6

9:6 So Jehu²⁰ got up and went inside. Then the prophet²¹ poured the olive oil on his head and said to him, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I have designated you as king over the Lord’s people Israel.

2 Kings 9:21

9:21 Jehoram ordered, “Hitch up my chariot.”²² When his chariot had been hitched up,²³ King Jehoram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah went out in their respective chariots²⁴ to meet Jehu. They met up with him²⁵ in the plot of land that had once belonged to Naboth of Jezreel.

2 Kings 11:18

11:18 All the people of the land went and demolished²⁶ the temple of Baal. They smashed its altars and idols²⁷ to bits.²⁸ They killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altar. Jehoiada the priest²⁹ then placed guards at the Lord’s temple.

2 Kings 22:14

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.³⁰ (She lived in Jerusalem in the Mishneh³¹ district.) They stated their business,³²

2 Kings 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 aloud³³ all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been discovered in the Lord’s temple.

2 Kings 25:4

25:4 The enemy broke through the city walls,³⁴ and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night.³⁵ They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden.³⁶ (The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley.³⁷

¹tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²tn Heb “went up and approached and kneeled.”

³map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.

⁴tn Heb “and the sons of the prophets who were in Jericho, [who were standing] opposite, saw him and said.”

⁵tn Heb “the spirit of Elijah.”

⁶tn Heb “a vine of the field.”

⁷tn Heb “[some] of the gourds of the field.”

⁸tn Heb “he came and cut [them up].”

⁹tc The Hebrew text reads, “for they did not know” (יָדָעוּ, yada’u) but some emend the final shureq (וּ, indicating a third plural subject) to holem vav (וֹ, a third masculine singular pronominal suffix on a third singular verb) and read “for he did not know it.” Perhaps it is best to omit the final vav as dittographic (note the vav at the beginning of the next verb form) and read simply, “for he did not know.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 59.

¹⁰tn The MT has a singular form (“gatekeeper”), but the context suggests a plural. The pronoun that follows (“them”) is plural and a plural noun appears in v. 11. The Syriac Peshitta and the Targum have the plural here.

¹¹tn Heb “and, look, there was no man or voice of a man there.”

¹²tn Heb “but the horses are tied up and the donkeys are tied up and the tents are as they were.”

¹³tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”

¹⁵tn Heb “and.” It is possible that the conjunction is here explanatory, equivalent to English “that is.” In this case the forty camel loads constitute the “gift” and one should translate, “He took along a gift, consisting of forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus.”

¹⁶sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.

¹⁷tn Heb “saying.”

¹⁸tn Heb “which the Syrians inflicted [on] him.”

¹⁹tn Heb “to see.”

²⁰tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²¹tn Heb “he”; the referent (the prophet) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²²tn The words “my chariot” are added for clarification.

²³tn Heb “and he hitched up his chariot.”

²⁴tn Heb “each in his chariot and they went out.”

²⁵tn Heb “they found him.”

²⁶tn Or “tore down.”

²⁷tn Or “images.”

²⁸tn The Hebrew construction translated “smashed…to bits” is emphatic. The adverbial infinitive absolute (הֵיטֵב [hetev], “well”) accompanying the Piel form of the verb שָׁבַר (shavar), “break,” suggests thorough demolition.

²⁹tn Heb “the priest.” Jehoiada’s name is added for clarification.

³⁰tn Heb “the keeper of the clothes.”

³¹tn Or “second.” For a discussion of the possible location of this district, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 283.

³²tn Heb “and they spoke to her.”

³³tn Heb “read in their ears.”

³⁴tn Heb “the city was breached.”

³⁵tn The Hebrew text is abrupt here: “And all the men of war by the night.” The translation attempts to capture the sense.

³⁶sn 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.

³⁷sn 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.