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 3:7

3:7 He sent³ this message to King Jehoshaphat of Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you fight with me against Moab?” Jehoshaphat⁴ replied, “I will join you in the campaign; my army and horses are at your disposal.”⁵

2 Kings 6:32

6:32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house with the community leaders.⁶ The king⁷ sent a messenger on ahead, but before he arrived,⁸ Elisha⁹ said to the leaders,¹⁰ “Do you realize this assassin intends to cut off my head?”¹¹ Look, when the messenger arrives, shut the door and lean against it. His master will certainly be right behind him.”¹²

2 Kings 8:5

8:5 While Gehazi¹³ was telling the king how Elisha¹⁴ had brought the dead back to life, the woman whose son he had brought back to life came to ask the king for her house and field.¹⁵ Gehazi said, “My master, O king, this is the very woman and this is her son whom Elisha brought back to life!”

2 Kings 8:12

8:12 Hazael asked, “Why are you crying, my master?” He replied, “Because I know the trouble you will cause the Israelites. You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, smash their children to bits, and rip open their pregnant women.”

2 Kings 9:21

9:21 Jehoram ordered, “Hitch up my chariot.”¹⁶ When his chariot had been hitched up,¹⁷ King Jehoram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah went out in their respective chariots¹⁸ to meet Jehu. They met up with him¹⁹ in the plot of land that had once belonged to Naboth of Jezreel.

2 Kings 10:6

10:6 He wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are really on my side and are willing to obey me,²⁰ then take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel at this time tomorrow.”²¹ Now the king had seventy sons, and the prominent²² men of the city were raising them.

2 Kings 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 animal²³ of Lebanon came by and trampled down the thorn.²⁴

2 Kings 16:15

16:15 King Ahaz ordered Uriah the priest, “On the large altar²⁵ offer the morning burnt sacrifice, the evening grain offering, the royal burnt sacrifices and grain offering, the burnt sacrifice for all the people of Israel, their grain offering, and their libations. Sprinkle all the blood of the burnt sacrifice and other sacrifices on it. The bronze altar will be for my personal use.”²⁶

2 Kings 18:27

18:27 But the chief adviser said to them, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you.²⁷ His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you.”²⁸

2 Kings 19:23

19:23 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master,²⁹

‘With my many chariots³⁰

I climbed up the high mountains,

the slopes of Lebanon.

I cut down its tall cedars,

and its best evergreens.

I invaded its most remote regions,³¹

its thickest woods.

2 Kings 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 tomorrow³² you will go up to the Lord’s temple.

2 Kings 21:7

21:7 He put an idol of Asherah he had made in the temple, about which the Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon, “This temple in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will be my permanent home.³³

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

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

³tn Heb “went and sent.”

⁴tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoshaphat) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵tn Heb “I will go up – like me, like you; like my people, like your people; like my horses; like your horses.”

⁶tn Heb “and the elders were sitting with him.”

⁷tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸tn Heb “sent a man from before him, before the messenger came to him.”

⁹tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰tn Heb “elders.”

¹¹tn Heb “Do you see that this son of an assassin has sent to remove my head?”

¹²tn Heb “Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”

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

¹⁴tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵tn Heb “and look, the woman whose son he had brought back to life was crying out to the king for her house and her field.”

sn The legal background of the situation is uncertain. For a discussion of possibilities, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 87-88.

¹⁶tn The words “my chariot” are added for clarification.

¹⁷tn Heb “and he hitched up his chariot.”

¹⁸tn Heb “each in his chariot and they went out.”

¹⁹tn Heb “they found him.”

²⁰tn Heb “If you are mine and you are listening to my voice.”

²¹sn 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).

²²tn Heb “great,” probably in wealth, position, and prestige.

²³tn Heb “the animal of the field.”

²⁴sn 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).

²⁵tn That is, the newly constructed altar.

²⁶tn Heb “for me to seek.” The precise meaning of בָּקַר (baqar), “seek,” is uncertain in this context. For discussion see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 189.

²⁷tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.

²⁸tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”

sn The chief adviser alludes to the horrible reality of siege warfare, when the starving people in the besieged city would resort to eating and drinking anything to stay alive.

²⁹tn The word is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai), “lord,” but some Hebrew mss have יְהוָה (yehvah), “Lord.”

³⁰tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has בְּרֶכֶב (bÿrekhev), but this must be dittographic (note the following רִכְבִּי [rikhbi], “my chariots”). The marginal reading (Qere) בְּרֹב (bÿrov), “with many,” is supported by many Hebrew mss and ancient versions, as well as the parallel passage in Isa 37:24.

³¹tn Heb “the lodging place of its extremity.”

³²tn Heb “on the third day.”

³³tn Heb “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I chose from all the tribes of Israel, I will place my name perpetually (or perhaps “forever”).”