1:16 Elijah 1 said to the king, 2 “This is what the Lord says, ‘You sent messengers to seek an oracle from Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. You must think there is no God in Israel from whom you can seek an oracle! 3 Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.’” 4
2:15 When the members of the prophetic guild in Jericho, 5 who were standing at a distance, 6 saw him do this, they said, “The spirit that energized Elijah 7 rests upon Elisha.” They went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him. 2:16 They said to him, “Look, there are fifty capable men with your servants. Let them go and look for your master, for the wind sent from the Lord 8 may have carried him away and dropped him on one of the hills or in one of the valleys.” But Elisha 9 replied, “Don’t send them out.”
3:13 Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Why are you here? 10 Go to your father’s prophets or your mother’s prophets!” The king of Israel replied to him, “No, for the Lord is the one who summoned these three kings so that he can hand them over to Moab.”
4:42 Now a man from Baal Shalisha brought some food for the prophet 15 – twenty loaves of bread made from the firstfruits of the barley harvest, as well as fresh ears of grain. 16 Elisha 17 said, “Set it before the people so they may eat.”
5:15 He and his entire entourage returned to the prophet. Naaman 20 came and stood before him. He said, “For sure 21 I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel! Now, please accept a gift from your servant.”
6:32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house with the community leaders. 22 The king 23 sent a messenger on ahead, but before he arrived, 24 Elisha 25 said to the leaders, 26 “Do you realize this assassin intends to cut off my head?” 27 Look, when the messenger arrives, shut the door and lean against it. His master will certainly be right behind him.” 28
7:12 The king got up in the night and said to his advisers, 37 “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are starving, so they left the camp and hid in the field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and enter the city.’”
12:4 Jehoash said to the priests, “I place at your disposal 53 all the consecrated silver that has been brought to the Lord’s temple, including the silver collected from the census tax, 54 the silver received from those who have made vows, 55 and all the silver that people have voluntarily contributed to the Lord’s temple. 56
18:26 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, 58 for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect 59 in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 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. 60 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.” 61
1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “him”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “Because you sent messengers to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, is there no God in Israel to inquire of his word?”
4 sn For the third time in this chapter we read the Lord’s sarcastic question to king and the accompanying announcement of judgment. The repetition emphasizes one of the chapter’s main themes. Israel’s leaders should seek guidance from their own God, not a pagan deity, for Israel’s sovereign God is the one who controls life and death.
5 map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.
6 tn Heb “and the sons of the prophets who were in Jericho, [who were standing] opposite, saw him and said.”
7 tn Heb “the spirit of Elijah.”
8 tn Or “the spirit of the
9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tn Or “What do we have in common?” The text reads literally, “What to me and to you?”
11 tn Heb “he said to him.”
12 tn Heb “you have turned trembling to us with all this trembling.” The exaggerated language is probably idiomatic. The point seems to be that she has taken great pains or gone out of her way to be kind to them. Her concern was a sign of her respect for the prophetic office.
13 tn Heb “Among my people I am living.” This answer suggests that she has security within the context of her family.
14 tn Heb “her soul [i.e., ‘disposition’] is bitter.”
15 tn Heb “man of God.”
16 tn On the meaning of the word צִקְלוֹן (tsiqlon), “ear of grain,” see HALOT 148 s.v. בָּצֵק and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 59.
17 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 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.
19 tn Heb “Indeed, know and see that he is seeking an occasion with respect to me.”
20 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Naaman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
21 tn Heb “look.”
22 tn Heb “and the elders were sitting with him.”
23 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
24 tn Heb “sent a man from before him, before the messenger came to him.”
25 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
26 tn Heb “elders.”
27 tn Heb “Do you see that this son of an assassin has sent to remove my head?”
28 tn Heb “Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”
29 tn Heb “the officer on whose hand the king leans.”
30 tn Heb “man of God.”
31 tn Heb “the
32 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
33 tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”
34 tn Heb “this day is a day of good news and we are keeping silent.”
35 tn Heb “the light of the morning.”
36 tn Heb “punishment will find us.”
37 tn Heb “servants” (also in v. 13).
38 tn Heb “the
39 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
40 tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”
tn In the Hebrew text vv. 18-19a are one lengthy sentence, “When the man of God spoke to the king…, the officer replied to the man of God, ‘Look…so soon?’” The translation divides this sentence up for stylistic reasons.
41 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gehazi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
42 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
43 tn 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.
44 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
45 tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”
46 tn 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.”
47 sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.
48 tn Heb “saying.”
49 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
50 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the prophet) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
51 tn Heb “and I will repay you in this plot of land.”
52 tn Heb “according to the word of the
53 tn The words “I place at your disposal” are added in the translation for clarification.
54 tn Heb “the silver of passing over a man.” The precise meaning of the phrase is debated, but עָבַר (’avar), “pass over,” probably refers here to counting, suggesting the reference is to a census conducted for taxation purposes. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 137.
55 tn Heb “the silver of persons, his valuation.” The precise meaning of the phrase is uncertain, but parallels in Lev 27 suggest that personal vows are referred to here. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 137.
56 tn Heb “all the silver which goes up on the heart of a man to bring to the house of the
57 tn Heb “Now, do not take silver from your treasurers, because for the damages to the temple you must give it.”
58 sn Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the empire.
59 tn Or “Hebrew.”
60 tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.
61 tn 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.
62 tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”
63 tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the
64 tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”
65 tn 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”).”
66 tn The words “so as to give them…some assurance of safety” are supplied in the translation for clarification.