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
9:11 When Jehu rejoined 23 his master’s servants, they 24 asked him, “Is everything all right? 25 Why did this madman visit you?” He replied, “Ah, it’s not important. You know what kind of man he is and the kinds of things he says.” 26
20:1 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. 37 The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give your household instructions, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’” 38
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 tn Heb “a vine of the field.”
6 tn Heb “[some] of the gourds of the field.”
7 tn Heb “he came and cut [them up].”
8 tc 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.
9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tn Heb “Did not my heart go as a man turned from his chariot to meet you?” The rhetorical question emphasizes that he was indeed present in “heart” (or “spirit”) and was very much aware of what Gehazi had done. In the MT the interrogative particle has been accidentally omitted before the negative particle.
11 tn In the MT the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question, “Is this the time…?” It expects an emphatic negative response.
12 tn Heb “the officer on whose hand the king leans.”
13 tn Heb “man of God.”
14 tn Heb “the
15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
16 tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”
17 tn Heb “this day is a day of good news and we are keeping silent.”
18 tn Heb “the light of the morning.”
19 tn Heb “punishment will find us.”
20 tn Heb “the
21 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
22 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.
23 tn Heb “went out to.”
24 tc The MT has the singular, “he said,” but many witnesses correctly read the plural.
25 tn Heb “Is there peace?”
26 tn Heb “He said, ‘You, you know the man and his thoughts.’” Jehu tries to deflect their question by reminding them that the man is an eccentric individual who says strange things. His reply suggests that the man said nothing of importance. The translation seeks to bring out the tone and intent of Jehu’s reply.
27 tn The Hebrew text also has, “and said to them.” This is redundant in English and has not been translated.
28 tn Heb “ranks.”
29 tn Heb “for the priest had said, ‘Let her not be put to death in the house of the
30 tn Heb “Now, do not take silver from your treasurers, because for the damages to the temple you must give it.”
31 tn Heb “and Menahem brought out the silver over Israel, over the prominent men of means, to give to the king of Assyria, fifty shekels of silver for each man.”
32 tn Heb “and the king of Assyria found in Hoshea conspiracy.”
33 sn For discussion of this name, see HALOT 744 s.v. סוֹא and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 196.
34 tn Heb “and bound him in the house of confinement.”
35 tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.
36 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.
37 tn Heb “was sick to the point of dying.”
38 tn Heb “will not live.”
39 tn Or “inquire of.”
40 tn Heb “concerning.”
41 tn Heb “for great is the anger of the
42 tn Heb “by doing all that is written concerning us.” Perhaps עָלֵינוּ (’alenu), “concerning us,” should be altered to עָלָיו (’alav), “upon it,” in which case one could translate, “by doing all that is written in it.”