2 Kings 1:16

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 Kings 8:5

8:5 While Gehazi ⁵  was telling the king how Elisha ⁶  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. ⁷  Gehazi said, “My master, O king, this is the very woman and this is her son whom Elisha brought back to life!”

2 Kings 17:26

17:26 The king of Assyria was told, ⁸  “The nations whom you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the requirements of the God of the land, so he has sent lions among them. They are killing the people ⁹  because they do not know the requirements of the God of the land.”

2 Kings 23:5

23:5 He eliminated ¹⁰  the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices ¹¹  on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices ¹²  to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.)

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

⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ 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.

⁸ tn Heb “and they said to the king of Assyria, saying.” The plural subject of the verb is indefinite.

⁹ tn Heb “Look they are killing them.”

¹⁰ tn Perhaps, “destroyed.”

¹¹ tn Or “burn incense.”

¹² tn Or “burned incense.”