2 Kings 1:17

1:17 He died just as the Lord had prophesied through Elijah.¹ In the second year of the reign of King Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat over Judah, Ahaziah’s brother Jehoram replaced him as king of Israel, because he had no son.²

2 Kings 4:39

4:39 Someone went out to the field to gather some herbs and found a wild vine.³ He picked some of its fruit,⁴ enough to fill up the fold of his robe. He came back, cut it up, and threw the slices⁵ into the stew pot, not knowing they were harmful.⁶

2 Kings 5:15

5:15 He and his entire entourage returned to the prophet. Naaman⁷ came and stood before him. He said, “For sure⁸ I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel! Now, please accept a gift from your servant.”

2 Kings 9:15

9:15 But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians⁹ when he fought against King Hazael of Syria.¹⁰ Jehu told his supporters,¹¹ “If you really want me to be king,¹² then don’t let anyone escape from the city to go and warn Jezreel.”

2 Kings 14:6

14:6 But he did not execute the sons of the assassins. He obeyed the Lord’s commandment as recorded in the law scroll of Moses,¹³ “Fathers must not be put to death for what their sons do,¹⁴ and sons must not be put to death for what their fathers do.¹⁵ A man must be put to death only for his own sin.”¹⁶

2 Kings 15:20

15:20 Menahem got this silver by taxing all the wealthy men in Israel; he took fifty shekels of silver from each one of them and paid it to the king of Assyria.¹⁷ Then the king of Assyria left; he did not stay there in the land.

2 Kings 17:15

17:15 They rejected his rules, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the laws he had commanded them to obey.¹⁸ They paid allegiance to¹⁹ worthless idols, and so became worthless to the Lord.²⁰ They copied the practices of the surrounding nations in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command.²¹

2 Kings 18:4

18:4 He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole.²² He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time²³ the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan.²⁴

2 Kings 18:32

18:32 until I come and take you to a land just like your own – a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Then you will live and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.”

2 Kings 19:4

19:4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God.²⁵ When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said.²⁶ So pray for this remnant that remains.’”²⁷

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.²⁸

2 Kings 23:8

23:8 He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined²⁹ the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba.³⁰ He tore down the high place of the goat idols³¹ situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate.

2 Kings 23:11

23:11 He removed from the entrance to the Lord’s temple the statues of horses³² that the kings of Judah had placed there in honor of the sun god. (They were kept near the room of Nathan Melech the eunuch, which was situated among the courtyards.)³³ He burned up the chariots devoted to the sun god.³⁴

2 Kings 23:15

23:15 He also tore down the altar in Bethel³⁵ at the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who encouraged Israel to sin.³⁶ He burned all the combustible items at that high place and crushed them to dust; including the Asherah pole.³⁷

¹tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord which he spoke through Elijah.”

²tn Heb “Jehoram replaced him as king…because he had no son.” Some ancient textual witnesses add “his brother,” which was likely added on the basis of the statement later in the verse that Ahaziah had no son.

³tn Heb “a vine of the field.”

⁴tn Heb “[some] of the gourds of the field.”

⁵tn Heb “he came and cut [them up].”

⁶tc 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.

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

⁸tn Heb “look.”

⁹tn Heb “which the Syrians inflicted [on] him.”

¹⁰sn See 2 Kgs 8:28-29a.

¹¹tn The words “his supporters” are added for clarification.

¹²tn Heb “If this is your desire.” נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) refers here to the seat of the emotions and will. For other examples of this use of the word, see BDB 660-61 s.v.

¹³tn Heb “as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses which the Lord commanded, saying.”

¹⁴tn Heb “on account of sons.”

¹⁵tn Heb “on account of fathers.”

¹⁶sn This law is recorded in Deut 24:16.

¹⁷tn 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.”

¹⁸tn Or “and his warnings he had given them.”

¹⁹tn Heb “They went [or, ‘followed’] after.” This idiom probably does not mean much if translated literally. It is found most often in Deuteronomy or in literature related to the covenant. It refers in the first instance to loyalty to God and to His covenant or His commandments (1 Kgs 14:8; 2 Chr 34:31) with the metaphor of a path or way underlying it (Deut 11:28; 28:14). To “follow other gods” was to abandon this way and this loyalty (to “abandon” or “forget” God, Judg 2:12; Hos 2:13) and to follow the customs or religious traditions of the pagan nations (2 Kgs 17:15). The classic text on “following” God or another god is 1 Kgs 18:18, 21 where Elijah taunts the people with “halting between two opinions” whether the Lord was the true God or Baal was. The idiom is often found followed by “to serve and to worship” or “they served and worshiped” such and such a god or entity (Jer 8:2; 11:10; 13:10; 16:11; 25:6; 35:15).

²⁰tn Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” The words “to the Lord” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context. There is an obvious wordplay on the verb “became worthless” and the noun “worthless thing”, which is probably to be understood collectively and to refer to idols as it does in Jer 8:19; 10:8; 14:22; Jonah 2:8.

²¹tn Heb “and [they walked] after the nations which were around them, concerning which the Lord commanded them not to do like them.”

²²tn The term is singular in the MT but plural in the LXX and other ancient versions. It is also possible to regard the singular as a collective singular, especially in the context of other plural items.

sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

²³tn Heb “until those days.”

²⁴tn In Hebrew the name sounds like the phrase נְחַשׁ הַנְּחֹשֶׁת (nÿkhash hannÿkhoshet), “bronze serpent.”

²⁵tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”

²⁶tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”

²⁷tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”

²⁸tn 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”).”

²⁹tn Heb “defiled; desecrated,” that is, “made ritually unclean and unusable.”

³⁰sn These towns marked Judah’s northern and southern borders, respectively, at the time of Josiah.

³¹tc The Hebrew text reads “the high places of the gates,” which is problematic in that the rest of the verse speaks of a specific gate. The translation assumes an emendation to בָּמוֹת הַשְּׁעָרִים (bamot hashÿ’arim), “the high place of the goats” (that is, goat idols). Worship of such images is referred to in Lev 17:7 and 2 Chr 11:15. For a discussion of the textual issue, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 286-87.

³²tn The MT simply reads “the horses.” The words “statues of” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

³³tn Heb “who/which was in the […?].” The meaning of the Hebrew term פַּרְוָרִים (parvarim), translated here “courtyards,” is uncertain. The relative clause may indicate where the room was located or explain who Nathan Melech was, “the eunuch who was in the courtyards.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 288-89, who translate “the officer of the precincts.”

³⁴tn Heb “and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire.”

³⁵map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

³⁶tn Heb “And also the altar that is in Bethel, the high place that Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin, also that altar and the high place he tore down.” The more repetitive Hebrew text is emphatic.

³⁷tn Heb “he burned the high place, crushing to dust, and he burned the Asherah pole.” High places per se are never referred to as being burned elsewhere. בָּמָה (bamah) here stands by metonymy for the combustible items located on the high place. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 289.