2 Kings 1:2

1:2 Ahaziah fell through a window lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria ¹  and was injured. He sent messengers with these orders, ²  “Go, ask ³  Baal Zebub, ⁴  the god of Ekron, if I will survive this injury.”

2 Kings 1:12

1:12 Elijah replied to them, ⁵  “If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire from God ⁶  came down from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.

2 Kings 2:14

2:14 He took the cloak that had fallen off Elijah, ⁷  hit the water with it, and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” When he hit the water, it divided and Elisha crossed over.

2 Kings 2:24

2:24 When he turned around and saw them, he called God’s judgment down on them. ⁸  Two female bears came out of the woods and ripped forty-two of the boys to pieces.

2 Kings 5:11

5:11 Naaman went away angry. He said, “Look, I thought for sure he would come out, stand there, invoke the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the area, and cure the skin disease.

2 Kings 5:17

5:17 Naaman said, “If not, then please give your servant a load of dirt, enough for a pair of mules to carry, ⁹  for your servant will never again offer a burnt offering or sacrifice to a god other than the Lord. ¹⁰ 

2 Kings 10:31

10:31 But Jehu did not carefully and wholeheartedly obey the law of the Lord God of Israel. ¹¹  He did not repudiate the sins which Jeroboam had encouraged Israel to commit. ¹² 

2 Kings 16:2

16:2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. ¹³  He did not do what pleased the Lord his God, in contrast to his ancestor David. ¹⁴ 

2 Kings 17:7

A Summary of Israel’s Sinful History

17:7 This happened because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them up from the land of Egypt and freed them from the power of ¹⁵  Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped ¹⁶  other gods;

2 Kings 17:16

17:16 They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God; they made two metal calves and an Asherah pole, bowed down to all the stars in the sky, ¹⁷  and worshiped ¹⁸  Baal.

2 Kings 17:27

17:27 So the king of Assyria ordered, “Take back one of the priests whom you ¹⁹  deported from there. He must settle there and teach them the requirements of the God of the land.” ²⁰ 

2 Kings 18:12

18:12 This happened because they did not obey ²¹  the Lord their God and broke his agreement with them. ²²  They did not pay attention to and obey all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded. ²³ 

2 Kings 19:10

19:10 “Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be handed over ²⁴  to the king of Assyria.”

2 Kings 19:37

19:37 One day, ²⁵  as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, ²⁶  his sons ²⁷  Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. ²⁸  They escaped to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

2 Kings 21:12

21:12 So this is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I am about to bring disaster on Jerusalem and Judah. The news will reverberate in the ears of those who hear about it. ²⁹ 

2 Kings 22:18

22:18 Say this to the king of Judah, who sent you to seek an oracle from the Lord: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says concerning the words you have heard:

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¹ map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.

² tn Heb “and he sent messengers and said to them.”

³ tn That is, “seek an oracle from.”

⁴ sn Apparently Baal Zebub refers to a local manifestation of the god Baal at the Philistine city of Ekron. The name appears to mean “Lord of the Flies,” but it may be a deliberate scribal corruption of Baal Zebul, “Baal, the Prince,” a title known from the Ugaritic texts. For further discussion and bibliography, see HALOT 261 s.v. זְבוּב בַּעַל and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 25.

⁵ tc Two medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitta have the singular “to him.”

⁶ tn Or “intense fire.” The divine name may be used idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the fire. Whether one translates אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) here as a proper name or idiomatically, this addition to the narrative (the name is omitted in the first panel, v. 10b) emphasizes the severity of the judgment and is appropriate given the more intense command delivered by the king to the prophet in this panel.

⁷ tn Heb “Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen off him.” The wording is changed slightly in the translation for the sake of variety of expression (see v. 13).

⁸ tn Heb “he cursed them in the name of the Lord.” A curse was a formal appeal to a higher authority (here the Lord) to vindicate one’s cause through judgment. As in chapter one, this account makes it clear that disrespect for the Lord’s designated spokesmen can be deadly, for it is ultimately rejection of the Lord’s authority.

⁹ tn Heb “and [if] not, may there be given to your servant a load [for] a pair of mules, earth.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “for your servant will not again make a burnt offering and sacrifice to other gods, only to the Lord.”

¹¹ tn Heb “But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart.”

¹² tn Heb “He did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam which he caused Israel to commit.”

¹³ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁴ tn Heb “and he did not do what was proper in the eyes of the Lord his God, like David his father.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “and from under the hand of.” The words “freed them” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁶ tn Heb “feared.”

¹⁷ tn The phrase כָל צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם (khol tsÿva’ hashamayim), traditionally translated “all the host of heaven,” refers to the heavenly lights, including stars and planets. In 1 Kgs 22:19 these heavenly bodies are pictured as members of the Lord’s royal court or assembly, but many other texts view them as the illegitimate objects of pagan and Israelite worship.

¹⁸ tn Or “served.”

¹⁹ tc The second plural subject may refer to the leaders of the Assyrian army. However, some prefer to read “whom I deported,” changing the verb to a first person singular form with a third masculine plural pronominal suffix. This reading has some support from Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic witnesses.

²⁰ tc Heb “and let them go and let them live there, and let him teach them the requirements of the God of the land.” The two plural verbs seem inconsistent with the preceding and following contexts, where only one priest is sent back to Samaria. The singular has the support of Greek, Syriac, and Latin witnesses.

²¹ tn Heb “listen to the voice of.”

²² tn Heb “his covenant.”

²³ tn Heb “all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded, and they did not listen and they did not act.”

²⁴ tn Heb “will not be given.”

²⁵ sn The assassination probably took place in 681 b.c.

²⁶ sn No such Mesopotamian god is presently known. Perhaps the name is a corruption of Nusku.

²⁷ tc Although “his sons” is absent in the Kethib, it is supported by the Qere, along with many medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions. Cf. Isa 37:38.

²⁸ sn Extra-biblical sources also mention the assassination of Sennacherib, though they refer to only one assassin. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 239-40.

²⁹ tn Heb “so that everyone who hears it, his two ears will quiver.”