2 Kings 1:3

1:3 But the Lord’s angelic messenger told Elijah the Tishbite, “Get up, go to meet the messengers from the king of Samaria. Say this to them: ‘You must think there is no God in Israel! That explains why you are on your way to seek an oracle from Baal Zebub the god of Ekron.¹

2 Kings 1:13

1:13 The king² sent a third captain and his fifty soldiers. This third captain went up and fell³ on his knees before Elijah. He begged for mercy, “Prophet, please have respect for my life and for the lives of these fifty servants of yours.

2 Kings 1:16

1:16 Elijah⁴ said to the king,⁵ “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!⁶ Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.’”⁷

2 Kings 3:11

3:11 Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here that we might seek the Lord’s direction?”⁸ One of the servants of the king of Israel answered, “Elisha son of Shapat is here; he used to be Elijah’s servant.”⁹

2 Kings 3:27

3:27 So he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him up as a burnt sacrifice on the wall. There was an outburst of divine anger against Israel,¹⁰ so they broke off the attack¹¹ and returned to their homeland.

2 Kings 4:13

4:13 Elisha said to Gehazi,¹² “Tell her, ‘Look, you have treated us with such great respect.¹³ What can I do for you? Can I put in a good word for you with the king or the commander of the army?’” She replied, “I’m quite secure.”¹⁴

2 Kings 5:7

5:7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill or restore life? Why does he ask me to cure a man of his skin disease?¹⁵ Certainly you must see that he is looking for an excuse to fight me!”¹⁶

2 Kings 6:32

6:32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house with the community leaders.¹⁷ The king¹⁸ sent a messenger on ahead, but before he arrived,¹⁹ Elisha²⁰ said to the leaders,²¹ “Do you realize this assassin intends to cut off my head?”²² Look, when the messenger arrives, shut the door and lean against it. His master will certainly be right behind him.”²³

2 Kings 7:2

7:2 An officer who was the king’s right-hand man²⁴ responded to the prophet,²⁵ “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?”²⁶ Elisha²⁷ said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!”²⁸

2 Kings 7:6

7:6 The Lord had caused the Syrian camp to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a large army. Then they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has paid the kings of the Hittites and Egypt to attack us!”

2 Kings 7:12

7:12 The king got up in the night and said to his advisers,²⁹ “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.’”

2 Kings 8:9

8:9 So Hazael went to visit Elisha.³⁰ He took along a gift,³¹ as well as³² forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son,³³ King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question,³⁴ ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

2 Kings 9:6

9:6 So Jehu³⁵ got up and went inside. Then the prophet³⁶ poured the olive oil on his head and said to him, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I have designated you as king over the Lord’s people Israel.

2 Kings 9:12

9:12 But they said, “You’re lying! Tell us what he said.” So he told them what he had said. He also related how he had said,³⁷ “This is what the Lord says, ‘I have designated you as king over Israel.’”

2 Kings 9:27

9:27 When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what happened, he took off³⁸ up the road to Beth Haggan. Jehu chased him and ordered, “Shoot him too.” They shot him while he was driving his chariot up the ascent of Gur near Ibleam.³⁹ He fled to Megiddo⁴⁰ and died there.

2 Kings 10:6

10:6 He wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are really on my side and are willing to obey me,⁴¹ then take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel at this time tomorrow.”⁴² Now the king had seventy sons, and the prominent⁴³ men of the city were raising them.

2 Kings 11:2

11:2 So Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram and sister of Ahaziah, took Ahaziah’s son Joash and sneaked⁴⁴ him away from the rest of the royal descendants who were to be executed. She hid him and his nurse in the room where the bed covers were stored.⁴⁵ So he was hidden from Athaliah and escaped execution.⁴⁶

2 Kings 11:4

11:4 In the seventh year Jehoiada summoned⁴⁷ the officers of the units of hundreds of the Carians⁴⁸ and the royal bodyguard.⁴⁹ He met with them⁵⁰ in the Lord’s temple. He made an agreement⁵¹ with them and made them swear an oath of allegiance in the Lord’s temple. Then he showed them the king’s son.

2 Kings 12:7

12:7 So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest along with the other priests, and said to them, “Why have you not repaired the damage to the temple? Now, take no more silver from your treasurers unless you intend to use it to repair the damage.”⁵²

2 Kings 15:5

15:5 The Lord afflicted the king with an illness; he suffered from a skin disease⁵³ until the day he died. He lived in separate quarters,⁵⁴ while his son Jotham was in charge of the palace and ruled over the people of the land.

2 Kings 16:15

16:15 King Ahaz ordered Uriah the priest, “On the large altar⁵⁵ offer the morning burnt sacrifice, the evening grain offering, the royal burnt sacrifices and grain offering, the burnt sacrifice for all the people of Israel, their grain offering, and their libations. Sprinkle all the blood of the burnt sacrifice and other sacrifices on it. The bronze altar will be for my personal use.”⁵⁶

2 Kings 17:6

17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the people of Israel⁵⁷ to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes.

2 Kings 17:26

17:26 The king of Assyria was told,⁵⁸ “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 people⁵⁹ because they do not know the requirements of the God of the land.”

2 Kings 18:21

18:21 Now look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If a man leans for support on it, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him.

2 Kings 18:31

18:31 Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me.⁶⁰ Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

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.⁶¹ When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said.⁶² So pray for this remnant that remains.’”⁶³

2 Kings 19:32

19:32 So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:

“He will not enter this city,

nor will he shoot an arrow here.⁶⁴

He will not attack it with his shield-carrying warriors,⁶⁵

nor will he build siege works against it.

2 Kings 21:3

21:3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole just like King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky⁶⁶ and worshiped⁶⁷ them.

2 Kings 23:2-3

23:2 The king went up to the Lord’s temple, accompanied by all the people of Judah, all the residents of Jerusalem, the priests, and the prophets. All the people were there, from the youngest to the oldest. He read aloud⁶⁸ all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been discovered in the Lord’s temple. 23:3 The king stood by the pillar and renewed⁶⁹ the covenant before the Lord, agreeing to follow⁷⁰ the Lord and to obey his commandments, laws, and rules with all his heart and being,⁷¹ by carrying out the terms⁷² of this covenant recorded on this scroll. All the people agreed to keep the covenant.⁷³

2 Kings 23:12

23:12 The king tore down the altars the kings of Judah had set up on the roof of Ahaz’s upper room, as well as the altars Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. He crushed them up⁷⁴ and threw the dust in the Kidron Valley.

2 Kings 23:30

23:30 His servants transported his dead body⁷⁵ from Megiddo in a chariot and brought it to Jerusalem, where they buried him in his tomb. The people of the land took Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, poured olive oil on his head,⁷⁶ and made him king in his father’s place.

2 Kings 24:13

24:13 Nebuchadnezzar⁷⁷ took from there all the riches in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace. He removed all the gold items which King Solomon of Israel had made for the Lord’s temple, just as the Lord had warned.

2 Kings 25:1

25:1 So King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside⁷⁸ it. They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign.⁷⁹

2 Kings 25:4

25:4 The enemy broke through the city walls,⁸⁰ and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night.⁸¹ They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden.⁸² (The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley.⁸³

2 Kings 25:16

25:16 The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the Lord’s temple – including the two pillars, the big bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,”⁸⁴ and the movable stands – was too heavy to be weighed.

2 Kings 25:19

25:19 From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five⁸⁵ of the king’s advisers⁸⁶ who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens⁸⁷ for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city.

2 Kings 25:23-24

25:23 All of the officers of the Judahite army⁸⁸ and their troops heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah to govern. So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. The officers who came were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite. 25:24 Gedaliah took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety.⁸⁹ He said, “You don’t need to be afraid to submit to the Babylonian officials. Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you.”

¹tn Heb “Is it because there is no God in Israel [that] you are going to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?” The translation seeks to bring out the sarcastic tone of the rhetorical question.

²tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³tn Heb “went up and approached and kneeled.”

⁴tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵tn Heb “him”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶tn 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?”

⁷sn 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.

⁸tn Heb “that we might inquire of the Lord through him?”

⁹tn Heb “who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” This refers to one of the typical tasks of a servant.

¹⁰tn Heb “there was great anger against Israel.”

sn The meaning of this statement is uncertain, for the subject of the anger is not indicated. Except for two relatively late texts, the noun קֶצֶף (qetsef) refers to an outburst of divine anger. But it seems unlikely the Lord would be angry with Israel, for he placed his stamp of approval on the campaign (vv. 16-19). D. N. Freedman suggests the narrator, who obviously has a bias against the Omride dynasty, included this observation to show that the Lord would not allow the Israelite king to “have an undiluted victory” (as quoted in M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings [AB], 52, n. 8). Some suggest that the original source identified Chemosh the Moabite god as the subject and that his name was later suppressed by a conscientious scribe, but this proposal raises more questions than it answers. For a discussion of various views, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 47-48, 51-52.

¹¹tn Heb “they departed from him.”

¹²tn Heb “he said to him.”

¹³tn 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.

¹⁴tn Heb “Among my people I am living.” This answer suggests that she has security within the context of her family.

¹⁵tn 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.

¹⁶tn Heb “Indeed, know and see that he is seeking an occasion with respect to me.”

¹⁷tn Heb “and the elders were sitting with him.”

¹⁸tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁹tn Heb “sent a man from before him, before the messenger came to him.”

²⁰tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²¹tn Heb “elders.”

²²tn Heb “Do you see that this son of an assassin has sent to remove my head?”

²³tn Heb “Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”

²⁴tn Heb “the officer on whose hand the king leans.”

²⁵tn Heb “man of God.”

²⁶tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” Opening holes in the sky would allow the waters stored up there to pour to the earth and assure a good crop. But, the officer argues, even if this were to happen, it would take a long time to grow and harvest the crop.

²⁷tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁸tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”

²⁹tn Heb “servants” (also in v. 13).

³⁰tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³¹tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”

³²tn 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.”

³³sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.

³⁴tn Heb “saying.”

³⁵tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³⁶tn Heb “he”; the referent (the prophet) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³⁷tn Heb “So he said, ‘Like this and like this he said to me, saying.’” The words “like this and like this” are probably not a direct quote of Jehu’s words to his colleagues. Rather this is the narrator’s way of avoiding repetition and indicating that Jehu repeated, or at least summarized, what the prophet had said to him.

³⁸tn Heb “and Ahaziah king of Judah saw and fled.”

³⁹tn After Jehu’s order (“kill him too”), the MT has simply, “to the chariot in the ascent of Gur which is near Ibleam.” The main verb in the clause, “they shot him” (וַיִּכְהוּ, vayyikhhu), has been accidentally omitted by virtual haplography/homoioteleuton. Note that the immediately preceding form הַכֻּהוּ (hakkuhu), “shoot him,” ends with the same suffix.

⁴⁰map For location see Map1-D4; Map2-C1; Map4-C2; Map5-F2; Map7-B1.

⁴¹tn Heb “If you are mine and you are listening to my voice.”

⁴²sn Jehu’s command is intentionally vague. Does he mean that they should bring the guardians (those who are “heads” over Ahab’s sons) for a meeting, or does he mean that they should bring the literal heads of Ahab’s sons with them? (So LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and some mss of the Targum) The city leaders interpret his words in the literal sense, but Jehu’s command is so ambiguous he is able to deny complicity in the executions (see v. 9).

⁴³tn Heb “great,” probably in wealth, position, and prestige.

⁴⁴tn Heb “stole.”

⁴⁵tn Heb “him and his nurse in an inner room of beds.” The verb is missing in the Hebrew text. The parallel passage in 2 Chr 22:11 has “and she put” at the beginning of the clause. M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 126) regard the Chronicles passage as an editorial attempt to clarify the difficulty of the original text. They prefer to take “him and his nurse” as objects of the verb “stole” and understand “in the bedroom” as the place where the royal descendants were executed. The phrase בַּחֲדַר הַמִּטּוֹת (bakhadar hammittot), “an inner room of beds,” is sometimes understood as referring to a bedroom (HALOT 293 s.v. חֶדֶר), though some prefer to see here a “room where the covers and cloths were kept for the beds (HALOT 573 s.v. מִטָּת). In either case, it may have been a temporary hideout, for v. 3 indicates that the child hid in the temple for six years.

⁴⁶tn Heb “and they hid him from Athaliah and he was not put to death.” The subject of the plural verb (“they hid”) is probably indefinite.

⁴⁷tn Heb “Jehoiada sent and took.”

⁴⁸sn The Carians were apparently a bodyguard, probably comprised of foreigners. See HALOT 497 s.v. כָּרִי and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 126.

⁴⁹tn Heb “the runners.”

⁵⁰tn Heb “he brought them to himself.”

⁵¹tn Or “covenant.”

⁵²tn Heb “Now, do not take silver from your treasurers, because for the damages to the temple you must give it.”

⁵³tn Traditionally, “he was a leper.” But see the note at 5:1.

⁵⁴tn The precise meaning of בֵית הַחָפְשִׁית (bet hakhofÿshit), “house of […?],” is uncertain. For a discussion of various proposals, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 166-67.

⁵⁵tn That is, the newly constructed altar.

⁵⁶tn Heb “for me to seek.” The precise meaning of בָּקַר (baqar), “seek,” is uncertain in this context. For discussion see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 189.

⁵⁷tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” as the object of the verb.

⁵⁸tn Heb “and they said to the king of Assyria, saying.” The plural subject of the verb is indefinite.

⁵⁹tn Heb “Look they are killing them.”

⁶⁰tn Heb “make with me a blessing and come out to me.”

⁶¹tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”

⁶²tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”

⁶³tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”

⁶⁴tn Heb “there.”

⁶⁵tn Heb “[with] a shield.” By metonymy the “shield” stands for the soldier who carries it.

⁶⁶sn See the note at 2 Kgs 17:16.

⁶⁷tn Or “served.”

⁶⁸tn Heb “read in their ears.”

⁶⁹tn Heb “cut,” that is, “made, agreed to.”

⁷⁰tn Heb “walk after.”

⁷¹tn Or “soul.”

⁷²tn Heb “words.”

⁷³tn Heb “stood in the covenant.”

⁷⁴tc The MT reads, “he ran from there,” which makes little if any sense in this context. Some prefer to emend the verbal form (Qal of רוּץ [ruts], “run”) to a Hiphil of רוּץ with third plural suffix and translate, “he quickly removed them” (see BDB 930 s.v. רוּץ, and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings [AB], 289). The suffix could have been lost in MT by haplography (note the mem [מ] that immediately follows the verb on the form מִשֳׁם, misham, “from there”). Another option, the one reflected in the translation, is to emend the verb to a Piel of רָצַץ (ratsats), “crush,” with third plural suffix.

⁷⁵tn Heb “him, dead.”

⁷⁶tn Or “anointed him.”

⁷⁷tn Heb “he”; the referent (Nebuchadnezzar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷⁸tn Or “against.”

⁷⁹sn This would have been Jan 15, 588 b.c. The reckoning is based on the calendar that begins the year in the spring (Nisan = March/April).

⁸⁰tn Heb “the city was breached.”

⁸¹tn The Hebrew text is abrupt here: “And all the men of war by the night.” The translation attempts to capture the sense.

⁸²sn The king’s garden is mentioned again in Neh 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the city of David. This would have been in the southern part of the city near the Tyropean Valley which agrees with the reference to the “two walls” which were probably the walls on the eastern and western hills.

⁸³sn Heb “toward the Arabah.” The Arabah was the rift valley north and south of the Dead Sea. Here the intention was undoubtedly to escape across the Jordan to Moab or Ammon. It appears from Jer 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.

⁸⁴tc The MT lacks “the twelve bronze bulls under ‘the Sea,’” but these words have probably been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. The scribe’s eye may have jumped from the וְהָ (vÿha-) on וְהַבָּקָר (vÿhabbaqar), “and the bulls,” to the וְהָ on וְהַמְּכֹנוֹת (vÿhammÿkhonot), “and the movable stands,” causing him to leave out the intervening words. See the parallel passage in Jer 52:20.

⁸⁵tn The parallel passage in Jer 52:25 has “seven.”

⁸⁶tn Heb “five seers of the king’s face.”

⁸⁷tn Heb “the people of the land.”

⁸⁸tn Heb “of the army.” The word “Judahite” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁸⁹tn The words “so as to give them…some assurance of safety” are supplied in the translation for clarification.