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 1:16-17

1:16 Elijah 2  said to the king, 3  “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! 4  Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.’” 5 

1:17 He died just as the Lord had prophesied through Elijah. 6  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. 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 3:13

3:13 Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Why are you here? 10  Go to your father’s prophets or your mother’s prophets!” The king of Israel replied to him, “No, for the Lord is the one who summoned these three kings so that he can hand them over to Moab.”

2 Kings 5:15

5:15 He and his entire entourage returned to the prophet. Naaman 11  came and stood before him. He said, “For sure 12  I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel! Now, please accept a gift from your servant.”

2 Kings 7:10

7:10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers 13  of the city. They told them, “We entered the Syrian camp and there was no one there. We didn’t even hear a man’s voice. 14  But the horses and donkeys are still tied up, and the tents remain up.” 15 

2 Kings 7:13

7:13 One of his advisers replied, “Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city. (Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people – we’re all going to die!) 16  Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.” 17 

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.” 18 

2 Kings 24:14

24:14 He deported all the residents of Jerusalem, including all the officials and all the soldiers (10,000 people in all). This included all the craftsmen and those who worked with metal. No one was left except for the poorest among the people of the land.

1 tn 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.

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

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

4 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?”

5 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.

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

7 tn 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.

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

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

10 tn Or “What do we have in common?” The text reads literally, “What to me and to you?”

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

12 tn Heb “look.”

13 tn The MT has a singular form (“gatekeeper”), but the context suggests a plural. The pronoun that follows (“them”) is plural and a plural noun appears in v. 11. The Syriac Peshitta and the Targum have the plural here.

14 tn Heb “and, look, there was no man or voice of a man there.”

15 tn Heb “but the horses are tied up and the donkeys are tied up and the tents are as they were.”

16 tn Heb “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.” The MT is dittographic here; the words “that remain in it. Look they are like all the people of Israel” have been accidentally repeated. The original text read, “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.”

17 tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”

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