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

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 

2 Kings 17:26

17:26 The king of Assyria was told, ⁶  “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 ⁷  because they do not know the requirements of the God of the land.”

2 Kings 23:5

23:5 He eliminated ⁸  the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices ⁹  on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices ¹⁰  to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.)

2 Kings 23:11

23:11 He removed from the entrance to the Lord’s temple the statues of horses ¹¹  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.) ¹²  He burned up the chariots devoted to the sun god. ¹³ 

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

⁷ tn Heb “Look they are killing them.”

⁸ tn Perhaps, “destroyed.”

⁹ tn Or “burn incense.”

¹⁰ tn Or “burned incense.”

¹¹ tn The MT simply reads “the horses.” The words “statues of” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹² tn 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.”

¹³ tn Heb “and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire.”