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
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
4:42 Now a man from Baal Shalisha brought some food for the prophet 6 – twenty loaves of bread made from the firstfruits of the barley harvest, as well as fresh ears of grain. 7 Elisha 8 said, “Set it before the people so they may eat.”
10:25 When he finished offering the burnt sacrifice, Jehu ordered the royal guard 9 and officers, “Come in and strike them down! Don’t let any escape!” So the royal guard and officers struck them down with the sword and left their bodies lying there. 10 Then they entered the inner sanctuary of the temple of Baal. 11
23:4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests, 14 and the guards 15 to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of 16 Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. 17 The king 18 burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces 19 of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 20 23:5 He eliminated 21 the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices 22 on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices 23 to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.)
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 “man of God.”
7 tn On the meaning of the word צִקְלוֹן (tsiqlon), “ear of grain,” see HALOT 148 s.v. בָּצֵק and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 59.
8 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Heb “runners.”
10 tn Heb “and they threw.” No object appears. According to M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 116), this is an idiom for leaving a corpse unburied.
11 tn Heb “and they came to the city of the house of Baal.” It seems unlikely that a literal city is meant. Some emend עִיר (’ir), “city,” to דְּבִיר (dÿvir) “holy place,” or suggest that עִיר is due to dittography of the immediately preceding עַד (’ad) “to.” Perhaps עִיר is here a technical term meaning “fortress” or, more likely, “inner room.”
12 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 17:16.
13 tn Or “served.”
14 tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.
15 tn Or “doorkeepers.”
16 tn Heb “for.”
17 tn Heb “all the host of heaven” (also in v. 5).
18 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
19 tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.
20 map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.
21 tn Perhaps, “destroyed.”
22 tn Or “burn incense.”
23 tn Or “burned incense.”