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 6:25

6:25 Samaria’s food supply ran out. ²  They laid siege to it so long that ³  a donkey’s head was selling for eighty shekels of silver ⁴  and a quarter of a kab ⁵  of dove’s droppings ⁶  for five shekels of silver. ⁷ 

2 Kings 7:1

7:1 Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says, ‘About this time tomorrow a seah ⁸  of finely milled flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’”

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 Israel ⁹  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, ¹⁰  “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 ¹¹  because they do not know the requirements of the God of the land.”

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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 “and there was a great famine in Samaria.”

³ tn Heb “and look, [they] were besieging it until.”

⁴ tn Heb “eighty, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.

⁵ sn A kab was a unit of dry measure, equivalent to approximately one quart.

⁶ tn The consonantal text (Kethib) reads, “dove dung” (חֲרֵייוֹנִים, khareyonim), while the marginal reading (Qere) has “discharge” (דִּבְיוֹנִים, divyonim). Based on evidence from Akkadian, M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 79) suggest that “dove’s dung” was a popular name for the inedible husks of seeds.

⁷ tn Heb “five, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.

⁸ sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 7 quarts.

⁹ tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” as the object of the verb.

¹⁰ tn Heb “and they said to the king of Assyria, saying.” The plural subject of the verb is indefinite.

¹¹ tn Heb “Look they are killing them.”