6:8 Now the king of Syria was at war with Israel. He consulted his advisers, who said, “Invade 7 at such and such 8 a place.” 6:9 But the prophet sent this message to the king of Israel, “Make sure you don’t pass through this place because Syria is invading there.” 6:10 So the king of Israel sent a message to the place the prophet had pointed out, warning it 9 to be on its guard. This happened on several occasions. 10
8:28 He joined Ahab’s son Joram in a battle against King Hazael of Syria at Ramoth Gilead in which the Syrians defeated Joram.
11:17 Jehoiada then drew up a covenant between the Lord and the king and people, stipulating that they should be loyal to the Lord. 20
12:6 By the twenty-third year of King Jehoash’s reign the priests had still not repaired the damage to the temple.
13:4 Jehoahaz asked for the Lord’s mercy 25 and the Lord responded favorably, 26 for he saw that Israel was oppressed by the king of Syria. 27
16:1 In the seventeenth year of the reign of Pekah son of Remaliah, Jotham’s son Ahaz became king over Judah.
19:20 Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I have heard your prayer concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria. 53
20:12 At that time Merodach-Baladan 54 son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah was ill.
21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 56 His mother 57 was Hephzibah.
22:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 61 His mother 62 was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah, from Bozkath.
23:21 The king ordered all the people, “Observe the Passover of the Lord your God, as prescribed in this scroll of the covenant.”
23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 66 His mother 67 was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.
24:1 During Jehoiakim’s reign, 69 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked. 70 Jehoiakim was his subject for three years, but then he rebelled against him. 71
24:8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 72 His mother 73 was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan, from Jerusalem.
25:22 Now King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, as governor over the people whom he allowed to remain in the land of Judah. 78
1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “What was the manner…?”
3 tn Heb “said to him.”
4 tn Heb “an owner of hair.” This idiomatic expression indicates that Elijah was very hairy. For other examples where the idiom “owner of” is used to describe a characteristic of someone, see HALOT 143 s.v. בַּעַל. For example, an “owner of dreams” is one who frequently has dreams (Gen 37:19) and an “owner of anger” is a hot-tempered individual (Prov 22:24).
5 tn Heb “belt of skin” (i.e., one made from animal hide).
6 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tc The verb form used here is difficult to analyze. On the basis of the form נְחִתִּים (nÿkhitim) in v. 9 from the root נָחַת (nakhat), it is probably best to emend the verb to תִּנְחְתוּ (tinkhÿtu; a Qal imperfect form from the same root). The verb נָחַת in at least two other instances carries the nuance “go down, descend” in a military context. For a defense of this view, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 72.
8 sn The advisers would have mentioned a specific location, but the details are not significant to the narrator’s purpose, so he simply paraphrases here.
9 tn The vav + perfect here indicates action contemporary with the preceding main verb (“sent”). See IBHS 533-34 §32.2.3e.
10 tn Heb “and the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God spoke to him, and he warned it and he guarded himself there, not once and not twice.”
11 tn Heb “and the king sent [them] after the Syrian camp.”
12 tn Heb “Go and see.”
13 tn Heb “and went out to cry out to the king for her house and her field.”
14 tn Heb “man of God’s.”
15 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
16 tn Heb “rode [or, ‘mounted’] and went.”
17 tn Heb “lying down.”
18 tn Heb “to see.”
19 tn Verses 5b-7 read literally, “the third of you, the ones entering [on] the Sabbath and the ones guarding the guard of the house of the king, and the third in the gate of Sur, and the third in the gate behind the runners, and you will guard the guard of the house, alternating. And the two units of you, all the ones going out [on] the Sabbath, and they will guard the guard of the house of the
20 tn Heb “and Jehoiada made a covenant between the
21 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
22 tn Heb “and the anger of the
23 tn Heb “he gave them into the hand of.”
24 tn Heb “all the days.”
25 tn Heb “appeased the face of the
26 tn Heb “and the
27 tn Heb “for he saw the oppression of Israel, for the king of Syria oppressed them.”
28 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
29 tn Heb “and he took [them].”
30 tn Heb “let us look at each other [in the] face.” The expression refers here to meeting in battle. See v. 11.
31 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
32 tn Heb “and they buried him.”
33 tn Heb “and came to.”
34 tn Heb “went up from Tirzah and arrived in Samaria and attacked Shallum son of Jabesh in Samaria.”
35 sn Pul was a nickname of Tiglath-pileser III (cf. 15:29). See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 171-72.
36 tn Heb “gave.”
37 tn Heb “Pul.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
38 tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 75,000 pounds of silver (cf. NCV “about seventy-four thousand pounds”); NLT “thirty-seven tons”; CEV “over thirty tons”; TEV “34,000 kilogrammes.”
39 tn Heb “so his hands would be with him.”
40 tn Heb “to keep hold of the kingdom in his hand.”
41 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
42 tc Some prefer to read “the king of Edom” and “for Edom” here. The names Syria (Heb “Aram,” אֲרָם, ’aram) and Edom (אֱדֹם, ’edom) are easily confused in the Hebrew consonantal script.
43 tn Heb “from Elat.”
44 tc The consonantal text (Kethib), supported by many medieval Hebrew
45 tn Heb “listened to him.”
46 tn Heb “the king of Assyria.”
47 tn Heb “it.”
48 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
49 tn Heb “in all which he went out [to do], he was successful.”
50 tn Heb “and did not serve him.”
51 tn Heb “exchange pledges.”
52 tc The MT has “his hand,” but this is due to graphic confusion of vav (ו) and yod (י). The translation reads “my hand,” along with many medieval Hebrew
53 tn Heb “That which you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.” The verb “I have heard” does not appear in the parallel passage in Isa 37:21, where אֲשֶׁר (’asher) probably has a causal sense, “because.”
54 tc The MT has “Berodach-Baladan,” but several Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses agree with the parallel passage in Isa 39:1 and read “Merodach-Baladan.”
55 tn Heb “Some of your sons, who go out from you, whom you father.”
56 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
57 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
58 tn Heb “these horrible sins.”
59 sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.
60 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
61 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
62 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
63 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
64 sn Attempts to identify this deity with a god known from the ancient Near East have not yet yielded a consensus. For brief discussions see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor II Kings (AB), 288 and HALOT 592 s.v. מֹלֶךְ. For more extensive studies see George C. Heider, The Cult of Molek, and John Day, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament.
65 tn Heb “and like him there was not a king before him who returned to the
sn The description of Josiah’s devotion as involving his whole “heart, soul, and being” echoes the language of Deut 6:5.
66 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
67 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
68 tn Heb “and he took Jehoahaz, and he came to Egypt and he died there.”
69 tn Heb “In his days.”
70 tn Heb “came up.” Perhaps an object (“against him”) has been accidentally omitted from the text. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 306.
71 tn The Hebrew text has “and he turned and rebelled against him.”
72 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
73 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
74 tn Heb “and he deported Jehoiachin to Babylon; the mother of the king and the wives of the king and his eunuchs and the mighty of the land he led into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.”
75 map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.
76 tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”
77 tn Heb “land.”
78 tn Heb “And the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon left, he appointed over them Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan.”
79 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.