2 Kings 1:8

1:8 They replied,¹ “He was a hairy man² and had a leather belt³ tied around his waist.” The king⁴ said, “He is Elijah the Tishbite.”

2 Kings 2:18

2:18 When they came back, Elisha⁵ was staying in Jericho. He said to them, “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t go’?”

2 Kings 3:10

3:10 The king of Israel said, “Oh no!⁶ Certainly the Lord has summoned these three kings so that he can hand them over to the king of Moab!”

2 Kings 3:12

3:12 Jehoshaphat said, “The Lord speaks through him.”⁷ So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to visit him.

2 Kings 3:23

3:23 The Moabites⁸ said, “It’s blood! The kings are totally destroyed!⁹ They have struck one another down! Now, Moab, seize the plunder!”

2 Kings 4:9

4:9 She said to her husband, “Look, I’m sure¹⁰ that the man who regularly passes through here is a very special prophet.¹¹

2 Kings 6:8

Elisha Defeats an Army

6:8 Now the king of Syria was at war with Israel. He consulted his advisers, who said, “Invade¹² at such and such¹³ a place.”

2 Kings 6:11

6:11 This made the king of Syria upset.¹⁴ So he summoned his advisers¹⁵ and said to them, “One of us must be helping the king of Israel.”¹⁶

2 Kings 6:31

6:31 Then he said, “May God judge me severely¹⁷ if Elisha son of Shaphat still has his head by the end of the day!”¹⁸

2 Kings 8:2

8:2 So the woman did as the prophet said.¹⁹ She and her family went and lived in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

2 Kings 8:4

8:4 Now the king was talking to Gehazi, the prophet’s²⁰ servant, and said, “Tell me all the great things which Elisha has done.”

2 Kings 8:10

8:10 Elisha said to him, “Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover,’²¹ but the Lord has revealed to me that he will surely die.”

2 Kings 9:32

9:32 He looked up at the window and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three²² eunuchs looked down at him.

2 Kings 10:16

10:16 Jehu²³ said, “Come with me and see how zealous I am for the Lord’s cause.”²⁴ So he²⁵ took him along in his chariot.

2 Kings 10:18

Jehu Executes the Prophets and Priests of Baal

10:18 Jehu assembled all the people and said to them, “Ahab worshiped²⁶ Baal a little; Jehu will worship²⁷ him with great devotion.²⁸

2 Kings 13:18

13:18 Then Elisha²⁹ said, “Take the arrows,” and he did so.³⁰ He told the king of Israel, “Strike the ground!” He struck the ground three times and stopped.

2 Kings 14:8

14:8 Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel. He said, “Come, let’s meet face to face.”³¹

2 Kings 17:9

17:9 The Israelites said things about the Lord their God that were not right.³² They built high places in all their cities, from the watchtower to the fortress.³³

2 Kings 18:19

18:19 The chief adviser said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: “What is your source of confidence?³⁴

2 Kings 22:15

22:15 and she said to them: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Say this to the man who sent you to me:

¹tn Heb “said to him.”

²tn 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).

³tn Heb “belt of skin” (i.e., one made from animal hide).

⁴tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶tn Or “ah.”

⁷tn Heb “the word of the Lord is with him.”

⁸tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Moabites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹tn The translation assumes the verb is חָרַב (kharav, “to be desolate”). The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb form for emphasis. (For another example of the Hophal infinitive with a Niphal finite verb, see Lev 19:20. Cf. also IBHS 582 §35.2.1c.) Some prefer to derive the verb from a proposed homonym meaning “at HALOT 349 s.v. II חרב and BDB 352 s.v. חָרְבָה).

¹⁰tn Heb “I know.”

¹¹tn Heb “holy man of God.”

¹²tc 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.

¹³sn The advisers would have mentioned a specific location, but the details are not significant to the narrator’s purpose, so he simply paraphrases here.

¹⁴tn Heb “and the heart of the king of Syria was stirred up over this thing.”

¹⁵tn Heb “servants.”

¹⁶tn Heb “Will you not tell me who among us [is] for the king of Israel?” The sarcastic rhetorical question expresses the king’s suspicion.

¹⁷tn Heb “So may God do to me, and so may he add.”

¹⁸tn Heb “if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat stays on him today.”

¹⁹tn Heb “and the woman got up and did according to the word of the man of God.”

²⁰tn Heb “man of God’s.”

²¹tc The consonantal text (Kethib) reads, “Go, say, ‘Surely you will not (לֹא, lo’) recover” In this case the vav beginning the next clause should be translated, “for, because.” The marginal reading (Qere) has, “Go, say to him (לוֹ, lo), ‘You will surely recover.” In this case the vav (ו) beginning the next clause should be translated, “although, but.” The Qere has the support of some medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, and is consistent with v. 14, where Hazael tells the king, “You will surely recover.” It is possible that a scribe has changed לוֹ, “to him,” to לֹא, “not,” because he felt that Elisha would not lie to the king. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 90. Another possibility is that a scribe has decided to harmonize Elisha’s message with Hazael’s words in v. 14. But it is possible that Hazael, once he found out he would become the next king, decided to lie to the king to facilitate his assassination plot by making the king feel secure.

²²tn Heb “two, three.” The narrator may be intentionally vague or uncertain here, or the two numbers may represent alternate traditions.

²³tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁴tn Heb “and see my zeal for the Lord.”

²⁵tc The MT has a plural form, but this is most likely an error. The LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate all have the singular.

²⁶tn Or “served.

²⁷tn Or “serve.”

²⁸tn Heb “much” or “greatly.”

²⁹tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³⁰tn Heb “and he took [them].”

³¹tn Heb “let us look at each other [in the] face.” The expression refers here to meeting in battle. See v. 11.

³²tn The meaning of the verb וַיְחַפְּאוּ (vayÿkhappÿ’u), translated here “said,” is uncertain. Some relate it to the verbal root חָפַה (khafah), “to cover,” and translate “they did it in secret” (see BDB 341 s.v. חָפָא). However, the pagan practices specified in the following sentences were hardly done in secret. Others propose a meaning “ascribe, impute,” which makes good contextual sense but has little etymological support (see HALOT 339 s.v. חפא). In this case Israel claimed that the Lord authorized their pagan practices.

³³sn That is, from the city’s perimeter to the central citadel.

³⁴tn Heb “What is this object of trust in which you are trusting?”