1:9 The king 1 sent a captain and his fifty soldiers 2 to retrieve Elijah. 3 The captain 4 went up to him, while he was sitting on the top of a hill. 5 He told him, “Prophet, 6 the king says, ‘Come down!’”
13:14 Now Elisha had a terminal illness. 17 King Joash of Israel went down to visit him. 18 He wept before him and said, “My father, my father! The chariot 19 and horsemen of Israel!” 20
1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “officer of fifty and his fifty.”
3 tn Heb “to him.”
4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the captain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 sn The prophet Elijah’s position on the top of the hill symbolizes his superiority to the king and his messengers.
6 tn Heb “man of God” (also in vv. 10, 11, 12, 13).
7 tn The Hebrew text also has “in your hand.”
8 tn Heb “Inquire of the
9 sn Joram is a short form of the name Jehoram.
10 tn Heb “and he arose at night and defeated Edom, who had surrounded him, and the chariot officers.” The Hebrew text as it stands gives the impression that Joram was surrounded and launched a victorious night counterattack. It would then be quite natural to understand the last statement in the verse to refer to an Edomite retreat. Yet v. 22 goes on to state that the Edomite revolt was successful. Therefore, if the MT is retained, it may be better to understand the final statement in v. 21 as a reference to an Israelite retreat (made in spite of the success described in the preceding sentence). The translation above assumes an emendation of the Hebrew text. Adding a third masculine singular pronominal suffix to the accusative sign before Edom (reading אֶתוֹ [’eto], “him,” instead of just אֶת [’et]) and taking Edom as the subject of verbs allows one to translate the verse in a way that is more consistent with the context, which depicts an Israelite defeat, not victory. There is, however, no evidence for this emendation.
11 tn Heb “and the people fled to their tents.”
12 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoiada) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 tn The Hebrew term עֵדוּת (’edut) normally means “witness” or “testimony.” Here it probably refers to some tangible symbol of kingship, perhaps a piece of jewelry such as an amulet or neck chain. See the discussion in M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 128. Some suggest that a document is in view, perhaps a copy of the royal protocol or of the stipulations of the Davidic covenant. See HALOT 790-91 s.v. עֵדוּת.
14 tn Or “they made him king and anointed him.”
15 tn Heb “struck him down and he died.”
16 tn Heb “they buried him.”
17 tn Heb “Now Elisha was ill with the illness by which he would die.”
18 tn Heb “went down to him.”
19 tn Though the noun is singular here, it may be collective, in which case it could be translated “chariots.”
20 sn By comparing Elisha to a one-man army, the king emphasizes the power of the prophetic word. See the note at 2:12.
21 tn Heb “and outstretched arm.”
22 sn The assassination probably took place in 681
23 sn No such Mesopotamian god is presently known. Perhaps the name is a corruption of Nusku.
24 tc Although “his sons” is absent in the Kethib, it is supported by the Qere, along with many medieval Hebrew
25 sn Extra-biblical sources also mention the assassination of Sennacherib, though they refer to only one assassin. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 239-40.
26 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has “when [he was] ruling in Jerusalem,” but the marginal reading (Qere), which has support from Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses, has “[preventing him] from ruling in Jerusalem.”
27 tn Or “fine.”
28 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 7,500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold (cf. NCV, NLT); CEV “almost four tons of silver and about seventy-five pounds of gold.”
29 tn Heb “were killed before his eyes.”
30 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.