2 Kings 2:1

Elijah Makes a Swift Departure

2:1 Just before ¹  the Lord took Elijah up to heaven in a windstorm, Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal.

2 Kings 3:16

3:16 and he said, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Make many cisterns in this valley,’ ² 

2 Kings 4:33

4:33 He went in by himself and closed the door. ³  Then he prayed to the Lord.

2 Kings 15:37

15:37 In those days the Lord prompted King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah to attack Judah. ⁴ 

2 Kings 17:14

17:14 But they did not pay attention and were as stubborn as their ancestors, ⁵  who had not trusted the Lord their God.

2 Kings 17:19

17:19 Judah also failed to keep the commandments of the Lord their God; they followed Israel’s example. ⁶ 

2 Kings 19:17

19:17 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands.

2 Kings 19:33

19:33 He will go back the way he came.

He will not enter this city,” says the Lord.

2 Kings 20:4

20:4 Isaiah was still in the middle courtyard when the Lord told him, ⁷ 

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:

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¹ tn Or “when.”

² tn Heb “making this valley cisterns, cisterns.” The Hebrew noun גֵּב (gev) means “cistern” in Jer 14:3 (cf. Jer 39:10). The repetition of the noun is for emphasis. See GKC 396 §123.e. The verb (“making”) is an infinitive absolute, which has to be interpreted in light of the context. The translation above takes it in an imperatival sense. The command need not be understood as literal, but as hyperbolic. Telling them to build cisterns is a dramatic way of leading into the announcement that he would miraculously provide water in the desert. Some prefer to translate the infinitive as an imperfect with the Lord as the understood subject, “I will turn this valley [into] many pools.”

³ tn Heb “and closed the door behind the two of them.”

⁴ tn Heb “the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin…and Pekahiah….”

⁵ tn Heb and they stiffened their neck like the neck of their fathers.”

⁶ tn Heb “they walked in the practices of Israel which they did.”

⁷ tc Heb “and Isaiah had not gone out of the middle courtyard, and the word of the Lord came to him, saying.” Instead of “courtyard” (חָצֵר, khatser), the marginal reading, (Qere), the Hebrew consonantal text (Kethib) has הָעִיר (ha’ir), “the city.”