2 Kings 2:12

2:12 While Elisha was watching, he was crying out, “My father, my father! The chariot and horsemen of Israel!” ¹  Then he could no longer see him. He grabbed his clothes and tore them in two.

2 Kings 18:9

18:9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah’s reign (it was the seventh year of the reign of Israel’s King Hoshea, son of Elah), King Shalmaneser of Assyria marched ²  up against Samaria ³  and besieged it.

2 Kings 18:26

18:26 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, ⁴  for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect ⁵  in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

2 Kings 19:25

19:25 ⁶ Certainly you must have heard! ⁷ 

Long ago I worked it out,

In ancient times I planned ⁸  it;

and now I am bringing it to pass.

The plan is this:

Fortified cities will crash

into heaps of ruins. ⁹ 

2 Kings 23:6

23:6 He removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it. ¹⁰  He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard. ¹¹ 

2 Kings 23:17

23:17 He asked, “What is this grave marker I see?” The men from the city replied, “It’s the grave of the prophet ¹²  who came from Judah and foretold these very things you have done to the altar of Bethel.”

2 Kings 24:2

24:2 The Lord sent against him Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands; he sent them to destroy Judah, as he had warned he would do through his servants the prophets. ¹³ 

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¹ sn Elisha may be referring to the fiery chariot(s) and horses as the Lord’s spiritual army that fights on behalf of Israel (see 2 Kgs 6:15-17; 7:6). However, the juxtaposition with “my father” (clearly a reference to Elijah as Elisha’s mentor), and the parallel in 2 Kgs 13:14 (where the king addresses Elisha with these words), suggest that Elisha is referring to Elijah. In this case Elijah is viewed as a one man army, as it were. When the Lord spoke through him, his prophetic word was as powerful as an army of chariots and horses. See M. A. Beek, “The Meaning of the Expression ‘The Chariots and Horsemen of Israel’ (II Kings ii 12),” The Witness of Tradition (OTS 17), 1-10.

² tn Heb “went” (also in v. 13).

³ map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.

⁴ sn Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the empire.

⁵ tn Or “Hebrew.”

⁶ tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.

⁷ tn Heb “Have you not heard?” The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s amazement that anyone might be ignorant of what he is about to say.

⁸ tn Heb “formed.”

⁹ tn Heb “and it is to cause to crash into heaps of ruins fortified cities.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb תְּהִי (tÿhi) is the implied plan, referred to in the preceding lines with third feminine singular pronominal suffixes.

¹⁰ tn Heb “and he burned it in the Kidron Valley.”

¹¹ tc Heb “on the grave of the sons of the people.” Some Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses read the plural “graves.”

tn The phrase “sons of the people” refers here to the common people (see BDB 766 s.v. עַם), as opposed to the upper classes who would have private tombs.

¹² tn Heb “man of God.”

¹³ tn Heb “he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his servants the prophets.”