2 Kings 2:16

2:16 They said to him, “Look, there are fifty capable men with your servants. Let them go and look for your master, for the wind sent from the Lord¹ may have carried him away and dropped him on one of the hills or in one of the valleys.” But Elisha² replied, “Don’t send them out.”

2 Kings 7:4

7:4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation,³ and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect⁴ to the Syrian camp! If they spare us,⁵ we’ll live; if they kill us – well, we were going to die anyway.”⁶

2 Kings 7:9

7:9 Then they said to one another, “It’s not right what we’re doing! This is a day to celebrate, but we haven’t told anyone.⁷ If we wait until dawn,⁸ we’ll be punished.⁹ So come on, let’s go and inform the royal palace.”

2 Kings 7:13

7:13 One of his advisers replied, “Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city. (Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people – we’re all going to die!)¹⁰ Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.”¹¹

2 Kings 9:15

9:15 But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians¹² when he fought against King Hazael of Syria.¹³ Jehu told his supporters,¹⁴ “If you really want me to be king,¹⁵ then don’t let anyone escape from the city to go and warn Jezreel.”

2 Kings 10:25

10:25 When he finished offering the burnt sacrifice, Jehu ordered the royal guard¹⁶ and officers, “Come in and strike them down! Don’t let any escape!” So the royal guard and officers struck them down with the sword and left their bodies lying there.¹⁷ Then they entered the inner sanctuary of the temple of Baal.¹⁸

¹tn Or “the spirit of the Lord.”

²tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”

⁴tn Heb “fall.”

⁵tn Heb “keep us alive.”

⁶tn Heb “we will die.” The paraphrastic translation attempts to bring out the logical force of their reasoning.

⁷tn Heb “this day is a day of good news and we are keeping silent.”

⁸tn Heb “the light of the morning.”

⁹tn Heb “punishment will find us.”

¹⁰tn Heb “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.” The MT is dittographic here; the words “that remain in it. Look they are like all the people of Israel” have been accidentally repeated. The original text read, “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.”

¹¹tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”

¹²tn Heb “which the Syrians inflicted [on] him.”

¹³sn See 2 Kgs 8:28-29a.

¹⁴tn The words “his supporters” are added for clarification.

¹⁵tn Heb “If this is your desire.” נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) refers here to the seat of the emotions and will. For other examples of this use of the word, see BDB 660-61 s.v.

¹⁶tn Heb “runners.”

¹⁷tn Heb “and they threw.” No object appears. According to M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 116), this is an idiom for leaving a corpse unburied.

¹⁸tn Heb “and they came to the city of the house of Baal.” It seems unlikely that a literal city is meant. Some emend עִיר (’ir), “city,” to דְּבִיר (dÿvir) “holy place,” or suggest that עִיר is due to dittography of the immediately preceding עַד (’ad) “to.” Perhaps עִיר is here a technical term meaning “fortress” or, more likely, “inner room.”