2 Kings 2:18
2:18 When they came back, Elisha 1 was staying in Jericho. He said to them, “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t go’?”
2 Kings 4:4
4:4 Go and close the door behind you and your sons. Pour the olive oil into all the containers; 2 set aside each one when you have filled it.”
2 Kings 4:22-23
4:22 She called to her husband, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so I can go see the prophet quickly and then return.”
4:23 He said, “Why do you want to go see him today? It is not the new moon 3 or the Sabbath.” She said, “Everything’s fine.” 4
2 Kings 5:10
5:10 Elisha sent out a messenger who told him, “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan; your skin will be restored 5 and you will be healed.”
2 Kings 6:13
6:13 The king 6 ordered, “Go, find out where he is, so I can send some men to capture him.” 7 The king was told, “He is in Dothan.”
2 Kings 7:14
7:14 So they picked two horsemen and the king sent them out to track the Syrian army. 8 He ordered them, “Go and find out what’s going on.” 9
2 Kings 8:10
8:10 Elisha said to him, “Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover,’ 10 but the Lord has revealed to me that he will surely die.”
2 Kings 20:10-11
20:10 Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps, but not for it 11 to go back ten steps.”
20:11 Isaiah the prophet called out to the Lord, and the Lord 12 made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz. 13
1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “all these vessels.”
3 sn The new moon was a time of sacrifice and special feasts (Num 28:14; 1 Sam 20:5). Apparently it was a convenient time to visit a prophet. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 57.
4 tn Heb “peace.”
5 tn Heb “will return to you.”
6 tn Heb “he” (also a second time in this verse); the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “Go and see where he [is] so I can send and take him.”
8 tn Heb “and the king sent [them] after the Syrian camp.”
9 tn Heb “Go and see.”
10 tc 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.
11 tn Heb “the shadow.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“it”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
12 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 tn Heb “on the steps which [the sun] had gone down, on the steps of Ahaz, back ten steps.”
sn These steps probably functioned as a type of sundial. See HALOT 614 s.v. מַעֲלָה and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 256.