3:13 Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Why are you here? 4 Go to your father’s prophets or your mother’s prophets!” The king of Israel replied to him, “No, for the Lord is the one who summoned these three kings so that he can hand them over to Moab.”
8:1 Now Elisha advised the woman whose son he had brought back to life, “You and your family should go and live somewhere else for a while, 12 for the Lord has decreed that a famine will overtake the land for seven years.”
23:15 He also tore down the altar in Bethel 26 at the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who encouraged Israel to sin. 27 He burned all the combustible items at that high place and crushed them to dust; including the Asherah pole. 28
1 tn Heb “went and sent.”
2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoshaphat) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “I will go up – like me, like you; like my people, like your people; like my horses; like your horses.”
4 tn Or “What do we have in common?” The text reads literally, “What to me and to you?”
5 tn Heb “my father,” reflecting the perspective of each individual servant. To address their master as “father” would emphasize his authority and express their respect. See BDB 3 s.v. אָב and the similar idiomatic use of “father” in 2 Kgs 2:12.
6 tn Heb “a great thing.”
7 tn Heb “would you not do [it]?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you would.”
8 tn Heb “How much more [when] he said, “Wash and be healed.” The second imperative (“be healed”) states the expected result of obeying the first (‘wash”).
9 tn Heb “they ate and drank.”
10 tn Heb “and they hid [it].”
11 tn Heb “and they took from there.”
12 tn Heb “Get up and go, you and your house, and live temporarily where you can live temporarily.”
13 tn Heb “the rider of the horse.”
14 tn Heb “Is there peace?”
15 tn Heb “What concerning you and concerning peace?” That is, “What concern is that to you?”
16 tn Heb “as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses which the
17 tn Heb “on account of sons.”
18 tn Heb “on account of fathers.”
19 sn This law is recorded in Deut 24:16.
20 tc The MT has the plural form of the verb, but the final vav (ו) is virtually dittographic. The word that immediately follows in the Hebrew text begins with a yod (י). The form should be emended to the singular, which is consistent in number with the verb (“he broke down”) that follows.
21 tn Heb “came to.”
22 tn Heb “four hundred cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.
23 tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.
24 tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”
sn The chief adviser alludes to the horrible reality of siege warfare, when the starving people in the besieged city would resort to eating and drinking anything to stay alive.
25 sn This is a derogatory name for the Mount of Olives, involving a wordplay between מָשְׁחָה (mashÿkhah), “anointing,” and מַשְׁחִית (mashÿkhit), “destruction.” See HALOT 644 s.v. מַשְׁחִית and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 289.
26 map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.
27 tn Heb “And also the altar that is in Bethel, the high place that Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin, also that altar and the high place he tore down.” The more repetitive Hebrew text is emphatic.
28 tn Heb “he burned the high place, crushing to dust, and he burned the Asherah pole.” High places per se are never referred to as being burned elsewhere. בָּמָה (bamah) here stands by metonymy for the combustible items located on the high place. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 289.