2 Kings 4:42

Elisha Miraculously Feeds a Hundred People

4:42 Now a man from Baal Shalisha brought some food for the prophet¹ – twenty loaves of bread made from the firstfruits of the barley harvest, as well as fresh ears of grain.² Elisha³ said, “Set it before the people so they may eat.”

2 Kings 7:2

7:2 An officer who was the king’s right-hand man⁴ responded to the prophet,⁵ “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?”⁶ Elisha⁷ said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!”⁸

2 Kings 7:19

7:19 But the officer replied to the prophet, “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?”⁹ Elisha¹⁰ said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!”¹¹

2 Kings 12:4

12:4 Jehoash said to the priests, “I place at your disposal¹² all the consecrated silver that has been brought to the Lord’s temple, including the silver collected from the census tax,¹³ the silver received from those who have made vows,¹⁴ and all the silver that people have voluntarily contributed to the Lord’s temple.¹⁵

2 Kings 13:23

13:23 But the Lord had mercy on them and felt pity for them.¹⁶ He extended his favor to them¹⁷ because of the promise he had made¹⁸ to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He has been unwilling to destroy them or remove them from his presence to this very day.¹⁹

2 Kings 17:15

17:15 They rejected his rules, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the laws he had commanded them to obey.²⁰ They paid allegiance to²¹ worthless idols, and so became worthless to the Lord.²² They copied the practices of the surrounding nations in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command.²³

2 Kings 18:4

18:4 He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole.²⁴ He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time²⁵ the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan.²⁶

2 Kings 21:3

21:3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole just like King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky²⁷ and worshiped²⁸ them.

2 Kings 21:7

21:7 He put an idol of Asherah he had made in the temple, about which the Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon, “This temple in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will be my permanent home.²⁹

2 Kings 23:15

23:15 He also tore down the altar in Bethel³⁰ at the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who encouraged Israel to sin.³¹ He burned all the combustible items at that high place and crushed them to dust; including the Asherah pole.³²

2 Kings 23:30

23:30 His servants transported his dead body³³ from Megiddo in a chariot and brought it to Jerusalem, where they buried him in his tomb. The people of the land took Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, poured olive oil on his head,³⁴ and made him king in his father’s place.

2 Kings 24:13

24:13 Nebuchadnezzar³⁵ took from there all the riches in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace. He removed all the gold items which King Solomon of Israel had made for the Lord’s temple, just as the Lord had warned.

2 Kings 25:16

25:16 The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the Lord’s temple – including the two pillars, the big bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,”³⁶ and the movable stands – was too heavy to be weighed.

¹tn Heb “man of God.”

²tn On the meaning of the word צִקְלוֹן (tsiqlon), “ear of grain,” see HALOT 148 s.v. בָּצֵק and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 59.

³tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴tn Heb “the officer on whose hand the king leans.”

⁵tn Heb “man of God.”

⁶tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” Opening holes in the sky would allow the waters stored up there to pour to the earth and assure a good crop. But, the officer argues, even if this were to happen, it would take a long time to grow and harvest the crop.

⁷tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”

⁹tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” See the note at 7:2.

¹⁰tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”

tn In the Hebrew text vv. 18-19a are one lengthy sentence, “When the man of God spoke to the king…, the officer replied to the man of God, ‘Look…so soon?’” The translation divides this sentence up for stylistic reasons.

¹²tn The words “I place at your disposal” are added in the translation for clarification.

¹³tn Heb “the silver of passing over a man.” The precise meaning of the phrase is debated, but עָבַר (’avar), “pass over,” probably refers here to counting, suggesting the reference is to a census conducted for taxation purposes. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 137.

¹⁴tn Heb “the silver of persons, his valuation.” The precise meaning of the phrase is uncertain, but parallels in Lev 27 suggest that personal vows are referred to here. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 137.

¹⁵tn Heb “all the silver which goes up on the heart of a man to bring to the house of the Lord.”

¹⁶tn Or “showed them compassion.”

¹⁷tn Heb “he turned to them.”

¹⁸tn Heb “because of his covenant with.”

¹⁹tn Heb “until now.”

²⁰tn Or “and his warnings he had given them.”

²¹tn Heb “They went [or, ‘followed’] after.” This idiom probably does not mean much if translated literally. It is found most often in Deuteronomy or in literature related to the covenant. It refers in the first instance to loyalty to God and to His covenant or His commandments (1 Kgs 14:8; 2 Chr 34:31) with the metaphor of a path or way underlying it (Deut 11:28; 28:14). To “follow other gods” was to abandon this way and this loyalty (to “abandon” or “forget” God, Judg 2:12; Hos 2:13) and to follow the customs or religious traditions of the pagan nations (2 Kgs 17:15). The classic text on “following” God or another god is 1 Kgs 18:18, 21 where Elijah taunts the people with “halting between two opinions” whether the Lord was the true God or Baal was. The idiom is often found followed by “to serve and to worship” or “they served and worshiped” such and such a god or entity (Jer 8:2; 11:10; 13:10; 16:11; 25:6; 35:15).

²²tn Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” The words “to the Lord” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context. There is an obvious wordplay on the verb “became worthless” and the noun “worthless thing”, which is probably to be understood collectively and to refer to idols as it does in Jer 8:19; 10:8; 14:22; Jonah 2:8.

²³tn Heb “and [they walked] after the nations which were around them, concerning which the Lord commanded them not to do like them.”

²⁴tn The term is singular in the MT but plural in the LXX and other ancient versions. It is also possible to regard the singular as a collective singular, especially in the context of other plural items.

sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

²⁵tn Heb “until those days.”

²⁶tn In Hebrew the name sounds like the phrase נְחַשׁ הַנְּחֹשֶׁת (nÿkhash hannÿkhoshet), “bronze serpent.”

²⁷sn See the note at 2 Kgs 17:16.

²⁸tn Or “served.”

²⁹tn Heb “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I chose from all the tribes of Israel, I will place my name perpetually (or perhaps “forever”).”

³⁰map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

³¹tn 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.

³²tn 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.

³³tn Heb “him, dead.”

³⁴tn Or “anointed him.”

³⁵tn Heb “he”; the referent (Nebuchadnezzar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³⁶tc The MT lacks “the twelve bronze bulls under ‘the Sea,’” but these words have probably been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. The scribe’s eye may have jumped from the וְהָ (vÿha-) on וְהַבָּקָר (vÿhabbaqar), “and the bulls,” to the וְהָ on וְהַמְּכֹנוֹת (vÿhammÿkhonot), “and the movable stands,” causing him to leave out the intervening words. See the parallel passage in Jer 52:20.