17:7 This happened because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them up from the land of Egypt and freed them from the power of 15 Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped 16 other gods;
17:34 To this very day they observe their earlier practices. They do not worship 24 the Lord; they do not obey the rules, regulations, law, and commandments that the Lord gave 25 the descendants of Jacob, whom he renamed Israel.
18:37 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn 29 and reported to him what the chief adviser had said.
21:16 Furthermore Manasseh killed so many innocent people, he stained Jerusalem with their blood from end to end, 31 in addition to encouraging Judah to sin by doing evil in the sight of the Lord. 32
1 tn Or “held a great feast.”
2 tn Heb “they went back.”
3 tn Heb “went after.”
4 tn Heb “and look, all the road was full of clothes and equipment that Syria had thrown away in their haste.”
5 tn Or “messengers.”
6 sn Joram is a short form of the name Jehoram.
7 tn Heb “and he arose at night and defeated Edom, who had surrounded him, and the chariot officers.” The Hebrew text as it stands gives the impression that Joram was surrounded and launched a victorious night counterattack. It would then be quite natural to understand the last statement in the verse to refer to an Edomite retreat. Yet v. 22 goes on to state that the Edomite revolt was successful. Therefore, if the MT is retained, it may be better to understand the final statement in v. 21 as a reference to an Israelite retreat (made in spite of the success described in the preceding sentence). The translation above assumes an emendation of the Hebrew text. Adding a third masculine singular pronominal suffix to the accusative sign before Edom (reading אֶתוֹ [’eto], “him,” instead of just אֶת [’et]) and taking Edom as the subject of verbs allows one to translate the verse in a way that is more consistent with the context, which depicts an Israelite defeat, not victory. There is, however, no evidence for this emendation.
8 tn Heb “and the people fled to their tents.”
9 tn Heb “and when the letter came to them, they took the sons of the king and slaughtered seventy men.”
10 tn Heb “the runners” (also in v. 19).
11 tn Heb “and the runners stood, each with his weapons in his hand, from the south shoulder of the house to the north shoulder of the house, at the altar and at the house, near the king all around.”
12 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoiada) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 tn The Hebrew term עֵדוּת (’edut) normally means “witness” or “testimony.” Here it probably refers to some tangible symbol of kingship, perhaps a piece of jewelry such as an amulet or neck chain. See the discussion in M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 128. Some suggest that a document is in view, perhaps a copy of the royal protocol or of the stipulations of the Davidic covenant. See HALOT 790-91 s.v. עֵדוּת.
14 tn Or “they made him king and anointed him.”
15 tn Heb “and from under the hand of.” The words “freed them” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons.
16 tn Heb “feared.”
17 tn The phrase כָל צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם (khol tsÿva’ hashamayim), traditionally translated “all the host of heaven,” refers to the heavenly lights, including stars and planets. In 1 Kgs 22:19 these heavenly bodies are pictured as members of the Lord’s royal court or assembly, but many other texts view them as the illegitimate objects of pagan and Israelite worship.
18 tn Or “served.”
19 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.
20 tn Heb “they sold themselves to doing what was evil in the eyes of the
21 tn Heb “and they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king.”
22 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) assumes the verb is נָדָא (nada’), an alternate form of נָדָה (nadah), “push away.” The marginal reading (Qere) assumes the verb נָדָח (nadakh), “drive away.”
23 tn Heb “a great sin.”
24 tn Heb “fear.”
25 tn Heb “commanded.”
26 tn Heb “listen to the voice of.”
27 tn Heb “his covenant.”
28 tn Heb “all that Moses, the
29 sn As a sign of grief and mourning.
30 tn Heb “I will not again make the feet of Israel wander from the land which I gave to their fathers.”
31 tn Heb “and also Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he filled Jerusalem from mouth to mouth.”
32 tn Heb “apart from his sin which he caused Judah to commit, by doing what is evil in the eyes of the
33 tn Heb “their brothers.”