1 tn Heb “and there was a great famine in Samaria.”
2 tn Heb “and look, [they] were besieging it until.”
3 tn Heb “eighty, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.
4 sn A kab was a unit of dry measure, equivalent to approximately one quart.
5 tn The consonantal text (Kethib) reads, “dove dung” (חֲרֵייוֹנִים, khareyonim), while the marginal reading (Qere) has “discharge” (דִּבְיוֹנִים, divyonim). Based on evidence from Akkadian, M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 79) suggest that “dove’s dung” was a popular name for the inedible husks of seeds.
6 tn Heb “five, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.
7 tn The MT has a singular form (“gatekeeper”), but the context suggests a plural. The pronoun that follows (“them”) is plural and a plural noun appears in v. 11. The Syriac Peshitta and the Targum have the plural here.
8 tn Heb “and, look, there was no man or voice of a man there.”
9 tn Heb “but the horses are tied up and the donkeys are tied up and the tents are as they were.”