2 Kings 7:12-13

7:12 The king got up in the night and said to his advisers, ¹  “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are starving, so they left the camp and hid in the field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and enter the city.’” 7:13 One of his advisers replied, “Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city. (Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people – we’re all going to die!) ²  Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.” ³ 

2 Kings 25:19

25:19 From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five ⁴  of the king’s advisers ⁵  who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens ⁶  for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city.

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¹ tn Heb “servants” (also in v. 13).

² tn Heb “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.” The MT is dittographic here; the words “that remain in it. Look they are like all the people of Israel” have been accidentally repeated. The original text read, “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.”

³ tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”

⁴ tn The parallel passage in Jer 52:25 has “seven.”

⁵ tn Heb “five seers of the king’s face.”

⁶ tn Heb “the people of the land.”