2 Kings 7:4

7:4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation, ¹  and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect ²  to the Syrian camp! If they spare us, ³  we’ll live; if they kill us – well, we were going to die anyway.” ⁴ 

2 Kings 7:9

7:9 Then they said to one another, “It’s not right what we’re doing! This is a day to celebrate, but we haven’t told anyone. ⁵  If we wait until dawn, ⁶  we’ll be punished. ⁷  So come on, let’s go and inform the royal palace.”

2 Kings 7:12

7:12 The king got up in the night and said to his advisers, ⁸  “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.’”

2 Kings 10:6

10:6 He wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are really on my side and are willing to obey me, ⁹  then take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel at this time tomorrow.” ¹⁰  Now the king had seventy sons, and the prominent ¹¹  men of the city were raising them.

2 Kings 10:13

10:13 Jehu encountered ¹²  the relatives ¹³  of King Ahaziah of Judah. He asked, “Who are you?” They replied, “We are Ahaziah’s relatives. We have come down to see how ¹⁴  the king’s sons and the queen mother’s sons are doing.”

2 Kings 10:25

10:25 When he finished offering the burnt sacrifice, Jehu ordered the royal guard ¹⁵  and officers, “Come in and strike them down! Don’t let any escape!” So the royal guard and officers struck them down with the sword and left their bodies lying there. ¹⁶  Then they entered the inner sanctuary of the temple of Baal. ¹⁷ 

2 Kings 18:32

18:32 until I come and take you to a land just like your own – a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Then you will live and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.”

---

¹ tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”

² tn Heb “fall.”

³ tn Heb “keep us alive.”

⁴ tn Heb “we will die.” The paraphrastic translation attempts to bring out the logical force of their reasoning.

⁵ tn Heb “this day is a day of good news and we are keeping silent.”

⁶ tn Heb “the light of the morning.”

⁷ tn Heb “punishment will find us.”

⁸ tn Heb “servants” (also in v. 13).

⁹ tn Heb “If you are mine and you are listening to my voice.”

¹⁰ sn Jehu’s command is intentionally vague. Does he mean that they should bring the guardians (those who are “heads” over Ahab’s sons) for a meeting, or does he mean that they should bring the literal heads of Ahab’s sons with them? (So LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and some mss of the Targum) The city leaders interpret his words in the literal sense, but Jehu’s command is so ambiguous he is able to deny complicity in the executions (see v. 9).

¹¹ tn Heb “great,” probably in wealth, position, and prestige.

¹² tn Heb “found.”

¹³ tn Or “brothers.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “for the peace of.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “runners.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “and they threw.” No object appears. According to M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 116), this is an idiom for leaving a corpse unburied.

¹⁷ tn Heb “and they came to the city of the house of Baal.” It seems unlikely that a literal city is meant. Some emend עִיר (’ir), “city,” to דְּבִיר (dÿvir) “holy place,” or suggest that עִיר is due to dittography of the immediately preceding עַד (’ad) “to.” Perhaps עִיר is here a technical term meaning “fortress” or, more likely, “inner room.”