2 Kings 8:9

8:9 So Hazael went to visit Elisha. 1  He took along a gift, 2  as well as 3  forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son, 4  King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question, 5  ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

2 Kings 12:7

12:7 So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest along with the other priests, and said to them, “Why have you not repaired the damage to the temple? Now, take no more silver from your treasurers unless you intend to use it to repair the damage.” 6 

2 Kings 17:6

17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the people of Israel 7  to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes.

2 Kings 18:17

18:17 The king of Assyria sent his commanding general, the chief eunuch, and the chief adviser 8  from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, 9  along with a large army. They went up and arrived at Jerusalem. They went 10  and stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. 11 

2 Kings 18:27

18:27 But the chief adviser said to them, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. 12  His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you.” 13 

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

2 tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”

3 tn Heb “and.” It is possible that the conjunction is here explanatory, equivalent to English “that is.” In this case the forty camel loads constitute the “gift” and one should translate, “He took along a gift, consisting of forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus.”

4 sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.

5 tn Heb “saying.”

6 tn Heb “Now, do not take silver from your treasurers, because for the damages to the temple you must give it.”

7 tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” as the object of the verb.

8 sn For a discussion of these titles see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 229-30.

9 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

10 tn Heb “and they went up and came.”

11 tn Heb “the field of the washer.”

12 tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.

13 tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”

sn The chief adviser alludes to the horrible reality of siege warfare, when the starving people in the besieged city would resort to eating and drinking anything to stay alive.