2 Kings 9:17

9:17 Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel and saw Jehu’s troops approaching. 1  He said, “I see troops!” 2  Jehoram ordered, 3  “Send a rider out to meet them and have him ask, ‘Is everything all right?’” 4 

2 Kings 13:6

13:6 But they did not repudiate 5  the sinful ways of the family 6  of Jeroboam, who encouraged Israel to sin; they continued in those sins. 7  There was even an Asherah pole 8  standing in Samaria.

1 tn Heb “the quantity [of the men] of Jehu, when he approached.” Elsewhere שִׁפְעַה (shif’ah), “quantity,” is used of a quantity of camels (Isa 60:6) or horses (Ezek 26:10) and of an abundance of water (Job 22:11; 38:34).

2 tn The term שִׁפְעַת (shifat) appears to be a construct form of the noun, but no genitive follows.

3 tn Heb “said.”

4 tn Heb “Get a rider and send [him] to meet him and let him ask, ‘Is there peace?’”

5 tn Heb “they did not turn away from.”

6 tn Heb “house.”

7 tc Heb “in it he walked.” The singular verb (הָלַךְ, halakh) is probably due to an error of haplography and should be emended to the plural (הָלְכּוּ, halÿku). Note that a vav immediately follows (on the form וְגַם, vÿgam).

8 tn Or “an image of Asherah”; ASV, NASB “the Asherah”; NCV “the Asherah idol.”

sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).