Discovery Box2 Kings 1:3 
Context1:3 But the Lord’s angelic messenger told Elijah the Tishbite, “Get up, go to meet the messengers from the king of Samaria. Say this to them: ‘You must think there is no God in Israel! That explains why you are on your way to seek an oracle from Baal Zebub the god of Ekron. 1
2 Kings 1:16-17
Context1:16 Elijah 2 said to the king, 3 “This is what the Lord says, ‘You sent messengers to seek an oracle from Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. You must think there is no God in Israel from whom you can seek an oracle! 4 Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.’” 5
1:17 He died just as the Lord had prophesied through Elijah. 6 In the second year of the reign of King Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat over Judah, Ahaziah’s brother Jehoram replaced him as king of Israel, because he had no son. 7
2 Kings 2:16
Context2:16 They said to him, “Look, there are fifty capable men with your servants. Let them go and look for your master, for the wind sent from the Lord 8 may have carried him away and dropped him on one of the hills or in one of the valleys.” But Elisha 9 replied, “Don’t send them out.”
2 Kings 3:13
Context3:13 Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Why are you here? 10 Go to your father’s prophets or your mother’s prophets!” The king of Israel replied to him, “No, for the Lord is the one who summoned these three kings so that he can hand them over to Moab.”
2 Kings 4:1
Context4:1 Now a wife of one of the prophets 11 appealed 12 to Elisha for help, saying, “Your servant, my husband is dead. You know that your servant was a loyal follower of the Lord. 13 Now the creditor is coming to take away my two boys to be his servants.”
2 Kings 4:27
Context4:27 But when she reached the prophet on the mountain, she grabbed hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but the prophet said, “Leave her alone, for she is very upset. 14 The Lord has kept the matter hidden from me; he didn’t tell me about it.”
2 Kings 7:2
Context7:2 An officer who was the king’s right-hand man 15 responded to the prophet, 16 “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” 17 Elisha 18 said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” 19
2 Kings 7:6
Context7:6 The Lord had caused the Syrian camp to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a large army. Then they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has paid the kings of the Hittites and Egypt to attack us!”
2 Kings 7:19
Context7:19 But the officer replied to the prophet, “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” 20 Elisha 21 said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” 22
2 Kings 8:1
Context8:1 Now Elisha advised the woman whose son he had brought back to life, “You and your family should go and live somewhere else for a while, 23 for the Lord has decreed that a famine will overtake the land for seven years.”
2 Kings 9:12
Context9:12 But they said, “You’re lying! Tell us what he said.” So he told them what he had said. He also related how he had said, 24 “This is what the Lord says, ‘I have designated you as king over Israel.’”
2 Kings 9:25
Context9:25 Jehu ordered 25 his officer Bidkar, “Pick him up and throw him into the part of the field that once belonged to Naboth of Jezreel. Remember, you and I were riding together behind his father Ahab, when the Lord pronounced this judgment on him,
2 Kings 11:15
Context11:15 Jehoiada the priest ordered the officers of the units of hundreds, who were in charge of the army, 26 “Bring her outside the temple to the guards. 27 Put the sword to anyone who follows her.” The priest gave this order because he had decided she should not be executed in the Lord’s temple. 28
2 Kings 11:18-19
Context11:18 All the people of the land went and demolished 29 the temple of Baal. They smashed its altars and idols 30 to bits. 31 They killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altar. Jehoiada the priest 32 then placed guards at the Lord’s temple. 11:19 He took the officers of the units of hundreds, the Carians, the royal bodyguard, and all the people of land, and together they led the king down from the Lord’s temple. They entered the royal palace through the Gate of the Royal Bodyguard, 33 and the king 34 sat down on the royal throne.
2 Kings 12:18
Context12:18 King Jehoash of Judah collected all the sacred items that his ancestors Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, had consecrated, as well as his own sacred items and all the gold that could be found in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. He sent it all 35 to King Hazael of Syria, who then withdrew 36 from Jerusalem.
2 Kings 13:23
Context13:23 But the Lord had mercy on them and felt pity for them. 37 He extended his favor to them 38 because of the promise he had made 39 to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He has been unwilling to destroy them or remove them from his presence to this very day. 40
2 Kings 14:6
Context14:6 But he did not execute the sons of the assassins. He obeyed the Lord’s commandment as recorded in the law scroll of Moses, 41 “Fathers must not be put to death for what their sons do, 42 and sons must not be put to death for what their fathers do. 43 A man must be put to death only for his own sin.” 44
2 Kings 14:25
Context14:25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo Hamath in the north to the sea of the Arabah in the south, 45 in accordance with the word of the Lord God of Israel announced through 46 his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.
2 Kings 15:5
Context15:5 The Lord afflicted the king with an illness; he suffered from a skin disease 47 until the day he died. He lived in separate quarters, 48 while his son Jotham was in charge of the palace and ruled over the people of the land.
2 Kings 17:13
Context17:13 The Lord solemnly warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and all the seers, “Turn back from your evil ways; obey my commandments and rules that are recorded in the law. I ordered your ancestors to keep this law and sent my servants the prophets to remind you of its demands.” 49
2 Kings 18:22
Context18:22 Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar in Jerusalem.’
2 Kings 18:32
Context18:32 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.”
2 Kings 19:32
Context19:32 So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
“He will not enter this city,
nor will he shoot an arrow here. 50
He will not attack it with his shield-carrying warriors, 51
nor will he build siege works against it.
2 Kings 20:1
Context20:1 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. 52 The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give your household instructions, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’” 53
2 Kings 21:6-7
Context21:6 He passed his son 54 through the fire 55 and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it. 56 He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 57 21:7 He put an idol of Asherah he had made in the temple, about which the Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon, “This temple in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will be my permanent home. 58
2 Kings 23:4
Context23:4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests, 59 and the guards 60 to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of 61 Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. 62 The king 63 burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces 64 of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 65
2 Kings 23:11-12
Context23:11 He removed from the entrance to the Lord’s temple the statues of horses 66 that the kings of Judah had placed there in honor of the sun god. (They were kept near the room of Nathan Melech the eunuch, which was situated among the courtyards.) 67 He burned up the chariots devoted to the sun god. 68 23:12 The king tore down the altars the kings of Judah had set up on the roof of Ahaz’s upper room, as well as the altars Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. He crushed them up 69 and threw the dust in the Kidron Valley.
2 Kings 23:24
Context23:24 Josiah also got rid of 70 the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits, 71 the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images, 72 and all the detestable idols that had appeared in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. In this way he carried out the terms of the law 73 recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s temple.
2 Kings 25:16
Context25:16 The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the Lord’s temple – including the two pillars, the big bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,” 74 and the movable stands – was too heavy to be weighed.
1 tn Heb “Is it because there is no God in Israel [that] you are going to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?” The translation seeks to bring out the sarcastic tone of the rhetorical question.
2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “him”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 tn Heb “Because you sent messengers to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, is there no God in Israel to inquire of his word?”
5 sn For the third time in this chapter we read the Lord’s sarcastic question to king and the accompanying announcement of judgment. The repetition emphasizes one of the chapter’s main themes. Israel’s leaders should seek guidance from their own God, not a pagan deity, for Israel’s sovereign God is the one who controls life and death.
6 tn Heb “according to the word of the
7 tn Heb “Jehoram replaced him as king…because he had no son.” Some ancient textual witnesses add “his brother,” which was likely added on the basis of the statement later in the verse that Ahaziah had no son.
8 tn Or “the spirit of the
9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tn Or “What do we have in common?” The text reads literally, “What to me and to you?”
11 tn Heb “a wife from among the wives of the sons of the prophets.”
12 tn Or “cried out.”
13 tn Heb “your servant feared the
14 tn Heb “her soul [i.e., ‘disposition’] is bitter.”
15 tn Heb “the officer on whose hand the king leans.”
16 tn Heb “man of God.”
17 tn Heb “the
18 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
19 tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”
20 tn Heb “the
21 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
22 tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”
tn In the Hebrew text vv. 18-19a are one lengthy sentence, “When the man of God spoke to the king…, the officer replied to the man of God, ‘Look…so soon?’” The translation divides this sentence up for stylistic reasons.
23 tn Heb “Get up and go, you and your house, and live temporarily where you can live temporarily.”
24 tn Heb “So he said, ‘Like this and like this he said to me, saying.’” The words “like this and like this” are probably not a direct quote of Jehu’s words to his colleagues. Rather this is the narrator’s way of avoiding repetition and indicating that Jehu repeated, or at least summarized, what the prophet had said to him.
25 tn Heb “said to.”
26 tn The Hebrew text also has, “and said to them.” This is redundant in English and has not been translated.
27 tn Heb “ranks.”
28 tn Heb “for the priest had said, ‘Let her not be put to death in the house of the
29 tn Or “tore down.”
30 tn Or “images.”
31 tn The Hebrew construction translated “smashed…to bits” is emphatic. The adverbial infinitive absolute (הֵיטֵב [hetev], “well”) accompanying the Piel form of the verb שָׁבַר (shavar), “break,” suggests thorough demolition.
32 tn Heb “the priest.” Jehoiada’s name is added for clarification.
33 tn Heb “the Gate of the Runners of the House of the King.”
34 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
35 tn The object (“it all”) is supplied in the translation for clarification.
36 tn Heb “went up.”
37 tn Or “showed them compassion.”
38 tn Heb “he turned to them.”
39 tn Heb “because of his covenant with.”
40 tn Heb “until now.”
41 tn Heb “as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses which the
42 tn Heb “on account of sons.”
43 tn Heb “on account of fathers.”
44 sn This law is recorded in Deut 24:16.
45 tn The phrases “in the north” and “in the south” are added in the translation for clarification.
46 tn Heb “which he spoke by the hand of.”
47 tn Traditionally, “he was a leper.” But see the note at 5:1.
48 tn The precise meaning of בֵית הַחָפְשִׁית (bet hakhofÿshit), “house of […?],” is uncertain. For a discussion of various proposals, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 166-67.
49 tn Heb “obey my commandments and rules according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets.”
50 tn Heb “there.”
51 tn Heb “[with] a shield.” By metonymy the “shield” stands for the soldier who carries it.
52 tn Heb “was sick to the point of dying.”
53 tn Heb “will not live.”
54 tc The LXX has the plural “his sons” here.
55 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.
56 tn Heb “and he set up a ritual pit, along with conjurers.” The Hebrew אוֹב (’ov), “ritual pit,” refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits. In 1 Sam 28:7 the witch of Endor is called a בַעֲלַת אוֹב (ba’alat ’ov), “owner of a ritual pit.” See H. Hoffner, “Second millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew ’OñBù,” JBL 86 (1967), 385-401.
57 tc Heb “and he multiplied doing what is evil in the eyes of the
58 tn Heb “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I chose from all the tribes of Israel, I will place my name perpetually (or perhaps “forever”).”
59 tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.
60 tn Or “doorkeepers.”
61 tn Heb “for.”
62 tn Heb “all the host of heaven” (also in v. 5).
63 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
64 tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.
65 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
66 tn The MT simply reads “the horses.” The words “statues of” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
67 tn Heb “who/which was in the […?].” The meaning of the Hebrew term פַּרְוָרִים (parvarim), translated here “courtyards,” is uncertain. The relative clause may indicate where the room was located or explain who Nathan Melech was, “the eunuch who was in the courtyards.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 288-89, who translate “the officer of the precincts.”
68 tn Heb “and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire.”
69 tc The MT reads, “he ran from there,” which makes little if any sense in this context. Some prefer to emend the verbal form (Qal of רוּץ [ruts], “run”) to a Hiphil of רוּץ with third plural suffix and translate, “he quickly removed them” (see BDB 930 s.v. רוּץ, and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings [AB], 289). The suffix could have been lost in MT by haplography (note the mem [מ] that immediately follows the verb on the form מִשֳׁם, misham, “from there”). Another option, the one reflected in the translation, is to emend the verb to a Piel of רָצַץ (ratsats), “crush,” with third plural suffix.
70 tn Here בִּעֵר (bi’er) is not the well attested verb “burn,” but the less common homonym meaning “devastate, sweep away, remove.” See HALOT 146 s.v. בער.
71 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 21:6.
72 sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.
73 tn Heb “carrying out the words of the law.”
74 tc The MT lacks “the twelve bronze bulls under ‘the Sea,’” but these words have probably been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. The scribe’s eye may have jumped from the וְהָ (vÿha-) on וְהַבָּקָר (vÿhabbaqar), “and the bulls,” to the וְהָ on וְהַמְּכֹנוֹת (vÿhammÿkhonot), “and the movable stands,” causing him to leave out the intervening words. See the parallel passage in Jer 52:20.
