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
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
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 6 may have carried him away and dropped him on one of the hills or in one of the valleys.” But Elisha 7 replied, “Don’t send them out.”
2 Kings 3:11
Context3:11 Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here that we might seek the Lord’s direction?” 8 One of the servants of the king of Israel answered, “Elisha son of Shapat is here; he used to be Elijah’s servant.” 9
2 Kings 3:27
Context3:27 So he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him up as a burnt sacrifice on the wall. There was an outburst of divine anger against Israel, 10 so they broke off the attack 11 and returned to their homeland.
2 Kings 5:15
Context5:15 He and his entire entourage returned to the prophet. Naaman 12 came and stood before him. He said, “For sure 13 I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel! Now, please accept a gift from your servant.”
2 Kings 5:26
Context5:26 Elisha 14 replied, “I was there in spirit when a man turned and got down from his chariot to meet you. 15 This is not the proper time to accept silver or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, sheep, cattle, and male and female servants. 16
2 Kings 9:27
Context9:27 When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what happened, he took off 17 up the road to Beth Haggan. Jehu chased him and ordered, “Shoot him too.” They shot him while he was driving his chariot up the ascent of Gur near Ibleam. 18 He fled to Megiddo 19 and died there.
2 Kings 10:15
Context10:15 When he left there, he met 20 Jehonadab, son of Rekab, who had been looking for him. 21 Jehu greeted him and asked, 22 “Are you as committed to me as I am to you?” 23 Jehonadab answered, “I am!” Jehu replied, “If so, give me your hand.” 24 So he offered his hand and Jehu 25 pulled him up into the chariot.
2 Kings 10:25
Context10:25 When he finished offering the burnt sacrifice, Jehu ordered the royal guard 26 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. 27 Then they entered the inner sanctuary of the temple of Baal. 28
2 Kings 15:20
Context15:20 Menahem got this silver by taxing all the wealthy men in Israel; he took fifty shekels of silver from each one of them and paid it to the king of Assyria. 29 Then the king of Assyria left; he did not stay there in the land.
2 Kings 23:2
Context23:2 The king went up to the Lord’s temple, accompanied by all the people of Judah, all the residents of Jerusalem, the priests, and the prophets. All the people were there, from the youngest to the oldest. He read aloud 30 all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been discovered in the Lord’s temple.
2 Kings 23:11
Context23:11 He removed from the entrance to the Lord’s temple the statues of horses 31 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.) 32 He burned up the chariots devoted to the sun god. 33
2 Kings 24:13
Context24:13 Nebuchadnezzar 34 took from there all the riches in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace. He removed all the gold items which King Solomon of Israel had made for the Lord’s temple, just as the Lord had warned.
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 Or “the spirit of the
7 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
8 tn Heb “that we might inquire of the
9 tn Heb “who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” This refers to one of the typical tasks of a servant.
10 tn Heb “there was great anger against Israel.”
sn The meaning of this statement is uncertain, for the subject of the anger is not indicated. Except for two relatively late texts, the noun קֶצֶף (qetsef) refers to an outburst of divine anger. But it seems unlikely the Lord would be angry with Israel, for he placed his stamp of approval on the campaign (vv. 16-19). D. N. Freedman suggests the narrator, who obviously has a bias against the Omride dynasty, included this observation to show that the Lord would not allow the Israelite king to “have an undiluted victory” (as quoted in M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings [AB], 52, n. 8). Some suggest that the original source identified Chemosh the Moabite god as the subject and that his name was later suppressed by a conscientious scribe, but this proposal raises more questions than it answers. For a discussion of various views, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 47-48, 51-52.
11 tn Heb “they departed from him.”
12 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Naaman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 tn Heb “look.”
14 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
15 tn Heb “Did not my heart go as a man turned from his chariot to meet you?” The rhetorical question emphasizes that he was indeed present in “heart” (or “spirit”) and was very much aware of what Gehazi had done. In the MT the interrogative particle has been accidentally omitted before the negative particle.
16 tn In the MT the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question, “Is this the time…?” It expects an emphatic negative response.
17 tn Heb “and Ahaziah king of Judah saw and fled.”
18 tn After Jehu’s order (“kill him too”), the MT has simply, “to the chariot in the ascent of Gur which is near Ibleam.” The main verb in the clause, “they shot him” (וַיִּכְהוּ, vayyikhhu), has been accidentally omitted by virtual haplography/homoioteleuton. Note that the immediately preceding form הַכֻּהוּ (hakkuhu), “shoot him,” ends with the same suffix.
19 map For location see Map1 D4; Map2 C1; Map4 C2; Map5 F2; Map7 B1.
20 tn Heb “found.”
21 tn Heb “and he went from there and found Jehonadab son of Rekab [who was coming] to meet him.”
22 tn Heb “and he blessed him and said to him.”
23 tn Heb “Is there with your heart [what is] right, as my heart [is] with your heart?”
24 tc Heb “Jehonadab said, ‘There is and there is. Give your hand.’” If the text is allowed to stand, there are two possible ways to understand the syntax of וָיֵשׁ (vayesh), “and there is”: (1) The repetition of יֵשׁ (yesh, “there is and there is”) could be taken as emphatic, “indeed I am.” In this case, the entire statement could be taken as Jehonadab’s words or one could understand the words “give your hand” as Jehu’s. In the latter case the change in speakers is unmarked. (2) וָיֵשׁ begins Jehu’s response and has a conditional force, “if you are.” In this case, the transition in speakers is unmarked. However, it is possible that וַיֹּאמֶר (vayyo’mer), “and he said,” or וַיֹּאמֶר יֵהוּא (vayyo’mer yehu), “and Jehu said,” originally appeared between יֵשׁ and וָיֵשׁ and has accidentally dropped from the text by homoioarcton (note that both the proposed וַיֹּאמֶר and וָיֵשׁ begin with vav, ו). The present translation assumes such a textual reconstruction; it is supported by the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate.
25 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
26 tn Heb “runners.”
27 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.
28 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.”
29 tn Heb “and Menahem brought out the silver over Israel, over the prominent men of means, to give to the king of Assyria, fifty shekels of silver for each man.”
30 tn Heb “read in their ears.”
31 tn The MT simply reads “the horses.” The words “statues of” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
32 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.”
33 tn Heb “and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire.”
34 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Nebuchadnezzar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
