Discovery Box2 Kings 2:15 
Context2:15 When the members of the prophetic guild in Jericho, 1 who were standing at a distance, 2 saw him do this, they said, “The spirit that energized Elijah 3 rests upon Elisha.” They went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him.
2 Kings 3:25
Context3:25 They tore down the cities and each man threw a stone into every cultivated field until they were covered. 4 They stopped up every spring and chopped down every productive tree.
Only Kir Hareseth was left intact, 5 but the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.
2 Kings 4:39
Context4:39 Someone went out to the field to gather some herbs and found a wild vine. 6 He picked some of its fruit, 7 enough to fill up the fold of his robe. He came back, cut it up, and threw the slices 8 into the stew pot, not knowing they were harmful. 9
2 Kings 7:4
Context7:4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation, 10 and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect 11 to the Syrian camp! If they spare us, 12 we’ll live; if they kill us – well, we were going to die anyway.” 13
2 Kings 7:9
Context7:9 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. 14 If we wait until dawn, 15 we’ll be punished. 16 So come on, let’s go and inform the royal palace.”
2 Kings 7:13
Context7:13 One of his advisers replied, “Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city. (Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people – we’re all going to die!) 17 Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.” 18
2 Kings 9:25
Context9:25 Jehu ordered 19 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 10:6
Context10:6 He wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are really on my side and are willing to obey me, 20 then take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel at this time tomorrow.” 21 Now the king had seventy sons, and the prominent 22 men of the city were raising them.
2 Kings 11:14-15
Context11:14 Then she saw 23 the king standing by the pillar, according to custom. The officers stood beside the king with their trumpets and all the people of the land were celebrating and blowing trumpets. Athaliah tore her clothes and screamed, “Treason, treason!” 24 11:15 Jehoiada the priest ordered the officers of the units of hundreds, who were in charge of the army, 25 “Bring her outside the temple to the guards. 26 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. 27
2 Kings 13:21
Context13:21 One day some men 28 were burying a man when they spotted 29 a raiding party. So they threw the dead man 30 into Elisha’s tomb. When the body 31 touched Elisha’s bones, the dead man 32 came to life and stood on his feet.
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 33 all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been discovered in the Lord’s temple.
2 Kings 23:4
Context23:4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests, 34 and the guards 35 to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of 36 Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. 37 The king 38 burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces 39 of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 40
2 Kings 23:11
Context23:11 He removed from the entrance to the Lord’s temple the statues of horses 41 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.) 42 He burned up the chariots devoted to the sun god. 43
2 Kings 25:4
Context25:4 The enemy broke through the city walls, 44 and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. 45 They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden. 46 (The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. 47
2 Kings 25:23
Context25:23 All of the officers of the Judahite army 48 and their troops heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah to govern. So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. The officers who came were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite.
2 Kings 25:25
Context25:25 But in the seventh month 49 Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, 50 came with ten of his men and murdered Gedaliah, 51 as well as the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.
1 map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
2 tn Heb “and the sons of the prophets who were in Jericho, [who were standing] opposite, saw him and said.”
3 tn Heb “the spirit of Elijah.”
4 tn Heb “and [on] every good portion they were throwing each man his stone and they filled it.” The vav + perfect (“and they filled”) here indicates customary action contemporary with the situation described in the preceding main clause (where a customary imperfect is used, “they were throwing”). See the note at 3:4.
5 tn Heb “until he had allowed its stones to remain in Kir Hareseth.”
6 tn Heb “a vine of the field.”
7 tn Heb “[some] of the gourds of the field.”
8 tn Heb “he came and cut [them up].”
9 tc The Hebrew text reads, “for they did not know” (יָדָעוּ, yada’u) but some emend the final shureq (וּ, indicating a third plural subject) to holem vav (וֹ, a third masculine singular pronominal suffix on a third singular verb) and read “for he did not know it.” Perhaps it is best to omit the final vav as dittographic (note the vav at the beginning of the next verb form) and read simply, “for he did not know.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 59.
10 tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”
11 tn Heb “fall.”
12 tn Heb “keep us alive.”
13 tn Heb “we will die.” The paraphrastic translation attempts to bring out the logical force of their reasoning.
14 tn Heb “this day is a day of good news and we are keeping silent.”
15 tn Heb “the light of the morning.”
16 tn Heb “punishment will find us.”
17 tn Heb “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.” The MT is dittographic here; the words “that remain in it. Look they are like all the people of Israel” have been accidentally repeated. The original text read, “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.”
18 tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”
19 tn Heb “said to.”
20 tn Heb “If you are mine and you are listening to my voice.”
21 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
22 tn Heb “great,” probably in wealth, position, and prestige.
23 tn Heb “and she saw, and look.”
24 tn Or “conspiracy, conspiracy.”
25 tn The Hebrew text also has, “and said to them.” This is redundant in English and has not been translated.
26 tn Heb “ranks.”
27 tn Heb “for the priest had said, ‘Let her not be put to death in the house of the
28 tn Heb “and it so happened [that] they.”
29 tn Heb “and look, they saw.”
30 tn Heb “the man”; the adjective “dead” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
31 tn Heb “the man.”
32 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the dead man) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Otherwise the reader might think it was Elisha rather than the unnamed dead man who came back to life.
33 tn Heb “read in their ears.”
34 tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.
35 tn Or “doorkeepers.”
36 tn Heb “for.”
37 tn Heb “all the host of heaven” (also in v. 5).
38 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
39 tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.
40 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
41 tn The MT simply reads “the horses.” The words “statues of” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
42 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.”
43 tn Heb “and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire.”
44 tn Heb “the city was breached.”
45 tn The Hebrew text is abrupt here: “And all the men of war by the night.” The translation attempts to capture the sense.
46 sn The king’s garden is mentioned again in Neh 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the city of David. This would have been in the southern part of the city near the Tyropean Valley which agrees with the reference to the “two walls” which were probably the walls on the eastern and western hills.
47 sn Heb “toward the Arabah.” The Arabah was the rift valley north and south of the Dead Sea. Here the intention was undoubtedly to escape across the Jordan to Moab or Ammon. It appears from Jer 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.
48 tn Heb “of the army.” The word “Judahite” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
49 sn It is not altogether clear whether this is in the same year that Jerusalem fell or not. The wall was breached in the fourth month (= early July; Jer 39:2) and Nebuzaradan came and burned the palace, the temple, and many of the houses and tore down the wall in the fifth month (= early August; Jer 52:12). That would have left time between the fifth month and the seventh month (October) to gather in the harvest of grapes, dates and figs, and olives (Jer 40:12). However, many commentators feel that too much activity takes place in too short a time for this to have been in the same year and posit that it happened the following year or even five years later when a further deportation took place, possibly in retaliation for the murder of Gedaliah and the Babylonian garrison at Mizpah (Jer 52:30). The assassination of Gedaliah had momentous consequences and was commemorated in one of the post exilic fast days lamenting the fall of Jerusalem (Zech 8:19).
50 tn Heb “[was] from the seed of the kingdom.”
51 tn Heb “and they struck down Gedaliah and he died.”
