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 4:34
Context4:34 He got up on the bed and spread his body out over 4 the boy; he put his mouth on the boy’s 5 mouth, his eyes over the boy’s eyes, and the palms of his hands against the boy’s palms. He bent down over him, and the boy’s skin 6 grew warm.
2 Kings 5:18
Context5:18 May the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to worship, and he leans on my arm and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this.” 7
2 Kings 5:26
Context5:26 Elisha 8 replied, “I was there in spirit when a man turned and got down from his chariot to meet you. 9 This is not the proper time to accept silver or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, sheep, cattle, and male and female servants. 10
2 Kings 8:29
Context8:29 King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians 11 in Ramah when he fought against King Hazael of Syria. King Ahaziah son of Jehoram of Judah went down to visit 12 Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he was ill.
2 Kings 10:13
Context10:13 Jehu encountered 13 the relatives 14 of King Ahaziah of Judah. He asked, “Who are you?” They replied, “We are Ahaziah’s relatives. We have come down to see how 15 the king’s sons and the queen mother’s sons are doing.”
2 Kings 14:9
Context14:9 King Jehoash of Israel sent this message back to King Amaziah of Judah, “A thornbush in Lebanon sent this message to a cedar in Lebanon, ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ Then a wild animal 16 of Lebanon came by and trampled down the thorn. 17
2 Kings 14:13
Context14:13 King Jehoash of Israel captured King Amaziah of Judah, son of Jehoash son of Ahaziah, in Beth Shemesh. He 18 attacked 19 Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate – a distance of about six hundred feet. 20
2 Kings 18:4
Context18:4 He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole. 21 He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time 22 the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan. 23
2 Kings 19:23
Context19:23 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, 24
‘With my many chariots 25
I climbed up the high mountains,
the slopes of Lebanon.
I cut down its tall cedars,
and its best evergreens.
I invaded its most remote regions, 26
its thickest woods.
2 Kings 21:3
Context21:3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole just like King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky 27 and worshiped 28 them.
2 Kings 23:8
Context23:8 He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined 29 the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba. 30 He tore down the high place of the goat idols 31 situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate.
2 Kings 23:12
Context23:12 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 32 and threw the dust in the Kidron Valley.
2 Kings 23:15
Context23:15 He also tore down the altar in Bethel 33 at the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who encouraged Israel to sin. 34 He burned all the combustible items at that high place and crushed them to dust; including the Asherah pole. 35
2 Kings 25:24
Context25:24 Gedaliah took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety. 36 He said, “You don’t need to be afraid to submit to the Babylonian officials. Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you.”
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 “he went up and lay down over.”
5 tn Heb “his” (also in the next two clauses).
6 tn Or perhaps, “body”; Heb “flesh.”
7 tn Heb “When my master enters the house of Rimmon to bow down there, and he leans on my hand and I bow down [in] the house of Rimmon, when I bow down [in] the house of Rimmon, may the
sn Rimmon was the Syrian storm god. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 65.
8 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 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.
10 tn In the MT the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question, “Is this the time…?” It expects an emphatic negative response.
11 tn Heb “which the Syrians inflicted [on] him.”
12 tn Heb “to see.”
13 tn Heb “found.”
14 tn Or “brothers.”
15 tn Heb “for the peace of.”
16 tn Heb “the animal of the field.”
17 sn Judah is the thorn in the allegory. Amaziah’s success has deceived him into thinking he is on the same level as the major powers in the area (symbolized by the cedar). In reality he is not capable of withstanding an attack by a real military power such as Israel (symbolized by the wild animal).
18 tc The MT has the plural form of the verb, but the final vav (ו) is virtually dittographic. The word that immediately follows in the Hebrew text begins with a yod (י). The form should be emended to the singular, which is consistent in number with the verb (“he broke down”) that follows.
19 tn Heb “came to.”
20 tn Heb “four hundred cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.
21 tn The term is singular in the MT but plural in the LXX and other ancient versions. It is also possible to regard the singular as a collective singular, especially in the context of other plural items.
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).
22 tn Heb “until those days.”
23 tn In Hebrew the name sounds like the phrase נְחַשׁ הַנְּחֹשֶׁת (nÿkhash hannÿkhoshet), “bronze serpent.”
24 tn The word is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai), “lord,” but some Hebrew
25 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has בְּרֶכֶב (bÿrekhev), but this must be dittographic (note the following רִכְבִּי [rikhbi], “my chariots”). The marginal reading (Qere) בְּרֹב (bÿrov), “with many,” is supported by many Hebrew
26 tn Heb “the lodging place of its extremity.”
27 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 17:16.
28 tn Or “served.”
29 tn Heb “defiled; desecrated,” that is, “made ritually unclean and unusable.”
30 sn These towns marked Judah’s northern and southern borders, respectively, at the time of Josiah.
31 tc The Hebrew text reads “the high places of the gates,” which is problematic in that the rest of the verse speaks of a specific gate. The translation assumes an emendation to בָּמוֹת הַשְּׁעָרִים (bamot hashÿ’arim), “the high place of the goats” (that is, goat idols). Worship of such images is referred to in Lev 17:7 and 2 Chr 11:15. For a discussion of the textual issue, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 286-87.
32 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.
33 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
34 tn Heb “And also the altar that is in Bethel, the high place that Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin, also that altar and the high place he tore down.” The more repetitive Hebrew text is emphatic.
35 tn Heb “he burned the high place, crushing to dust, and he burned the Asherah pole.” High places per se are never referred to as being burned elsewhere. בָּמָה (bamah) here stands by metonymy for the combustible items located on the high place. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 289.
36 tn The words “so as to give them…some assurance of safety” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
