¹ tn Or “ah.”

² tn Heb “and he said.”

³ tn Heb “So may God do to me, and so may he add.”

⁴ tn Heb “if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat stays on him today.”

⁵ tn Heb “man of God’s.”

⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “man of God” (also a second time in this verse and in v. 11).

⁸ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) reads, “Go, say, ‘Surely you will not (לֹא, lo’) recover” In this case the vav beginning the next clause should be translated, “for, because.” The marginal reading (Qere) has, “Go, say to him (לוֹ, lo), ‘You will surely recover.” In this case the vav (ו) beginning the next clause should be translated, “although, but.” The Qere has the support of some medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, and is consistent with v. 14, where Hazael tells the king, “You will surely recover.” It is possible that a scribe has changed לוֹ, “to him,” to לֹא, “not,” because he felt that Elisha would not lie to the king. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 90. Another possibility is that a scribe has decided to harmonize Elisha’s message with Hazael’s words in v. 14. But it is possible that Hazael, once he found out he would become the next king, decided to lie to the king to facilitate his assassination plot by making the king feel secure.

⁹ tn Heb “and Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah until this day.”

¹⁰ tn Or “struck down.”

¹¹ tn Heb “that the Lord might rescue Jerusalem from my hand?” The logic runs as follows: Since no god has ever been able to withstand the Assyrian onslaught, how can the people of Jerusalem possibly think the Lord will rescue them?