Discovery Box2 Kings 3:27--4:1 
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, 1 so they broke off the attack 2 and returned to their homeland.
4:1 Now a wife of one of the prophets 3 appealed 4 to Elisha for help, saying, “Your servant, my husband is dead. You know that your servant was a loyal follower of the Lord. 5 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. 6 The Lord has kept the matter hidden from me; he didn’t tell me about it.”
2 Kings 4:39
Context4:39 Someone went out to the field to gather some herbs and found a wild vine. 7 He picked some of its fruit, 8 enough to fill up the fold of his robe. He came back, cut it up, and threw the slices 9 into the stew pot, not knowing they were harmful. 10
2 Kings 5:13
Context5:13 His servants approached and said to him, “O master, 11 if the prophet had told you to do some difficult task, 12 you would have been willing to do it. 13 It seems you should be happy that he simply said, “Wash and you will be healed.” 14
2 Kings 5:15
Context5:15 He and his entire entourage returned to the prophet. Naaman 15 came and stood before him. He said, “For sure 16 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 17 replied, “I was there in spirit when a man turned and got down from his chariot to meet you. 18 This is not the proper time to accept silver or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, sheep, cattle, and male and female servants. 19
2 Kings 7:12-13
Context7:12 The king got up in the night and said to his advisers, 20 “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are starving, so they left the camp and hid in the field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and enter the city.’” 7:13 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!) 21 Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.” 22
2 Kings 7:17
Context7:17 Now the king had placed the officer who was his right-hand man 23 at the city gate. When the people rushed out, they trampled him to death in the gate. 24 This fulfilled the prophet’s word which he had spoken when the king tried to arrest him. 25
2 Kings 9:6
Context9:6 So Jehu 26 got up and went inside. Then the prophet 27 poured the olive oil on his head and said to him, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I have designated you as king over the Lord’s people Israel.
2 Kings 9:11
Context9:11 When Jehu rejoined 28 his master’s servants, they 29 asked him, “Is everything all right? 30 Why did this madman visit you?” He replied, “Ah, it’s not important. You know what kind of man he is and the kinds of things he says.” 31
2 Kings 9:15
Context9:15 But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians 32 when he fought against King Hazael of Syria. 33 Jehu told his supporters, 34 “If you really want me to be king, 35 then don’t let anyone escape from the city to go and warn Jezreel.”
2 Kings 9:21
Context9:21 Jehoram ordered, “Hitch up my chariot.” 36 When his chariot had been hitched up, 37 King Jehoram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah went out in their respective chariots 38 to meet Jehu. They met up with him 39 in the plot of land that had once belonged to Naboth of Jezreel.
2 Kings 9:26-27
Context9:26 ‘“Know for sure that I saw the shed blood of Naboth and his sons yesterday,” says the Lord, “and that I will give you what you deserve right here in this plot of land,” 40 says the Lord.’ So now pick him up and throw him into this plot of land, just as the Lord said.” 41
9:27 When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what happened, he took off 42 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. 43 He fled to Megiddo 44 and died there.
2 Kings 10:15
Context10:15 When he left there, he met 45 Jehonadab, son of Rekab, who had been looking for him. 46 Jehu greeted him and asked, 47 “Are you as committed to me as I am to you?” 48 Jehonadab answered, “I am!” Jehu replied, “If so, give me your hand.” 49 So he offered his hand and Jehu 50 pulled him up into the chariot.
2 Kings 10:19
Context10:19 So now, bring to me all the prophets of Baal, as well as all his servants and priests. 51 None of them must be absent, for I am offering a great sacrifice to Baal. Any of them who fail to appear will lose their lives.” But Jehu was tricking them 52 so he could destroy the servants of Baal.
2 Kings 11:2
Context11:2 So Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram and sister of Ahaziah, took Ahaziah’s son Joash and sneaked 53 him away from the rest of the royal descendants who were to be executed. She hid him and his nurse in the room where the bed covers were stored. 54 So he was hidden from Athaliah and escaped execution. 55
2 Kings 11:9
Context11:9 The officers of the units of hundreds did just as 56 Jehoiada the priest ordered. Each of them took his men, those who were on duty during the Sabbath as well as those who were off duty on the Sabbath, and reported 57 to Jehoiada the priest.
2 Kings 13:21
Context13:21 One day some men 58 were burying a man when they spotted 59 a raiding party. So they threw the dead man 60 into Elisha’s tomb. When the body 61 touched Elisha’s bones, the dead man 62 came to life and stood on his feet.
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, 63 “Fathers must not be put to death for what their sons do, 64 and sons must not be put to death for what their fathers do. 65 A man must be put to death only for his own sin.” 66
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, 67 in accordance with the word of the Lord God of Israel announced through 68 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 69 until the day he died. He lived in separate quarters, 70 while his son Jotham was in charge of the palace and ruled over the people of the land.
2 Kings 17:4
Context17:4 The king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was planning a revolt. 71 Hoshea had sent messengers to King So 72 of Egypt and had not sent his annual tribute to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria arrested him and imprisoned him. 73
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.” 74
2 Kings 17:15
Context17:15 They rejected his rules, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the laws he had commanded them to obey. 75 They paid allegiance to 76 worthless idols, and so became worthless to the Lord. 77 They copied the practices of the surrounding nations in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command. 78
2 Kings 18:17
Context18:17 The king of Assyria sent his commanding general, the chief eunuch, and the chief adviser 79 from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, 80 along with a large army. They went up and arrived at Jerusalem. They went 81 and stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. 82
2 Kings 18:21-22
Context18:21 Now look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If a man leans for support on it, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him. 18:22 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 18:27
Context18:27 But the chief adviser said to them, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. 83 His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you.” 84
2 Kings 19:4
Context19:4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. 85 When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. 86 So pray for this remnant that remains.’” 87
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. 88
He will not attack it with his shield-carrying warriors, 89
nor will he build siege works against it.
2 Kings 20:20
Context20:20 The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign and all his accomplishments, including how he built a pool and conduit to bring 90 water into the city, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 91
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 92 and worshiped 93 them.
2 Kings 21:6-7
Context21:6 He passed his son 94 through the fire 95 and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it. 96 He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 97 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. 98
2 Kings 25:1
Context25:1 So King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside 99 it. They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign. 100
2 Kings 25:25
Context25:25 But in the seventh month 101 Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, 102 came with ten of his men and murdered Gedaliah, 103 as well as the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.
2 Kings 25:27
Context25:27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh 104 day of the twelfth month, 105 King Evil-Merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned 106 King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him 107 from prison.
1 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.
2 tn Heb “they departed from him.”
3 tn Heb “a wife from among the wives of the sons of the prophets.”
4 tn Or “cried out.”
5 tn Heb “your servant feared the
6 tn Heb “her soul [i.e., ‘disposition’] is bitter.”
7 tn Heb “a vine of the field.”
8 tn Heb “[some] of the gourds of the field.”
9 tn Heb “he came and cut [them up].”
10 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.
11 tn Heb “my father,” reflecting the perspective of each individual servant. To address their master as “father” would emphasize his authority and express their respect. See BDB 3 s.v. אָב and the similar idiomatic use of “father” in 2 Kgs 2:12.
12 tn Heb “a great thing.”
13 tn Heb “would you not do [it]?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you would.”
14 tn Heb “How much more [when] he said, “Wash and be healed.” The second imperative (“be healed”) states the expected result of obeying the first (‘wash”).
15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Naaman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
16 tn Heb “look.”
17 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 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.
19 tn In the MT the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question, “Is this the time…?” It expects an emphatic negative response.
20 tn Heb “servants” (also in v. 13).
21 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.”
22 tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”
23 tn Heb “the officer on whose hand he leans.”
24 tn Heb “and the people trampled him in the gate and he died.”
25 tn Heb “just as the man of God had spoken, [the word] which he spoke when the king came down to him.”
26 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
27 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the prophet) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
28 tn Heb “went out to.”
29 tc The MT has the singular, “he said,” but many witnesses correctly read the plural.
30 tn Heb “Is there peace?”
31 tn Heb “He said, ‘You, you know the man and his thoughts.’” Jehu tries to deflect their question by reminding them that the man is an eccentric individual who says strange things. His reply suggests that the man said nothing of importance. The translation seeks to bring out the tone and intent of Jehu’s reply.
32 tn Heb “which the Syrians inflicted [on] him.”
33 sn See 2 Kgs 8:28-29a.
34 tn The words “his supporters” are added for clarification.
35 tn Heb “If this is your desire.” נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) refers here to the seat of the emotions and will. For other examples of this use of the word, see BDB 660-61 s.v.
36 tn The words “my chariot” are added for clarification.
37 tn Heb “and he hitched up his chariot.”
38 tn Heb “each in his chariot and they went out.”
39 tn Heb “they found him.”
40 tn Heb “and I will repay you in this plot of land.”
41 tn Heb “according to the word of the
42 tn Heb “and Ahaziah king of Judah saw and fled.”
43 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.
44 map For location see Map1 D4; Map2 C1; Map4 C2; Map5 F2; Map7 B1.
45 tn Heb “found.”
46 tn Heb “and he went from there and found Jehonadab son of Rekab [who was coming] to meet him.”
47 tn Heb “and he blessed him and said to him.”
48 tn Heb “Is there with your heart [what is] right, as my heart [is] with your heart?”
49 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.
50 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
51 tn Heb “and now, all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests summon to me.”
52 tn Heb “acted with deception [or, ‘trickery’].”
53 tn Heb “stole.”
54 tn Heb “him and his nurse in an inner room of beds.” The verb is missing in the Hebrew text. The parallel passage in 2 Chr 22:11 has “and she put” at the beginning of the clause. M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 126) regard the Chronicles passage as an editorial attempt to clarify the difficulty of the original text. They prefer to take “him and his nurse” as objects of the verb “stole” and understand “in the bedroom” as the place where the royal descendants were executed. The phrase בַּחֲדַר הַמִּטּוֹת (bakhadar hammittot), “an inner room of beds,” is sometimes understood as referring to a bedroom (HALOT 293 s.v. חֶדֶר), though some prefer to see here a “room where the covers and cloths were kept for the beds (HALOT 573 s.v. מִטָּת). In either case, it may have been a temporary hideout, for v. 3 indicates that the child hid in the temple for six years.
55 tn Heb “and they hid him from Athaliah and he was not put to death.” The subject of the plural verb (“they hid”) is probably indefinite.
56 tn Heb “according to all that.”
57 tn Heb “came.”
58 tn Heb “and it so happened [that] they.”
59 tn Heb “and look, they saw.”
60 tn Heb “the man”; the adjective “dead” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
61 tn Heb “the man.”
62 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.
63 tn Heb “as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses which the
64 tn Heb “on account of sons.”
65 tn Heb “on account of fathers.”
66 sn This law is recorded in Deut 24:16.
67 tn The phrases “in the north” and “in the south” are added in the translation for clarification.
68 tn Heb “which he spoke by the hand of.”
69 tn Traditionally, “he was a leper.” But see the note at 5:1.
70 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.
71 tn Heb “and the king of Assyria found in Hoshea conspiracy.”
72 sn For discussion of this name, see HALOT 744 s.v. סוֹא and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 196.
73 tn Heb “and bound him in the house of confinement.”
74 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.”
75 tn Or “and his warnings he had given them.”
76 tn Heb “They went [or, ‘followed’] after.” This idiom probably does not mean much if translated literally. It is found most often in Deuteronomy or in literature related to the covenant. It refers in the first instance to loyalty to God and to His covenant or His commandments (1 Kgs 14:8; 2 Chr 34:31) with the metaphor of a path or way underlying it (Deut 11:28; 28:14). To “follow other gods” was to abandon this way and this loyalty (to “abandon” or “forget” God, Judg 2:12; Hos 2:13) and to follow the customs or religious traditions of the pagan nations (2 Kgs 17:15). The classic text on “following” God or another god is 1 Kgs 18:18, 21 where Elijah taunts the people with “halting between two opinions” whether the
77 tn Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” The words “to the
78 tn Heb “and [they walked] after the nations which were around them, concerning which the
79 sn For a discussion of these titles see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 229-30.
80 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
81 tn Heb “and they went up and came.”
82 tn Heb “the field of the washer.”
83 tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.
84 tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”
sn The chief adviser alludes to the horrible reality of siege warfare, when the starving people in the besieged city would resort to eating and drinking anything to stay alive.
85 tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”
86 tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the
87 tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”
88 tn Heb “there.”
89 tn Heb “[with] a shield.” By metonymy the “shield” stands for the soldier who carries it.
90 tn Heb “and he brought.”
91 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Hezekiah, and all his strength, and how he made a pool and a conduit and brought water to the city, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
92 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 17:16.
93 tn Or “served.”
94 tc The LXX has the plural “his sons” here.
95 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.
96 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.
97 tc Heb “and he multiplied doing what is evil in the eyes of the
98 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”).”
99 tn Or “against.”
100 sn This would have been Jan 15, 588
101 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).
102 tn Heb “[was] from the seed of the kingdom.”
103 tn Heb “and they struck down Gedaliah and he died.”
104 sn The parallel account in Jer 52:31 has “twenty-fifth.”
105 sn The twenty-seventh day would be March 22, 561
106 tn Heb “lifted up the head of.”
107 tn The words “released him” are supplied in the translation on the basis of Jer 52:31.
