Discovery Box2 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, 1 so they broke off the attack 2 and returned to their homeland.
2 Kings 6:22
Context6:22 He replied, “Do not strike them down! You did not capture them with your sword or bow, so what gives you the right to strike them down? 3 Give them some food and water, so they can eat and drink and then go back to their master.”
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!) 4 Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.” 5
2 Kings 9:21
Context9:21 Jehoram ordered, “Hitch up my chariot.” 6 When his chariot had been hitched up, 7 King Jehoram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah went out in their respective chariots 8 to meet Jehu. They met up with him 9 in the plot of land that had once belonged to Naboth of Jezreel.
2 Kings 10:19
Context10:19 So now, bring to me all the prophets of Baal, as well as all his servants and priests. 10 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 11 so he could destroy the servants of Baal.
2 Kings 10:25
Context10:25 When he finished offering the burnt sacrifice, Jehu ordered the royal guard 12 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. 13 Then they entered the inner sanctuary of the temple of Baal. 14
2 Kings 11:14
Context11:14 Then she saw 15 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!” 16
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. 17 They paid allegiance to 18 worthless idols, and so became worthless to the Lord. 19 They copied the practices of the surrounding nations in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command. 20
2 Kings 19:26
Context19:26 Their residents are powerless, 21
they are terrified and ashamed.
They are as short-lived as plants in the field,
or green vegetation. 22
They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops 23
when it is scorched by the east wind. 24
2 Kings 19:29
Context19:29 25 This will be your confirmation that I have spoken the truth: 26 This year you will eat what grows wild, 27 and next year 28 what grows on its own from that. But in the third year you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce. 29
2 Kings 22:14
Context22:14 So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shullam son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the supervisor of the wardrobe. 30 (She lived in Jerusalem in the Mishneh 31 district.) They stated their business, 32
2 Kings 23:4
Context23:4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests, 33 and the guards 34 to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of 35 Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. 36 The king 37 burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces 38 of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 39
2 Kings 25:23-24
Context25:23 All of the officers of the Judahite army 40 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. 25:24 Gedaliah took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety. 41 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 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 “Are [they] ones you captured with your sword or your bow (that) you can strike (them) down?”
4 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.”
5 tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”
6 tn The words “my chariot” are added for clarification.
7 tn Heb “and he hitched up his chariot.”
8 tn Heb “each in his chariot and they went out.”
9 tn Heb “they found him.”
10 tn Heb “and now, all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests summon to me.”
11 tn Heb “acted with deception [or, ‘trickery’].”
12 tn Heb “runners.”
13 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.
14 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.”
15 tn Heb “and she saw, and look.”
16 tn Or “conspiracy, conspiracy.”
17 tn Or “and his warnings he had given them.”
18 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
19 tn Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” The words “to the
20 tn Heb “and [they walked] after the nations which were around them, concerning which the
21 tn Heb “short of hand.”
22 tn Heb “they are plants in the field and green vegetation.” The metaphor emphasizes how short-lived these seemingly powerful cities really were. See Ps 90:5-6; Isa 40:6-8, 24.
23 tn Heb “[they are] grass on the rooftops.” See the preceding note.
24 tc The Hebrew text has “scorched before the standing grain” (perhaps meaning “before it reaches maturity”), but it is preferable to emend קָמָה (qamah), “standing grain,” to קָדִים (qadim), “east wind” (with the support of 1Q Isaa in Isa 37:27).
25 tn At this point the word concerning the king of Assyria (vv. 21-28) ends and the Lord again directly addresses Hezekiah and the people (see v. 20).
26 tn Heb “and this is your sign.” In this case the אוֹת (’ot), “sign,” is a future confirmation of God’s intervention designated before the actual intervention takes place. For similar “signs” see Exod 3:12 and Isa 7:14-25.
27 sn This refers to crops that grew up on their own (that is, without cultivation) from the seed planted in past years.
28 tn Heb “and in the second year.”
29 tn The four plural imperatival verb forms in v. 29b are used rhetorically. The Lord commands the people to plant, harvest, etc. to emphasize the certainty of restored peace and prosperity. See IBHS 572 §34.4.c.
30 tn Heb “the keeper of the clothes.”
31 tn Or “second.” For a discussion of the possible location of this district, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 283.
32 tn Heb “and they spoke to her.”
33 tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.
34 tn Or “doorkeepers.”
35 tn Heb “for.”
36 tn Heb “all the host of heaven” (also in v. 5).
37 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
38 tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.
39 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
40 tn Heb “of the army.” The word “Judahite” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
41 tn The words “so as to give them…some assurance of safety” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
