2 Raja-raja 16:3

16:3 He followed in the footsteps of ¹  the kings of Israel. He passed his son through the fire, ²  a horrible sin practiced by the nations ³  whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites.

2 Raja-raja 21:6

21:6 He passed his son ⁴  through the fire ⁵  and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it. ⁶  He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ⁷ 

[16:3]  ¹ tn Heb “he walked in the way of.”

[16:3]  ² sn This may refer to child sacrifice, though some interpret it as a less drastic cultic practice. For discussion see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 266-67.

[16:3]  ³ tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”

[21:6]  ⁴ tc The LXX has the plural “his sons” here.

[21:6]  ⁵ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.

[21:6]  ⁶ 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.

[21:6]  ⁷ tc Heb “and he multiplied doing what is evil in the eyes of the Lord, angering.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix (“him”) has been accidentally omitted in the MT by haplography (note the vav that immediately follows).