2 Raja-raja 1:17

1:17 He died just as the Lord had prophesied through Elijah. ¹  In the second year of the reign of King Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat over Judah, Ahaziah’s brother Jehoram replaced him as king of Israel, because he had no son. ² 

2 Raja-raja 2:5

2:5 Some members of the prophetic guild in Jericho approached Elisha and said, “Do you know that today the Lord is going to take your master from you?” He answered, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.”

2 Raja-raja 2:9

2:9 When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “What can I do for you, ³  before I am taken away from you?” Elisha answered, “May I receive a double portion of the prophetic spirit that energizes you.” ⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 3:11

3:11 Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here that we might seek the Lord’s direction?” ⁵  One of the servants of the king of Israel answered, “Elisha son of Shapat is here; he used to be Elijah’s servant.” ⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 5:17

5:17 Naaman said, “If not, then please give your servant a load of dirt, enough for a pair of mules to carry, ⁷  for your servant will never again offer a burnt offering or sacrifice to a god other than the Lord. ⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 6:15

6:15 The prophet’s ⁹  attendant got up early in the morning. When he went outside there was an army surrounding the city, along with horses and chariots. He said to Elisha, ¹⁰  “Oh no, my master! What will we do?”

2 Raja-raja 7:1

7:1 Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says, ‘About this time tomorrow a seah ¹¹  of finely milled flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’”

2 Raja-raja 8:9

8:9 So Hazael went to visit Elisha. ¹²  He took along a gift, ¹³  as well as ¹⁴  forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son, ¹⁵  King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question, ¹⁶  ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

2 Raja-raja 9:14

9:14 Then Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi conspired against Joram.

Jehu the Assassin

Now Joram had been in Ramoth Gilead with the whole Israelite army, ¹⁷  guarding against an invasion by King Hazael of Syria.

2 Raja-raja 9:17

9:17 Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel and saw Jehu’s troops approaching. ¹⁸  He said, “I see troops!” ¹⁹  Jehoram ordered, ²⁰  “Send a rider out to meet them and have him ask, ‘Is everything all right?’” ²¹ 

2 Raja-raja 9:27

9:27 When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what happened, he took off ²²  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. ²³  He fled to Megiddo ²⁴  and died there.

2 Raja-raja 10:25

10:25 When he finished offering the burnt sacrifice, Jehu ordered the royal guard ²⁵  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. ²⁶  Then they entered the inner sanctuary of the temple of Baal. ²⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 11:9

11:9 The officers of the units of hundreds did just as ²⁸  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 ²⁹  to Jehoiada the priest.

2 Raja-raja 11:18

11:18 All the people of the land went and demolished ³⁰  the temple of Baal. They smashed its altars and idols ³¹  to bits. ³²  They killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altar. Jehoiada the priest ³³  then placed guards at the Lord’s temple.

2 Raja-raja 14:13

14:13 King Jehoash of Israel captured King Amaziah of Judah, son of Jehoash son of Ahaziah, in Beth Shemesh. He ³⁴  attacked ³⁵  Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate – a distance of about six hundred feet. ³⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 16:17

16:17 King Ahaz took off the frames of the movable stands, and removed the basins from them. He took “The Sea” ³⁷  down from the bronze bulls that supported it ³⁸  and put it on the pavement.

2 Raja-raja 17:26-27

17:26 The king of Assyria was told, ³⁹  “The nations whom you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the requirements of the God of the land, so he has sent lions among them. They are killing the people ⁴⁰  because they do not know the requirements of the God of the land.” 17:27 So the king of Assyria ordered, “Take back one of the priests whom you ⁴¹  deported from there. He must settle there and teach them the requirements of the God of the land.” ⁴² 

2 Raja-raja 19:37

19:37 One day, ⁴³  as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, ⁴⁴  his sons ⁴⁵  Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. ⁴⁶  They escaped to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

2 Raja-raja 22:9

22:9 Shaphan the scribe went to the king and reported, ⁴⁷  “Your servants melted down the silver in the temple ⁴⁸  and handed it over to the construction foremen assigned to the Lord’s temple.”

[1:17]  ¹ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord which he spoke through Elijah.”

[1:17]  ² tn Heb “Jehoram replaced him as king…because he had no son.” Some ancient textual witnesses add “his brother,” which was likely added on the basis of the statement later in the verse that Ahaziah had no son.

[2:9]  ³ tn Heb “Ask! What can I do for you….?”

[2:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “May a double portion of your spirit come to me.”

[3:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “that we might inquire of the Lord through him?”

[3:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” This refers to one of the typical tasks of a servant.

[5:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “and [if] not, may there be given to your servant a load [for] a pair of mules, earth.”

[5:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “for your servant will not again make a burnt offering and sacrifice to other gods, only to the Lord.”

[6:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “man of God’s.”

[6:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “his young servant said to him.”

[7:1]  ¹¹ sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 7 quarts.

[8:9]  ¹² tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:9]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”

[8:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and.” It is possible that the conjunction is here explanatory, equivalent to English “that is.” In this case the forty camel loads constitute the “gift” and one should translate, “He took along a gift, consisting of forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus.”

[8:9]  ¹⁵ sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.

[8:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “saying.”

[9:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he and all Israel.”

[9:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the quantity [of the men] of Jehu, when he approached.” Elsewhere שִׁפְעַה (shif’ah), “quantity,” is used of a quantity of camels (Isa 60:6) or horses (Ezek 26:10) and of an abundance of water (Job 22:11; 38:34).

[9:17]  ¹⁹ tn The term שִׁפְעַת (shifat) appears to be a construct form of the noun, but no genitive follows.

[9:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “said.”

[9:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “Get a rider and send [him] to meet him and let him ask, ‘Is there peace?’”

[9:27]  ²² tn Heb “and Ahaziah king of Judah saw and fled.”

[9:27]  ²³ 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.

[9:27]  ²⁴ map For location see Map1 D4; Map2 C1; Map4 C2; Map5 F2; Map7 B1.

[10:25]  ²⁵ tn Heb “runners.”

[10:25]  ²⁶ 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.

[10:25]  ²⁷ 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.”

[11:9]  ²⁸ tn Heb “according to all that.”

[11:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “came.”

[11:18]  ³⁰ tn Or “tore down.”

[11:18]  ³¹ tn Or “images.”

[11:18]  ³² tn The Hebrew construction translated “smashed…to bits” is emphatic. The adverbial infinitive absolute (הֵיטֵב [hetev], “well”) accompanying the Piel form of the verb שָׁבַר (shavar), “break,” suggests thorough demolition.

[11:18]  ³³ tn Heb “the priest.” Jehoiada’s name is added for clarification.

[14:13]  ³⁴ 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.

[14:13]  ³⁵ tn Heb “came to.”

[14:13]  ³⁶ tn Heb “four hundred cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.

[16:17]  ³⁷ sn See the note at 1 Kgs 7:23.

[16:17]  ³⁸ tn Heb “that [were] under it.”

[17:26]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and they said to the king of Assyria, saying.” The plural subject of the verb is indefinite.

[17:26]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “Look they are killing them.”

[17:27]  ⁴¹ tc The second plural subject may refer to the leaders of the Assyrian army. However, some prefer to read “whom I deported,” changing the verb to a first person singular form with a third masculine plural pronominal suffix. This reading has some support from Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic witnesses.

[17:27]  ⁴² tc Heb “and let them go and let them live there, and let him teach them the requirements of the God of the land.” The two plural verbs seem inconsistent with the preceding and following contexts, where only one priest is sent back to Samaria. The singular has the support of Greek, Syriac, and Latin witnesses.

[19:37]  ⁴³ sn The assassination probably took place in 681 b.c.

[19:37]  ⁴⁴ sn No such Mesopotamian god is presently known. Perhaps the name is a corruption of Nusku.

[19:37]  ⁴⁵ tc Although “his sons” is absent in the Kethib, it is supported by the Qere, along with many medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions. Cf. Isa 37:38.

[19:37]  ⁴⁶ sn Extra-biblical sources also mention the assassination of Sennacherib, though they refer to only one assassin. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 239-40.

[22:9]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “returned the king a word and said.”

[22:9]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “that was found in the house.”