2 Raja-raja 1:12

1:12 Elijah replied to them, ¹  “If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire from God ²  came down from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.

2 Raja-raja 2:4

2:4 Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” ³  But he replied, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho.

2 Raja-raja 2:9

2:9 When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “What can I do for you, ⁴  before I am taken away from you?” Elisha answered, “May I receive a double portion of the prophetic spirit that energizes you.” ⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 2:16

2:16 They said to him, “Look, there are fifty capable men with your servants. Let them go and look for your master, for the wind sent from the Lord ⁶  may have carried him away and dropped him on one of the hills or in one of the valleys.” But Elisha ⁷  replied, “Don’t send them out.”

2 Raja-raja 3:27

3:27 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, ⁸  so they broke off the attack ⁹  and returned to their homeland.

2 Raja-raja 4:10

4:10 Let’s make a small private upper room ¹⁰  and furnish it with ¹¹  a bed, table, chair, and lamp. When he visits us, he can stay there.”

2 Raja-raja 4:27

4:27 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. ¹²  The Lord has kept the matter hidden from me; he didn’t tell me about it.”

2 Raja-raja 4:38

Elisha Makes a Meal Edible

4:38 Now Elisha went back to Gilgal, while there was famine in the land. Some of the prophets were visiting him ¹³  and he told his servant, “Put the big pot on the fire ¹⁴  and boil some stew for the prophets.” ¹⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 5:23

5:23 Naaman said, “Please accept two talents of silver. ¹⁶  He insisted, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, along with two suits of clothes. He gave them to two of his servants and they carried them for Gehazi. ¹⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 6:15

6:15 The prophet’s ¹⁸  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, ¹⁹  “Oh no, my master! What will we do?”

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, ²⁰  guarding against an invasion by King Hazael of Syria.

2 Raja-raja 11:9

11:9 The officers of the units of hundreds did just as ²¹  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 ²²  to Jehoiada the priest.

2 Raja-raja 11:19

11:19 He took the officers of the units of hundreds, the Carians, the royal bodyguard, and all the people of land, and together they led the king down from the Lord’s temple. They entered the royal palace through the Gate of the Royal Bodyguard, ²³  and the king ²⁴  sat down on the royal throne.

2 Raja-raja 14:10

14:10 You thoroughly defeated Edom ²⁵  and it has gone to your head! ²⁶  Gloat over your success, ²⁷  but stay in your palace. Why bring calamity on yourself? Why bring down yourself and Judah along with you?” ²⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 17:24

The King of Assyria Populates Israel with Foreigners

17:24 The king of Assyria brought foreigners ²⁹  from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the cities of Samaria ³⁰  in place of the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.

2 Raja-raja 18:4

18:4 He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole. ³¹  He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time ³²  the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan. ³³ 

2 Raja-raja 18:21

18:21 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.

2 Raja-raja 19:23

19:23 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ³⁴ 

‘With my many chariots ³⁵ 

I climbed up the high mountains,

the slopes of Lebanon.

I cut down its tall cedars,

and its best evergreens.

I invaded its most remote regions, ³⁶ 

its thickest woods.

2 Raja-raja 19:25

19:25 ³⁷ Certainly you must have heard! ³⁸ 

Long ago I worked it out,

In ancient times I planned ³⁹  it;

and now I am bringing it to pass.

The plan is this:

Fortified cities will crash

into heaps of ruins. ⁴⁰ 

2 Raja-raja 19:28

19:28 Because you rage against me,

and the uproar you create has reached my ears; ⁴¹ 

I will put my hook in your nose, ⁴² 

and my bridle between your lips,

and I will lead you back the way

you came.”

2 Raja-raja 19:32

19:32 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. ⁴³ 

He will not attack it with his shield-carrying warriors, ⁴⁴ 

nor will he build siege works against it.

2 Raja-raja 21:8

21:8 I will not make Israel again leave the land I gave to their ancestors, ⁴⁵  provided that they carefully obey all I commanded them, the whole law my servant Moses ordered them to obey.”

2 Raja-raja 22:3

22:3 In the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, the king sent the scribe Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, to the Lord’s temple with these orders: ⁴⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 22:14

22:14 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. ⁴⁷  (She lived in Jerusalem in the Mishneh ⁴⁸  district.) They stated their business, ⁴⁹ 

2 Raja-raja 23:13

23:13 The king ruined the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, ⁵⁰  that King Solomon of Israel had built for the detestable Sidonian goddess Astarte, the detestable Moabite god Chemosh, and the horrible Ammonite god Milcom.

2 Raja-raja 25:4

25:4 The enemy broke through the city walls, ⁵¹  and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. ⁵²  They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden. ⁵³  (The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. ⁵⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 25:23

25:23 All of the officers of the Judahite army ⁵⁵  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.

[1:12]  ¹ tc Two medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitta have the singular “to him.”

[1:12]  ² tn Or “intense fire.” The divine name may be used idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the fire. Whether one translates אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) here as a proper name or idiomatically, this addition to the narrative (the name is omitted in the first panel, v. 10b) emphasizes the severity of the judgment and is appropriate given the more intense command delivered by the king to the prophet in this panel.

[2:4]  ³ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[2:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “Ask! What can I do for you….?”

[2:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “May a double portion of your spirit come to me.”

[2:16]  ⁶ tn Or “the spirit of the Lord.”

[2:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “there was great anger against Israel.”

[3:27]  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.

[3:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “they departed from him.”

[4:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a small upper room of a wall”; according to HALOT 832 s.v. עֲלִיָּה, this refers to “a fully walled upper room.”

[4:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and let’s put there for him.”

[4:27]  ¹² tn Heb “her soul [i.e., ‘disposition’] is bitter.”

[4:38]  ¹³ tn Heb “the sons of the prophets were sitting before him.”

[4:38]  ¹⁴ tn The words “the fire” are added for clarification.

[4:38]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “sons of the prophets.”

[5:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Be resolved and accept two talents.”

[5:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “before him.”

[6:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “man of God’s.”

[6:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “his young servant said to him.”

[9:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he and all Israel.”

[11:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “according to all that.”

[11:9]  ²² tn Heb “came.”

[11:19]  ²³ tn Heb “the Gate of the Runners of the House of the King.”

[11:19]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:10]  ²⁵ tn Or “you have indeed defeated Edom.”

[14:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and your heart has lifted you up.”

[14:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “be glorified.”

[14:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Why get involved in calamity and fall, you and Judah with you?”

[17:24]  ²⁹ tn The object is supplied in the translation.

[17:24]  ³⁰ sn In vv. 24-29 Samaria stands for the entire northern kingdom of Israel.

[18:4]  ³¹ tn The term is singular in the MT but plural in the LXX and other ancient versions. It is also possible to regard the singular as a collective singular, especially in the context of other plural items.

[18:4]  sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

[18:4]  ³² tn Heb “until those days.”

[18:4]  ³³ tn In Hebrew the name sounds like the phrase נְחַשׁ הַנְּחֹשֶׁת (nÿkhash hannÿkhoshet), “bronze serpent.”

[19:23]  ³⁴ tn The word is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai), “lord,” but some Hebrew mss have יְהוָה (yehvah), “Lord.”

[19:23]  ³⁵ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has בְּרֶכֶב (bÿrekhev), but this must be dittographic (note the following רִכְבִּי [rikhbi], “my chariots”). The marginal reading (Qere) בְּרֹב (bÿrov), “with many,” is supported by many Hebrew mss and ancient versions, as well as the parallel passage in Isa 37:24.

[19:23]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the lodging place of its extremity.”

[19:25]  ³⁷ tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.

[19:25]  ³⁸ tn Heb “Have you not heard?” The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s amazement that anyone might be ignorant of what he is about to say.

[19:25]  ³⁹ tn Heb “formed.”

[19:25]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and it is to cause to crash into heaps of ruins fortified cities.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb תְּהִי (tÿhi) is the implied plan, referred to in the preceding lines with third feminine singular pronominal suffixes.

[19:28]  ⁴¹ tc Heb “and your complacency comes up into my ears.” The parallelism is improved if שַׁאֲנַנְךְ (sha’anankh), “your complacency,” is emended to שַׁאֲוַנְךְ (sha’avankh), “your uproar.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 237-38.

[19:28]  ⁴² sn The word picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.

[19:32]  ⁴³ tn Heb “there.”

[19:32]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “[with] a shield.” By metonymy the “shield” stands for the soldier who carries it.

[21:8]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “I will not again make the feet of Israel wander from the land which I gave to their fathers.”

[22:3]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “with these orders, saying.”

[22:14]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “the keeper of the clothes.”

[22:14]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “second.” For a discussion of the possible location of this district, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 283.

[22:14]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and they spoke to her.”

[23:13]  ⁵⁰ sn This is a derogatory name for the Mount of Olives, involving a wordplay between מָשְׁחָה (mashÿkhah), “anointing,” and מַשְׁחִית (mashÿkhit), “destruction.” See HALOT 644 s.v. מַשְׁחִית and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 289.

[25:4]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “the city was breached.”

[25:4]  ⁵² tn The Hebrew text is abrupt here: “And all the men of war by the night.” The translation attempts to capture the sense.

[25:4]  ⁵³ sn The king’s garden is mentioned again in Neh 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the city of David. This would have been in the southern part of the city near the Tyropean Valley which agrees with the reference to the “two walls” which were probably the walls on the eastern and western hills.

[25:4]  ⁵⁴ sn Heb “toward the Arabah.” The Arabah was the rift valley north and south of the Dead Sea. Here the intention was undoubtedly to escape across the Jordan to Moab or Ammon. It appears from Jer 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.

[25:23]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “of the army.” The word “Judahite” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.