2 Raja-raja 1:3

1:3 But the Lord’s angelic messenger told Elijah the Tishbite, “Get up, go to meet the messengers from the king of Samaria. Say this to them: ‘You must think there is no God in Israel! That explains why you are on your way to seek an oracle from Baal Zebub the god of Ekron. ¹ 

2 Raja-raja 1:17

1:17 He died just as the Lord had prophesied through Elijah. ²  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. ³ 

2 Raja-raja 2:6

2:6 Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” But he replied, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they traveled on together.

2 Raja-raja 3:25

3:25 They tore down the cities and each man threw a stone into every cultivated field until they were covered. ⁴  They stopped up every spring and chopped down every productive tree.

Only Kir Hareseth was left intact, ⁵  but the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.

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, ⁶  so they broke off the attack ⁷  and returned to their homeland.

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. ⁸  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 ⁹  and he told his servant, “Put the big pot on the fire ¹⁰  and boil some stew for the prophets.” ¹¹ 

2 Raja-raja 5:23

5:23 Naaman said, “Please accept two talents of silver. ¹²  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. ¹³ 

2 Raja-raja 7:2

7:2 An officer who was the king’s right-hand man ¹⁴  responded to the prophet, ¹⁵  “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” ¹⁶  Elisha ¹⁷  said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” ¹⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 9:17-18

9:17 Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel and saw Jehu’s troops approaching. ¹⁹  He said, “I see troops!” ²⁰  Jehoram ordered, ²¹  “Send a rider out to meet them and have him ask, ‘Is everything all right?’” ²²  9:18 So the horseman ²³  went to meet him and said, “This is what the king says, ‘Is everything all right?’” ²⁴  Jehu replied, “None of your business! ²⁵  Follow me.” The watchman reported, “The messenger reached them, but hasn’t started back.”

2 Raja-raja 10:23

10:23 Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went to the temple of Baal. Jehu ²⁶  said to the servants of Baal, “Make sure there are no servants of the Lord here with you; there must be only servants of Baal.” ²⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 10:30

10:30 The Lord said to Jehu, “You have done well. You have accomplished my will and carried out my wishes with regard to Ahab’s dynasty. Therefore four generations of your descendants will rule over Israel.” ²⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 11:15

11:15 Jehoiada the priest ordered the officers of the units of hundreds, who were in charge of the army, ²⁹  “Bring her outside the temple to the guards. ³⁰  Put the sword to anyone who follows her.” The priest gave this order because he had decided she should not be executed in the Lord’s temple. ³¹ 

2 Raja-raja 12:7

12:7 So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest along with the other priests, and said to them, “Why have you not repaired the damage to the temple? Now, take no more silver from your treasurers unless you intend to use it to repair the damage.” ³² 

2 Raja-raja 13:17

13:17 Elisha ³³  said, “Open the east window,” and he did so. ³⁴  Elisha said, “Shoot!” and

he did so. ³⁵  Elisha ³⁶  said, “This arrow symbolizes the victory the Lord will give you over Syria. ³⁷  You will annihilate Syria in Aphek!” ³⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 14:25

14:25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo Hamath in the north to the sea of the Arabah in the south, ³⁹  in accordance with the word of the Lord God of Israel announced through ⁴⁰  his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.

2 Raja-raja 17:26

17:26 The king of Assyria was told, ⁴¹  “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 ⁴²  because they do not know the requirements of the God of the land.”

2 Raja-raja 19:28

19:28 Because you rage against me,

and the uproar you create has reached my ears; ⁴³ 

I will put my hook in your nose, ⁴⁴ 

and my bridle between your lips,

and I will lead you back the way

you came.”

2 Raja-raja 20:1

Hezekiah is Healed

20:1 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. ⁴⁵  The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give your household instructions, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’” ⁴⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 20:5

20:5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. The day after tomorrow ⁴⁷  you will go up to the Lord’s temple.

2 Raja-raja 23:19

23:19 Josiah also removed all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria. The kings of Israel had made them and angered the Lord. ⁴⁸  He did to them what he had done to the high place in Bethel. ⁴⁹ 

2 Raja-raja 25:27

Jehoiachin in Babylon

25:27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh ⁵⁰  day of the twelfth month, ⁵¹  King Evil-Merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned ⁵²  King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him ⁵³  from prison.

[1:3]  ¹ tn Heb “Is it because there is no God in Israel [that] you are going to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?” The translation seeks to bring out the sarcastic tone of the rhetorical question.

[1:17]  ² tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord which he spoke through Elijah.”

[1:17]  ³ 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.

[3:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “and [on] every good portion they were throwing each man his stone and they filled it.” The vav + perfect (“and they filled”) here indicates customary action contemporary with the situation described in the preceding main clause (where a customary imperfect is used, “they were throwing”). See the note at 3:4.

[3:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “until he had allowed its stones to remain in Kir Hareseth.”

[3:27]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “they departed from him.”

[4:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “her soul [i.e., ‘disposition’] is bitter.”

[4:38]  ⁹ tn Heb “the sons of the prophets were sitting before him.”

[4:38]  ¹⁰ tn The words “the fire” are added for clarification.

[4:38]  ¹¹ tn Heb “sons of the prophets.”

[5:23]  ¹² tn Heb “Be resolved and accept two talents.”

[5:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “before him.”

[7:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the officer on whose hand the king leans.”

[7:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “man of God.”

[7:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” Opening holes in the sky would allow the waters stored up there to pour to the earth and assure a good crop. But, the officer argues, even if this were to happen, it would take a long time to grow and harvest the crop.

[7:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”

[9:17]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn The term שִׁפְעַת (shifat) appears to be a construct form of the noun, but no genitive follows.

[9:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “said.”

[9:17]  ²² tn Heb “Get a rider and send [him] to meet him and let him ask, ‘Is there peace?’”

[9:18]  ²³ tn Heb “the rider of the horse.”

[9:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Is there peace?”

[9:18]  ²⁵ tn Heb “What concerning you and concerning peace?” That is, “What concern is that to you?”

[10:23]  ²⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:23]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Search carefully and observe so that there are not here with you any servants of the Lord, only the servants of Baal.”

[10:30]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Because you have done well by doing what is proper in my eyes – according to all which was in my heart you have done to the house of Ahab – sons of four generations will sit for you on the throne of Israel.” In the Hebrew text the Lord’s statement is one long sentence (with a parenthesis). The translation above divides it into shorter sentences for stylistic reasons.

[10:30]  sn Jehu ruled over Israel from approximately 841-814 b.c. Four of his descendants (Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, and Zechariah) ruled from approximately 814-753 b.c. The dynasty came to an end when Shallum assassinated Zechariah in 753 b.c. See 2 Kgs 15:8-12.

[11:15]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew text also has, “and said to them.” This is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[11:15]  ³⁰ tn Heb “ranks.”

[11:15]  ³¹ tn Heb “for the priest had said, ‘Let her not be put to death in the house of the Lord.’”

[12:7]  ³² tn Heb “Now, do not take silver from your treasurers, because for the damages to the temple you must give it.”

[13:17]  ³³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:17]  ³⁴ tn Heb “He opened [it].”

[13:17]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and he shot.”

[13:17]  ³⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:17]  ³⁷ tn Heb “The arrow of victory of the Lord and the arrow of victory over Syria.”

[13:17]  ³⁸ tn Heb “you will strike down Syria in Aphek until destruction.”

[14:25]  ³⁹ tn The phrases “in the north” and “in the south” are added in the translation for clarification.

[14:25]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “which he spoke by the hand of.”

[17:26]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “and they said to the king of Assyria, saying.” The plural subject of the verb is indefinite.

[17:26]  ⁴² tn Heb “Look they are killing them.”

[19:28]  ⁴³ 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]  ⁴⁴ sn The word picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.

[20:1]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “was sick to the point of dying.”

[20:1]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “will not live.”

[20:5]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “on the third day.”

[23:19]  ⁴⁸ tc Heb “which the kings of Israel had made, angering.” The object has been accidentally omitted in the MT. It appears in the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate versions.

[23:19]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel.”

[23:19]  map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[25:27]  ⁵⁰ sn The parallel account in Jer 52:31 has “twenty-fifth.”

[25:27]  ⁵¹ sn The twenty-seventh day would be March 22, 561 b.c. in modern reckoning.

[25:27]  ⁵² tn Heb “lifted up the head of.”

[25:27]  ⁵³ tn The words “released him” are supplied in the translation on the basis of Jer 52:31.