2 Raja-raja 20:15

20:15 Isaiah ¹  asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “They have seen everything in my palace. I showed them everything ²  in my treasuries.”

2 Raja-raja 4:25

4:25 So she went to visit ³  the prophet at Mount Carmel. When he ⁴  saw her at a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, it’s the Shunammite woman.

2 Raja-raja 6:21

6:21 When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, “Should I strike them down, ⁵  my master?” ⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 2:12

2:12 While Elisha was watching, he was crying out, “My father, my father! The chariot and horsemen of Israel!” ⁷  Then he could no longer see him. He grabbed his clothes and tore them in two.

2 Raja-raja 16:12

16:12 When the king arrived back from Damascus and ⁸  saw the altar, he approached it ⁹  and offered a sacrifice on it. ¹⁰ 

2 Raja-raja 2:19

Elisha Demonstrates His Authority

2:19 The men of the city said to Elisha, “Look, the city has a good location, as our ¹¹  master can see. But the water is bad and the land doesn’t produce crops.” ¹² 

2 Raja-raja 10:16

10:16 Jehu ¹³  said, “Come with me and see how zealous I am for the Lord’s cause.” ¹⁴  So he ¹⁵  took him along in his chariot.

2 Raja-raja 11:1

Athaliah is Eliminated

11:1 When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she was determined to destroy the entire royal line. ¹⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 6:17

6:17 Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he can see.” The Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw that ¹⁷  the hill was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

2 Raja-raja 6:20

6:20 When they had entered Samaria, Elisha said, “O Lord, open their eyes, so they can see.” The Lord opened their eyes and they saw that they were in the middle of Samaria. ¹⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 6:1

Elisha Makes an Ax Head Float

6:1 Some of the prophets ¹⁹  said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet with you ²⁰  is too cramped ²¹  for us.

2 Raja-raja 3:17

3:17 for this is what the Lord says, ‘You will not feel ²²  any wind or see any rain, but this valley will be full of water and you and your cattle and animals will drink.’

2 Raja-raja 9:17

9:17 Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel and saw Jehu’s troops approaching. ²³  He said, “I see troops!” ²⁴  Jehoram ordered, ²⁵  “Send a rider out to meet them and have him ask, ‘Is everything all right?’” ²⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 13:4

13:4 Jehoahaz asked for the Lord’s mercy ²⁷  and the Lord responded favorably, ²⁸  for he saw that Israel was oppressed by the king of Syria. ²⁹ 

2 Raja-raja 14:26

14:26 The Lord saw Israel’s intense suffering; ³⁰  everyone was weak and incapacitated and Israel had no deliverer. ³¹ 

2 Raja-raja 2:10

2:10 Elijah ³²  replied, “That’s a difficult request! ³³  If you see me taken from you, may it be so, but if you don’t, it will not happen.”

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 ³⁴  you will go up to the Lord’s temple.

2 Raja-raja 20:13

20:13 Hezekiah welcomed ³⁵  them and showed them his whole storehouse, with its silver, gold, spices, and high quality olive oil, as well as his armory and everything in his treasuries. Hezekiah showed them everything in his palace and in his whole kingdom. ³⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 3:22

3:22 When they got up early the next morning, the sun was shining on the water. To the Moabites, who were some distance away, the water looked red like blood.

2 Raja-raja 7:14

7:14 So they picked two horsemen and the king sent them out to track the Syrian army. ³⁷  He ordered them, “Go and find out what’s going on.” ³⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 2:15

2:15 When the members of the prophetic guild in Jericho, ³⁹  who were standing at a distance, ⁴⁰  saw him do this, they said, “The spirit that energized Elijah ⁴¹  rests upon Elisha.” They went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him.

2 Raja-raja 6:30

6:30 When the king heard what the woman said, he tore his clothes. As he was passing by on the wall, the people could see he was wearing sackcloth under his clothes. ⁴² 

2 Raja-raja 5:21

5:21 So Gehazi ran after Naaman. When Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from his chariot to meet him and asked, “Is everything all right?” ⁴³ 

2 Raja-raja 6:13

6:13 The king ⁴⁴  ordered, “Go, find out where he is, so I can send some men to capture him.” ⁴⁵  The king was told, “He is in Dothan.”

2 Raja-raja 9:22

9:22 When Jehoram saw Jehu, he asked, “Is everything all right, Jehu?” He replied, “How can everything be all right as long as your mother Jezebel promotes idolatry and pagan practices?” ⁴⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 19:16

19:16 Pay attention, Lord, and hear! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to the message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God! ⁴⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 3:26

3:26 When the king of Moab realized he was losing the battle, ⁴⁸  he and 700 swordsmen tried to break through and attack ⁴⁹  the king of Edom, but they failed.

2 Raja-raja 9:26

9:26 ‘“Know for sure that I saw the shed blood of Naboth and his sons yesterday,” says the Lord, “and that I will give you what you deserve right here in this plot of land,” ⁵⁰  says the Lord.’ So now pick him up and throw him into this plot of land, just as the Lord said.” ⁵¹ 

2 Raja-raja 11:14

11:14 Then she saw ⁵²  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!” ⁵³ 

2 Raja-raja 19:35

19:35 That very night the Lord’s messenger went out and killed 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. When they ⁵⁴  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses. ⁵⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 7:2

7:2 An officer who was the king’s right-hand man ⁵⁶  responded to the prophet, ⁵⁷  “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” ⁵⁸  Elisha ⁵⁹  said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” ⁶⁰ 

2 Raja-raja 16:10

16:10 When King Ahaz went to meet with King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria in Damascus, he saw the altar there. ⁶¹  King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a drawing of the altar and a blueprint for its design. ⁶² 

2 Raja-raja 12:10

12:10 When they saw the chest was full of silver, the royal secretary ⁶³  and the high priest counted the silver that had been brought to the Lord’s temple and bagged it up. ⁶⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 9:27

9:27 When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what happened, he took off ⁶⁵  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. ⁶⁶  He fled to Megiddo ⁶⁷  and died there.

2 Raja-raja 22:20

22:20 ‘Therefore I will allow you to die and be buried in peace. ⁶⁸  You will not have to witness ⁶⁹  all the disaster I will bring on this place.’”’” Then they reported back to the king.

2 Raja-raja 23:16

23:16 When Josiah turned around, he saw the tombs there on the hill. So he ordered the bones from the tombs to be brought; ⁷⁰  he burned them on the altar and defiled it. This fulfilled the Lord’s announcement made by the prophet while Jeroboam stood by the altar during a festival. King Josiah ⁷¹  turned and saw the grave of the prophet who had foretold this. ⁷² 

2 Raja-raja 2:24

2:24 When he turned around and saw them, he called God’s judgment down on them. ⁷³  Two female bears came out of the woods and ripped forty-two of the boys to pieces.

2 Raja-raja 11:4

11:4 In the seventh year Jehoiada summoned ⁷⁴  the officers of the units of hundreds of the Carians ⁷⁵  and the royal bodyguard. ⁷⁶  He met with them ⁷⁷  in the Lord’s temple. He made an agreement ⁷⁸  with them and made them swear an oath of allegiance in the Lord’s temple. Then he showed them the king’s son.

2 Raja-raja 23:17

23:17 He asked, “What is this grave marker I see?” The men from the city replied, “It’s the grave of the prophet ⁷⁹  who came from Judah and foretold these very things you have done to the altar of Bethel.”

2 Raja-raja 23:24

23:24 Josiah also got rid of ⁸⁰  the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits, ⁸¹  the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images, ⁸²  and all the detestable idols that had appeared in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. In this way he carried out the terms of the law ⁸³  recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s temple.

2 Raja-raja 6:15

6:15 The prophet’s ⁸⁴  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, ⁸⁵  “Oh no, my master! What will we do?”

2 Raja-raja 8:13

8:13 Hazael said, “How could your servant, who is as insignificant as a dog, accomplish this great military victory?” ⁸⁶  Elisha answered, “The Lord has revealed to me that you will be the king of Syria.” ⁸⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 7:13

7:13 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!) ⁸⁸  Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.” ⁸⁹ 

2 Raja-raja 6:32

6:32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house with the community leaders. ⁹⁰  The king ⁹¹  sent a messenger on ahead, but before he arrived, ⁹²  Elisha ⁹³  said to the leaders, ⁹⁴  “Do you realize this assassin intends to cut off my head?” ⁹⁵  Look, when the messenger arrives, shut the door and lean against it. His master will certainly be right behind him.” ⁹⁶ 

2 Raja-raja 5:7

5:7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill or restore life? Why does he ask me to cure a man of his skin disease? ⁹⁷  Certainly you must see that he is looking for an excuse to fight me!” ⁹⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 1:14

1:14 Indeed, ⁹⁹  fire came down from the sky and consumed the two captains who came before me, along with their men. ¹⁰⁰  So now, please have respect for my life.”

2 Raja-raja 4:9

4:9 She said to her husband, “Look, I’m sure ¹⁰¹  that the man who regularly passes through here is a very special prophet. ¹⁰² 

2 Raja-raja 10:3

10:3 pick the best and most capable ¹⁰³  of your master’s sons, place him on his father’s throne, and defend ¹⁰⁴  your master’s dynasty.”

2 Raja-raja 19:7

19:7 Look, I will take control of his mind; ¹⁰⁵  he will receive ¹⁰⁶  a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down ¹⁰⁷  with a sword in his own land.”’”

2 Raja-raja 17:13

17:13 The Lord solemnly warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and all the seers, “Turn back from your evil ways; obey my commandments and rules that are recorded in the law. I ordered your ancestors to keep this law and sent my servants the prophets to remind you of its demands.” ¹⁰⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 5:22

5:22 He answered, “Everything is fine. ¹⁰⁹  My master sent me with this message, ‘Look, two servants of the prophets just arrived from the Ephraimite hill country. ¹¹⁰  Please give them a talent ¹¹¹  of silver and two suits of clothes.’”

2 Raja-raja 6:33

6:33 He was still talking to them when ¹¹²  the messenger approached ¹¹³  and said, “Look, the Lord is responsible for this disaster! ¹¹⁴  Why should I continue to wait for the Lord to help?”

2 Raja-raja 25:4

25:4 The enemy broke through the city walls, ¹¹⁵  and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. ¹¹⁶  They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden. ¹¹⁷  (The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. ¹¹⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 7:19

7:19 But the officer replied to the prophet, “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” ¹¹⁹  Elisha ¹²⁰  said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” ¹²¹ 

2 Raja-raja 13:21

13:21 One day some men ¹²²  were burying a man when they spotted ¹²³  a raiding party. So they threw the dead man ¹²⁴  into Elisha’s tomb. When the body ¹²⁵  touched Elisha’s bones, the dead man ¹²⁶  came to life and stood on his feet.

2 Raja-raja 8:10

8:10 Elisha said to him, “Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover,’ ¹²⁷  but the Lord has revealed to me that he will surely die.”

2 Raja-raja 3:14

3:14 Elisha said, “As certainly as the Lord who rules over all ¹²⁸  lives (whom I serve), ¹²⁹  if I did not respect King Jehoshaphat of Judah, ¹³⁰  I would not pay attention to you or acknowledge you. ¹³¹ 

2 Raja-raja 9:32

9:32 He looked up at the window and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three ¹³²  eunuchs looked down at him.

2 Raja-raja 9:34

9:34 He went inside and had a meal. ¹³³  Then he said, “Dispose of this accursed woman’s corpse. Bury her, for after all, she was a king’s daughter.” ¹³⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 23:29

23:29 During Josiah’s reign Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt marched toward ¹³⁵  the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to fight him, but Necho ¹³⁶  killed him at Megiddo ¹³⁷  when he saw him.

2 Raja-raja 4:32

4:32 When Elisha arrived at the house, there was ¹³⁸  the child lying dead on his bed.

2 Raja-raja 7:15

7:15 So they tracked them ¹³⁹  as far as the Jordan. The road was filled with clothes and equipment that the Syrians had discarded in their haste. ¹⁴⁰  The scouts ¹⁴¹  went back and told the king.

2 Raja-raja 7:5

7:5 So they started toward ¹⁴²  the Syrian camp at dusk. When they reached the edge of the Syrian camp, there was no one there.

2 Raja-raja 9:2

9:2 When you arrive there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi and take him aside into an inner room. ¹⁴³ 

2 Raja-raja 9:20

9:20 The watchman reported, “He reached them, but hasn’t started back. The one who drives the lead chariot drives like Jehu son of Nimshi; ¹⁴⁴  he drives recklessly.”

2 Raja-raja 11:13

11:13 When Athaliah heard the royal guard ¹⁴⁵  shout, she joined the crowd ¹⁴⁶  at the Lord’s temple.

2 Raja-raja 13:14

Elisha Makes One Final Prophecy

13:14 Now Elisha had a terminal illness. ¹⁴⁷  King Joash of Israel went down to visit him. ¹⁴⁸  He wept before him and said, “My father, my father! The chariot ¹⁴⁹  and horsemen of Israel!” ¹⁵⁰ 

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 ¹⁵¹  may have carried him away and dropped him on one of the hills or in one of the valleys.” But Elisha ¹⁵²  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, ¹⁵³  so they broke off the attack ¹⁵⁴  and returned to their homeland.

2 Raja-raja 6:26

6:26 While the king of Israel was passing by on the city wall, a woman shouted to him, “Help us, my master, O king!”

2 Raja-raja 9:18

9:18 So the horseman ¹⁵⁵  went to meet him and said, “This is what the king says, ‘Is everything all right?’” ¹⁵⁶  Jehu replied, “None of your business! ¹⁵⁷  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 ¹⁵⁸  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.” ¹⁵⁹ 

2 Raja-raja 16:14

16:14 He moved the bronze altar that stood in the Lord’s presence from the front of the temple (between the altar and the Lord’s temple) and put it on the north side of the new ¹⁶⁰  altar.

2 Raja-raja 21:6

21:6 He passed his son ¹⁶¹  through the fire ¹⁶²  and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it. ¹⁶³  He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ¹⁶⁴ 

[20:15]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Isaiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:15]  ² tn Heb “there was nothing I did not show them.”

[4:25]  ³ tn Heb “went and came.”

[4:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “the man of God.” The phrase has been replaced by the relative pronoun “he” in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[6:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “Should I strike them down? I will strike them down.” In the Hebrew text the first person imperfect form is repeated; the first form has the interrogative he prefixed to it; the second does not. It is likely that the second form should be omitted as dittographic or that the first should be emended to an infinitive absolute.

[6:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “my father.” The king addresses the prophet in this way to indicate his respect. See 2 Kgs 2:12.

[2:12]  ⁷ sn Elisha may be referring to the fiery chariot(s) and horses as the Lord’s spiritual army that fights on behalf of Israel (see 2 Kgs 6:15-17; 7:6). However, the juxtaposition with “my father” (clearly a reference to Elijah as Elisha’s mentor), and the parallel in 2 Kgs 13:14 (where the king addresses Elisha with these words), suggest that Elisha is referring to Elijah. In this case Elijah is viewed as a one man army, as it were. When the Lord spoke through him, his prophetic word was as powerful as an army of chariots and horses. See M. A. Beek, “The Meaning of the Expression ‘The Chariots and Horsemen of Israel’ (II Kings ii 12),” The Witness of Tradition (OTS 17), 1-10.

[16:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the king.”

[16:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “the altar.”

[16:12]  ¹⁰ tn Or “ascended it.”

[2:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “my.”

[2:19]  ¹² tn Heb “miscarries” or “is barren.”

[10:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and see my zeal for the Lord.”

[10:16]  ¹⁵ tc The MT has a plural form, but this is most likely an error. The LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate all have the singular.

[11:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “she arose and she destroyed all the royal offspring.” The verb קוּם (qum) “arise,” is here used in an auxiliary sense to indicate that she embarked on a campaign to destroy the royal offspring. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 125.

[6:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and he saw, and look.”

[6:20]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and they saw, and look, [they were] in the middle of Samaria.”

[6:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the sons of the prophets.”

[6:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “sit before you.”

[6:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “narrow, tight.”

[3:17]  ²² tn Heb “see.”

[9:17]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ tn The term שִׁפְעַת (shifat) appears to be a construct form of the noun, but no genitive follows.

[9:17]  ²⁵ tn Heb “said.”

[9:17]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Get a rider and send [him] to meet him and let him ask, ‘Is there peace?’”

[13:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “appeased the face of the Lord.”

[13:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and the Lord heard.”

[13:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “for he saw the oppression of Israel, for the king of Syria oppressed them.”

[14:26]  ³⁰ tc Heb “for the Lord saw the very bitter affliction of Israel.” This translation assumes an emendation of מֹרֶה (moreh), which is meaningless here, to ַהמַּר (hammar), the adjective “bitter” functioning attributively with the article prefixed. This emendation is supported by the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate. Another option would be מַר הוּא (mar hu’), “it was bitter.”

[14:26]  ³¹ tn Heb “[there was] none but the restrained, and [there was] none but the abandoned, and there was no deliverer for Israel.” On the meaning of the terms עָצוּר (’atsur) and עָזוּב (’azur), see the note at 1 Kgs 14:10.

[2:10]  ³² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:10]  ³³ tn Heb “You have made difficult [your] request.”

[20:5]  ³⁴ tn Heb “on the third day.”

[20:13]  ³⁵ tc Heb “listened to.” Some Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate versions agree with the parallel passage in Isa 39:2 and read, “was happy with.”

[20:13]  ³⁶ tn Heb “there was nothing which Hezekiah did not show them in his house and in all his kingdom.”

[7:14]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and the king sent [them] after the Syrian camp.”

[7:14]  ³⁸ tn Heb “Go and see.”

[2:15]  ³⁹ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[2:15]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and the sons of the prophets who were in Jericho, [who were standing] opposite, saw him and said.”

[2:15]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the spirit of Elijah.”

[6:30]  ⁴² tn Heb “the people saw, and look, [there was] sackcloth against his skin underneath.”

[5:21]  ⁴³ tn Heb “Is there peace?”

[6:13]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “he” (also a second time in this verse); the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:13]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “Go and see where he [is] so I can send and take him.”

[9:22]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “How [can there be] peace as long as the adulterous acts of Jezebel your mother and her many acts of sorcery [continue]?” In this instance “adulterous acts” is employed metaphorically for idolatry. As elsewhere in the OT, worshiping other gods is viewed as spiritual adultery and unfaithfulness to the one true God. The phrase “many acts of sorcery” could be taken literally, for Jezebel undoubtedly utilized pagan divination practices, but the phrase may be metaphorical, pointing to her devotion to pagan customs in general.

[19:16]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “Hear the words of Sennacherib which he sent to taunt the living God.”

[3:26]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “and the king of Moab saw that the battle was too strong for him.”

[3:26]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “he took with him seven hundred men, who drew the sword, to break through against.”

[9:26]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “and I will repay you in this plot of land.”

[9:26]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord.”

[11:14]  ⁵² tn Heb “and she saw, and look.”

[11:14]  ⁵³ tn Or “conspiracy, conspiracy.”

[19:35]  ⁵⁴ tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.

[19:35]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies.”

[7:2]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “the officer on whose hand the king leans.”

[7:2]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “man of God.”

[7:2]  ⁵⁸ 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]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:2]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”

[16:10]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “in Damascus.”

[16:10]  ⁶² tn Heb “the likeness of the altar and its pattern for all its work.”

[12:10]  ⁶³ tn Heb “the king’s scribe.”

[12:10]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “went up and tied [it] and counted the silver that was found in the house of the Lord.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation to make better sense in English, since it seems more logical to count the money before bagging it (cf. NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT).

[9:27]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “and Ahaziah king of Judah saw and fled.”

[9:27]  ⁶⁶ 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]  ⁶⁷ map For location see Map1 D4; Map2 C1; Map4 C2; Map5 F2; Map7 B1.

[22:20]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “Therefore, look, I am gathering you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your tomb in peace.”

[22:20]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “your eyes will not see.”

[23:16]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “and he sent and took the bones from the tombs.”

[23:16]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “the king”; this has been specified as “King Josiah” in the translation for clarity (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[23:16]  ⁷² tc The MT is much shorter than this. It reads, “according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.” The LXX has a much longer text at this point. It reads: “[which was proclaimed by the man of God] while Jeroboam stood by the altar at a celebration. Then he turned and saw the grave of the man of God [who proclaimed these words].” The extra material attested in the LXX was probably accidentally omitted in the Hebrew tradition when a scribe’s eye jumped from the first occurrence of the phrase “man of God” (which appears right before the extra material) and the second occurrence of the phrase (which appears at the end of the extra material).

[23:16]  sn This recalls the prophecy recorded in 1 Kgs 13:2.

[2:24]  ⁷³ tn Heb “he cursed them in the name of the Lord.” A curse was a formal appeal to a higher authority (here the Lord) to vindicate one’s cause through judgment. As in chapter one, this account makes it clear that disrespect for the Lord’s designated spokesmen can be deadly, for it is ultimately rejection of the Lord’s authority.

[11:4]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “Jehoiada sent and took.”

[11:4]  ⁷⁵ sn The Carians were apparently a bodyguard, probably comprised of foreigners. See HALOT 497 s.v. כָּרִי and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 126.

[11:4]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “the runners.”

[11:4]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “he brought them to himself.”

[11:4]  ⁷⁸ tn Or “covenant.”

[23:17]  ⁷⁹ tn Heb “man of God.”

[23:24]  ⁸⁰ tn Here בִּעֵר (bi’er) is not the well attested verb “burn,” but the less common homonym meaning “devastate, sweep away, remove.” See HALOT 146 s.v. בער.

[23:24]  ⁸¹ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 21:6.

[23:24]  ⁸² sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.

[23:24]  ⁸³ tn Heb “carrying out the words of the law.”

[6:15]  ⁸⁴ tn Heb “man of God’s.”

[6:15]  ⁸⁵ tn Heb “his young servant said to him.”

[8:13]  ⁸⁶ tn Heb “Indeed, what is your servant, a dog, that he could do this great thing?” With his reference to a dog, Hazael is not denying that he is a “dog” and protesting that he would never commit such a dastardly “dog-like” deed. Rather, as Elisha’s response indicates, Hazael is suggesting that he, like a dog, is too insignificant to ever be in a position to lead such conquests.

[8:13]  ⁸⁷ tn Heb “The Lord has shown me you [as] king over Syria.”

[7:13]  ⁸⁸ 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.”

[7:13]  ⁸⁹ tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”

[6:32]  ⁹⁰ tn Heb “and the elders were sitting with him.”

[6:32]  ⁹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:32]  ⁹² tn Heb “sent a man from before him, before the messenger came to him.”

[6:32]  ⁹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:32]  ⁹⁴ tn Heb “elders.”

[6:32]  ⁹⁵ tn Heb “Do you see that this son of an assassin has sent to remove my head?”

[6:32]  ⁹⁶ tn Heb “Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”

[5:7]  ⁹⁷ tn Heb “Am I God, killing and restoring life, that this one sends to me to cure a man from his skin disease?” In the Hebrew text this is one lengthy rhetorical question, which has been divided up in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[5:7]  ⁹⁸ tn Heb “Indeed, know and see that he is seeking an occasion with respect to me.”

[1:14]  ⁹⁹ tn Heb “look.”

[1:14]  ¹⁰⁰ tn Heb “their fifty.”

[4:9]  ¹⁰¹ tn Heb “I know.”

[4:9]  ¹⁰² tn Heb “holy man of God.”

[10:3]  ¹⁰³ tn Hebrew יָשָׁר (yashar) does not have its normal moral/ethical nuance here (“upright”), but a more neutral sense of “proper, right, suitable.” For the gloss “capable,” see HALOT 450 s.v. יָשָׁר.

[10:3]  ¹⁰⁴ tn Or “fight for.”

[19:7]  ¹⁰⁵ tn Heb “I will put in him a spirit.” The precise sense of רוּחַ (ruakh), “spirit,” is uncertain in this context. It may refer to a spiritual being who will take control of his mind (see 1 Kgs 22:19), or it could refer to a disposition of concern and fear. In either case the Lord’s sovereignty over the king is apparent.

[19:7]  ¹⁰⁶ tn Heb “hear.”

[19:7]  ¹⁰⁷ tn Heb “cause him to fall,” that is, “kill him.”

[17:13]  ¹⁰⁸ tn Heb “obey my commandments and rules according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets.”

[5:22]  ¹⁰⁹ tn Heb “peace.”

[5:22]  ¹¹⁰ tn Heb “Look now, here, two servants came to me from the Ephraimite hill country, from the sons of the prophets.”

[5:22]  ¹¹¹ tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 75 pounds of silver (cf. NCV, NLT, CEV).

[6:33]  ¹¹² tn The Hebrew text also has “look” here.

[6:33]  ¹¹³ tn Heb “came down to him.”

[6:33]  ¹¹⁴ tn Heb “Look, this is a disaster from the Lord.”

[25:4]  ¹¹⁵ tn Heb “the city was breached.”

[25:4]  ¹¹⁶ 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]  ¹¹⁷ 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]  ¹¹⁸ 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.

[7:19]  ¹¹⁹ tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” See the note at 7:2.

[7:19]  ¹²⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:19]  ¹²¹ tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”

[7:19]  tn In the Hebrew text vv. 18-19a are one lengthy sentence, “When the man of God spoke to the king…, the officer replied to the man of God, ‘Look…so soon?’” The translation divides this sentence up for stylistic reasons.

[13:21]  ¹²² tn Heb “and it so happened [that] they.”

[13:21]  ¹²³ tn Heb “and look, they saw.”

[13:21]  ¹²⁴ tn Heb “the man”; the adjective “dead” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[13:21]  ¹²⁵ tn Heb “the man.”

[13:21]  ¹²⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the dead man) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Otherwise the reader might think it was Elisha rather than the unnamed dead man who came back to life.

[8:10]  ¹²⁷ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) reads, “Go, say, ‘Surely you will not (לֹא, lo’) recover” In this case the vav beginning the next clause should be translated, “for, because.” The marginal reading (Qere) has, “Go, say to him (לוֹ, lo), ‘You will surely recover.” In this case the vav (ו) beginning the next clause should be translated, “although, but.” The Qere has the support of some medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, and is consistent with v. 14, where Hazael tells the king, “You will surely recover.” It is possible that a scribe has changed לוֹ, “to him,” to לֹא, “not,” because he felt that Elisha would not lie to the king. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 90. Another possibility is that a scribe has decided to harmonize Elisha’s message with Hazael’s words in v. 14. But it is possible that Hazael, once he found out he would become the next king, decided to lie to the king to facilitate his assassination plot by making the king feel secure.

[3:14]  ¹²⁸ tn Traditionally “the Lord of hosts.”

[3:14]  ¹²⁹ tn Heb “before whom I stand.”

[3:14]  ¹³⁰ tn Heb “if I did not lift up the face of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah.”

[3:14]  ¹³¹ tn Heb “I would not look at you or see you.”

[9:32]  ¹³² tn Heb “two, three.” The narrator may be intentionally vague or uncertain here, or the two numbers may represent alternate traditions.

[9:34]  ¹³³ tn Heb “and he went and ate and drank.”

[9:34]  ¹³⁴ tn Heb “Attend to this accursed woman and bury her for she was the daughter of a king.”

[23:29]  ¹³⁵ tn Heb “went up to.” The idiom עַל…עָלָה (’alah …’al) can sometimes mean “go up against,” but here it refers to Necho’s attempt to aid the Assyrians in their struggle with the Babylonians.

[23:29]  ¹³⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Necho) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:29]  ¹³⁷ map For location see Map1 D4; Map2 C1; Map4 C2; Map5 F2; Map7 B1.

[4:32]  ¹³⁸ tn Heb “look.”

[7:15]  ¹³⁹ tn Heb “went after.”

[7:15]  ¹⁴⁰ tn Heb “and look, all the road was full of clothes and equipment that Syria had thrown away in their haste.”

[7:15]  ¹⁴¹ tn Or “messengers.”

[7:5]  ¹⁴² tn Heb “they arose to go to.”

[9:2]  ¹⁴³ tn Heb “and go and set him apart from his brothers and bring him into an inner room in an inner room.”

[9:20]  ¹⁴⁴ tn Heb “and the driving is like the driving of Jehu son of Nimshi.”

[11:13]  ¹⁴⁵ tc The MT reads, “and Athaliah heard the sound of the runners, the people.” The term הָעָם (ha’am), “the people,” is probably a scribal addition anticipating the reference to the people later in the verse and in v. 14.

[11:13]  ¹⁴⁶ tn Heb “she came to the people.”

[13:14]  ¹⁴⁷ tn Heb “Now Elisha was ill with the illness by which he would die.”

[13:14]  ¹⁴⁸ tn Heb “went down to him.”

[13:14]  ¹⁴⁹ tn Though the noun is singular here, it may be collective, in which case it could be translated “chariots.”

[13:14]  ¹⁵⁰ sn By comparing Elisha to a one-man army, the king emphasizes the power of the prophetic word. See the note at 2:12.

[2:16]  ¹⁵¹ tn Or “the spirit of the Lord.”

[2:16]  ¹⁵² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:27]  ¹⁵³ 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]  ¹⁵⁴ tn Heb “they departed from him.”

[9:18]  ¹⁵⁵ tn Heb “the rider of the horse.”

[9:18]  ¹⁵⁶ tn Heb “Is there peace?”

[9:18]  ¹⁵⁷ tn Heb “What concerning you and concerning peace?” That is, “What concern is that to you?”

[10:23]  ¹⁵⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:23]  ¹⁵⁹ tn Heb “Search carefully and observe so that there are not here with you any servants of the Lord, only the servants of Baal.”

[16:14]  ¹⁶⁰ tn The word “new” is added in the translation for clarification.

[21:6]  ¹⁶¹ tc The LXX has the plural “his sons” here.

[21:6]  ¹⁶² sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.

[21:6]  ¹⁶³ 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]  ¹⁶⁴ 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).