2 Raja-raja 3:19

3:19 You will defeat every fortified city and every important ¹  city. You must chop down ²  every productive ³  tree, stop up all the springs, and cover all the cultivated land with stones.” ⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 3:24-25

3:24 When they approached the Israelite camp, the Israelites rose up and struck down the Moabites, who then ran from them. The Israelites ⁵  thoroughly defeated ⁶  Moab. 3:25 They tore down the cities and each man threw a stone into every cultivated field until they were covered. ⁷  They stopped up every spring and chopped down every productive tree.

Only Kir Hareseth was left intact, ⁸  but the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.

2 Raja-raja 18:22

18:22 Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar in Jerusalem.’

2 Raja-raja 19:25

19:25 ⁹ Certainly you must have heard! ¹⁰ 

Long ago I worked it out,

In ancient times I planned ¹¹  it;

and now I am bringing it to pass.

The plan is this:

Fortified cities will crash

into heaps of ruins. ¹² 

2 Raja-raja 21:3

21:3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole just like King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky ¹³  and worshiped ¹⁴  them.

2 Raja-raja 22:20

22:20 ‘Therefore I will allow you to die and be buried in peace. ¹⁵  You will not have to witness ¹⁶  all the disaster I will bring on this place.’”’” Then they reported back to the king.

2 Raja-raja 23:6

23:6 He removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it. ¹⁷  He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard. ¹⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 23:13

23:13 The king ruined the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, ¹⁹  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 23:15

23:15 He also tore down the altar in Bethel ²⁰  at the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who encouraged Israel to sin. ²¹  He burned all the combustible items at that high place and crushed them to dust; including the Asherah pole. ²² 

2 Raja-raja 24:2

24:2 The Lord sent against him Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands; he sent them to destroy Judah, as he had warned he would do through his servants the prophets. ²³ 

[3:19]  ¹ tn Heb “choice” or “select.”

[3:19]  ² tn Elisha places the object first and uses an imperfect verb form. The stylistic shift may signal that he is now instructing them what to do, rather than merely predicting what would happen.

[3:19]  ³ tn Heb “good.”

[3:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “and ruin every good portion with stones.”

[3:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “they.”

[3:24]  ⁶ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) suggests, “and they went, striking down,” but the marginal reading (Qere) is “they struck down, striking down.” For a discussion of the textual problem, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 46.

[3:25]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “until he had allowed its stones to remain in Kir Hareseth.”

[19:25]  ⁹ tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.

[19:25]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “formed.”

[19:25]  ¹² 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.

[21:3]  ¹³ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 17:16.

[21:3]  ¹⁴ tn Or “served.”

[22:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Therefore, look, I am gathering you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your tomb in peace.”

[22:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your eyes will not see.”

[23:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and he burned it in the Kidron Valley.”

[23:6]  ¹⁸ tc Heb “on the grave of the sons of the people.” Some Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses read the plural “graves.”

[23:6]  tn The phrase “sons of the people” refers here to the common people (see BDB 766 s.v. עַם), as opposed to the upper classes who would have private tombs.

[23:13]  ¹⁹ 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.

[23:15]  ²⁰ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[23:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “And also the altar that is in Bethel, the high place that Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin, also that altar and the high place he tore down.” The more repetitive Hebrew text is emphatic.

[23:15]  ²² tn Heb “he burned the high place, crushing to dust, and he burned the Asherah pole.” High places per se are never referred to as being burned elsewhere. בָּמָה (bamah) here stands by metonymy for the combustible items located on the high place. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 289.

[24:2]  ²³ tn Heb “he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his servants the prophets.”