2 Raja-raja 6:16

6:16 He replied, “Don’t be afraid, for our side outnumbers them.” ¹ 

2 Raja-raja 25:30

25:30 He was given daily provisions by the king for the rest of his life until the day he died. ² 

2 Raja-raja 24:16

24:16 The king of Babylon deported to Babylon all the soldiers (there were 7,000), as well as 1,000 craftsmen and metal workers. This included all the best warriors. ³ 

2 Raja-raja 12:10

12:10 When they saw the chest was full of silver, the royal secretary ⁴  and the high priest counted the silver that had been brought to the Lord’s temple and bagged it up. ⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 21:16

21:16 Furthermore Manasseh killed so many innocent people, he stained Jerusalem with their blood from end to end, ⁶  in addition to encouraging Judah to sin by doing evil in the sight of the Lord. ⁷ 

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, ⁸  for your servant will never again offer a burnt offering or sacrifice to a god other than the Lord. ⁹ 

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!) ¹⁰  Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.” ¹¹ 

2 Raja-raja 19:23

19:23 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ¹² 

‘With my many chariots ¹³ 

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, ¹⁴ 

its thickest woods.

2 Raja-raja 8:9

8:9 So Hazael went to visit Elisha. ¹⁵  He took along a gift, ¹⁶  as well as ¹⁷  forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son, ¹⁸  King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question, ¹⁹  ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

2 Raja-raja 25:16

25:16 The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the Lord’s temple – including the two pillars, the big bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,” ²⁰  and the movable stands – was too heavy to be weighed.

2 Raja-raja 7:20

7:20 This is exactly what happened to him. The people trampled him to death in the city gate.

2 Raja-raja 11:13

11:13 When Athaliah heard the royal guard ²¹  shout, she joined the crowd ²²  at the Lord’s temple.

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?” ²³ 

2 Raja-raja 10:18

Jehu Executes the Prophets and Priests of Baal

10:18 Jehu assembled all the people and said to them, “Ahab worshiped ²⁴  Baal a little; Jehu will worship ²⁵  him with great devotion. ²⁶ 

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. ²⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 12:8

12:8 The priests agreed ²⁸  not to collect silver from the people and relieved themselves of personal responsibility for the temple repairs. ²⁹ 

2 Raja-raja 4:3

4:3 He said, “Go and ask all your neighbors for empty containers. ³⁰  Get as many as you can. ³¹ 

2 Raja-raja 12:3

12:3 But the high places were not eliminated; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense on the high places.

2 Raja-raja 14:4

14:4 But the high places were not eliminated; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense on the high places.

2 Raja-raja 15:4

15:4 But the high places were not eliminated; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense on the high places.

2 Raja-raja 15:10

15:10 Shallum son of Jabesh conspired against him; he assassinated him in Ibleam ³²  and took his place as king.

2 Raja-raja 22:4

22:4 “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him melt down ³³  the silver that has been brought by the people to the Lord’s temple and has been collected by the guards at the door.

2 Raja-raja 23:21

23:21 The king ordered all the people, “Observe the Passover of the Lord your God, as prescribed in this scroll of the covenant.”

2 Raja-raja 10:9

10:9 In the morning he went out and stood there. Then he said to all the people, “You are innocent. I conspired against my master and killed him. But who struck down all of these men?

2 Raja-raja 7:16

7:16 Then the people went out and looted the Syrian camp. A seah ³⁴  of finely milled flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, just as the Lord had said they would. ³⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 10:7

10:7 When they received the letter, they seized the king’s sons and executed all seventy of them. ³⁶  They put their heads in baskets and sent them to him in Jezreel.

2 Raja-raja 10:14

10:14 He said, “Capture them alive!” So they captured them alive and then executed all forty-two of them in the cistern at Beth Eked. He left no survivors.

2 Raja-raja 11:17

11:17 Jehoiada then drew up a covenant between the Lord and the king and people, stipulating that they should be loyal to the Lord. ³⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 14:7

14:7 He defeated ³⁸  10,000 Edomites in the Salt Valley; he captured Sela in battle and renamed it Joktheel, a name it has retained to this very day.

2 Raja-raja 15:35

15:35 But the high places were not eliminated; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense on the high places. He built the Upper Gate to the Lord’s temple.

2 Raja-raja 25:11

25:11 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, deported the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. ³⁹ 

2 Raja-raja 25:26

25:26 Then all the people, from the youngest to the oldest, as well as the army officers, left for ⁴⁰  Egypt, because they were afraid of what the Babylonians might do.

2 Raja-raja 17:2

17:2 He did evil in the sight of ⁴¹  the Lord, but not to the same degree as the Israelite kings who preceded him.

2 Raja-raja 19:17

19:17 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands.

2 Raja-raja 21:6

21:6 He passed his son ⁴²  through the fire ⁴³  and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it. ⁴⁴  He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ⁴⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 6:14

6:14 So he sent horses and chariots there, along with a good-sized army. ⁴⁶  They arrived during the night and surrounded the city.

2 Raja-raja 10:16

10:16 Jehu ⁴⁷  said, “Come with me and see how zealous I am for the Lord’s cause.” ⁴⁸  So he ⁴⁹  took him along in his chariot.

2 Raja-raja 18:36

18:36 The people were silent and did not respond, for the king had ordered, “Don’t respond to him.”

2 Raja-raja 7:17

7:17 Now the king had placed the officer who was his right-hand man ⁵⁰  at the city gate. When the people rushed out, they trampled him to death in the gate. ⁵¹  This fulfilled the prophet’s word which he had spoken when the king tried to arrest him. ⁵² 

2 Raja-raja 8:21

8:21 Joram ⁵³  crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites, who had surrounded him, attacked at night and defeated him and his chariot officers. ⁵⁴  The Israelite army retreated to their homeland. ⁵⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 18:26

18:26 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, ⁵⁶  for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect ⁵⁷  in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

2 Raja-raja 23:2-3

23:2 The king went up to the Lord’s temple, accompanied by all the people of Judah, all the residents of Jerusalem, the priests, and the prophets. All the people were there, from the youngest to the oldest. He read aloud ⁵⁸  all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been discovered in the Lord’s temple. 23:3 The king stood by the pillar and renewed ⁵⁹  the covenant before the Lord, agreeing to follow ⁶⁰  the Lord and to obey his commandments, laws, and rules with all his heart and being, ⁶¹  by carrying out the terms ⁶²  of this covenant recorded on this scroll. All the people agreed to keep the covenant. ⁶³ 

2 Raja-raja 3:4

3:4 Now King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder. ⁶⁴  He would send as tribute ⁶⁵  to the king of Israel 100,000 male lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams.

2 Raja-raja 4:41

4:41 He said, “Get some flour.” Then he threw it into the pot and said, “Now pour some out for the men so they may eat.” ⁶⁶  There was no longer anything harmful in the pot.

2 Raja-raja 6:1

Elisha Makes an Ax Head Float

6:1 Some of the prophets ⁶⁷  said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet with you ⁶⁸  is too cramped ⁶⁹  for us.

2 Raja-raja 10:2

10:2 “You have with you the sons of your master, chariots and horses, a fortified city, and weapons. So when this letter arrives, ⁷⁰ 

2 Raja-raja 14:14

14:14 He took away all the gold and silver, all the items found in the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the royal palace, and some hostages. ⁷¹  Then he went back to Samaria. ⁷² 

(

2 Raja-raja 17:9

17:9 The Israelites said things about the Lord their God that were not right. ⁷³  They built high places in all their cities, from the watchtower to the fortress. ⁷⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 17:11

17:11 They burned incense on all the high places just like the nations whom the Lord had driven away from before them. Their evil practices made the Lord angry. ⁷⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 17:25

17:25 When they first moved in, ⁷⁶  they did not worship ⁷⁷  the Lord. So the Lord sent lions among them and the lions were killing them.

2 Raja-raja 17:32

17:32 At the same time they worshiped ⁷⁸  the Lord. They appointed some of their own people to serve as priests in the shrines on the high places. ⁷⁹ 

2 Raja-raja 18:23

18:23 Now make a deal ⁸⁰  with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, provided you can find enough riders for them.

2 Raja-raja 23:33

23:33 Pharaoh Necho imprisoned him in Riblah in the land of Hamath and prevented him from ruling in Jerusalem. ⁸¹  He imposed on the land a special tax ⁸²  of one hundred talents ⁸³  of silver and a talent of gold.

2 Raja-raja 4:39

4:39 Someone went out to the field to gather some herbs and found a wild vine. ⁸⁴  He picked some of its fruit, ⁸⁵  enough to fill up the fold of his robe. He came back, cut it up, and threw the slices ⁸⁶  into the stew pot, not knowing they were harmful. ⁸⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 4:42

Elisha Miraculously Feeds a Hundred People

4:42 Now a man from Baal Shalisha brought some food for the prophet ⁸⁸  – twenty loaves of bread made from the firstfruits of the barley harvest, as well as fresh ears of grain. ⁸⁹  Elisha ⁹⁰  said, “Set it before the people so they may eat.”

2 Raja-raja 10:23

10:23 Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went to the temple of Baal. Jehu ⁹¹  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.” ⁹² 

2 Raja-raja 17:24

The King of Assyria Populates Israel with Foreigners

17:24 The king of Assyria brought foreigners ⁹³  from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the cities of Samaria ⁹⁴  in place of the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.

2 Raja-raja 18:32

18:32 until I come and take you to a land just like your own – a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Then you will live and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.”

2 Raja-raja 22:13

22:13 “Go, seek an oracle from ⁹⁵  the Lord for me and the people – for all Judah. Find out about ⁹⁶  the words of this scroll that has been discovered. For the Lord’s fury has been ignited against us, ⁹⁷  because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this scroll by doing all that it instructs us to do.” ⁹⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 23:35

23:35 Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh the required amount of silver and gold, but to meet Pharaoh’s demands Jehoiakim had to tax the land. He collected an assessed amount from each man among the people of the land in order to pay Pharaoh Necho. ⁹⁹ 

2 Raja-raja 24:14

24:14 He deported all the residents of Jerusalem, including all the officials and all the soldiers (10,000 people in all). This included all the craftsmen and those who worked with metal. No one was left except for the poorest among the people of the land.

2 Raja-raja 10:6

10:6 He wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are really on my side and are willing to obey me, ¹⁰⁰  then take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel at this time tomorrow.” ¹⁰¹  Now the king had seventy sons, and the prominent ¹⁰²  men of the city were raising them.

[6:16]  ¹ tn Heb “for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

[25:30]  ² tc The words “until the day he died” do not appear in the MT, but they are included in the parallel passage in Jer 52:34. Probably they have been accidentally omitted by homoioteleuton. A scribe’s eye jumped from the final vav (ו) on בְּיוֹמוֹ (bÿyomo), “in his day,” to the final vav (ו) on מוֹתוֹ (moto), “his death,” leaving out the intervening words.

[24:16]  ³ tn Heb “the entire [group], mighty men, doers of war.”

[12:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “the king’s scribe.”

[12:10]  ⁵ 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).

[21:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “and also Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he filled Jerusalem from mouth to mouth.”

[21:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “apart from his sin which he caused Judah to commit, by doing what is evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

[5:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “and [if] not, may there be given to your servant a load [for] a pair of mules, earth.”

[5:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “for your servant will not again make a burnt offering and sacrifice to other gods, only to the Lord.”

[7:13]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”

[19:23]  ¹² tn The word is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai), “lord,” but some Hebrew mss have יְהוָה (yehvah), “Lord.”

[19:23]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the lodging place of its extremity.”

[8:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:9]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”

[8:9]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.

[8:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “saying.”

[25:16]  ²⁰ tc The MT lacks “the twelve bronze bulls under ‘the Sea,’” but these words have probably been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. The scribe’s eye may have jumped from the וְהָ (vÿha-) on וְהַבָּקָר (vÿhabbaqar), “and the bulls,” to the וְהָ on וְהַמְּכֹנוֹת (vÿhammÿkhonot), “and the movable stands,” causing him to leave out the intervening words. See the parallel passage in Jer 52:20.

[11:13]  ²¹ 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]  ²² tn Heb “she came to the people.”

[9:22]  ²³ 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.

[10:18]  ²⁴ tn Or “served.

[10:18]  ²⁵ tn Or “serve.”

[10:18]  ²⁶ tn Heb “much” or “greatly.”

[6:30]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the people saw, and look, [there was] sackcloth against his skin underneath.”

[12:8]  ²⁸ tn Outside of this passage the verb אוּת (’ut) appears only in Gen 34:15-22.

[12:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and not to repair the damages to the temple.” This does not mean that the priests were no longer interested in repairing the temple. As the following context makes clear, the priests decided to hire skilled workers to repair the damage to the temple, rather than trying to make the repairs themselves.

[4:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Go, ask for containers from outside, from all your neighbors, empty containers.”

[4:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “Do not borrow just a few.”

[15:10]  ³² tc The MT reads, “and he struck him down before the people and killed him” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). However, the reading קָבָל עָם (qaval ’am), “before the people,” is problematic to some because קָבָל is a relatively late Aramaic term. Nevertheless, the Aramaic term qobel certainly antedates the writing of Kings. The bigger problem seems to be the unnecessary intrusion of an Aramaic word at all here. Most interpreters prefer to follow Lucian’s Greek version and read “in Ibleam” (בְיִבְלְעָם, bÿivle’am). Cf. NAB, TEV.

[22:4]  ³³ tc The MT has וְיַתֵּם (vÿyattem), “and let them add up” (Hiphil of תָּמָם [tammam], “be complete”), but the appearance of הִתִּיכוּ (hitikhu), “they melted down” (Hiphil of נָתַךְ [natakh], “pour out”) in v. 9 suggests that the verb form should be emended to וְיַתֵּךְ (vÿyattekh), “and let him melt down” (a Hiphil of נָתַךְ [natakh]). For a discussion of this and other options see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 281.

[7:16]  ³⁴ sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 7 quarts.

[7:16]  ³⁵ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord.”

[10:7]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and when the letter came to them, they took the sons of the king and slaughtered seventy men.”

[11:17]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and [between] the king and [between] the people, to become a people for the Lord, and between the king and [between] the people.” The final words of the verse (“and between the king and [between] the people”) are probably accidentally repeated from earlier in the verse. They do not appear in the parallel account in 2 Chr 23:16. If retained, they probably point to an agreement governing how the king and people should relate to one another.

[14:7]  ³⁸ tn Or “struck down.”

[25:11]  ³⁹ tc The MT has “the multitude.” But הֶהָמוֹן (hehamon) should probably be emended to הֶאָמוֹן (he’amon).

[25:26]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “arose and went to.”

[17:2]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[21:6]  ⁴² tc The LXX has the plural “his sons” here.

[21:6]  ⁴³ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.

[21:6]  ⁴⁴ 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]  ⁴⁵ 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).

[6:14]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “heavy force.”

[10:16]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:16]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “and see my zeal for the Lord.”

[10:16]  ⁴⁹ tc The MT has a plural form, but this is most likely an error. The LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate all have the singular.

[7:17]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “the officer on whose hand he leans.”

[7:17]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “and the people trampled him in the gate and he died.”

[7:17]  ⁵² tn Heb “just as the man of God had spoken, [the word] which he spoke when the king came down to him.”

[8:21]  ⁵³ sn Joram is a short form of the name Jehoram.

[8:21]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “and he arose at night and defeated Edom, who had surrounded him, and the chariot officers.” The Hebrew text as it stands gives the impression that Joram was surrounded and launched a victorious night counterattack. It would then be quite natural to understand the last statement in the verse to refer to an Edomite retreat. Yet v. 22 goes on to state that the Edomite revolt was successful. Therefore, if the MT is retained, it may be better to understand the final statement in v. 21 as a reference to an Israelite retreat (made in spite of the success described in the preceding sentence). The translation above assumes an emendation of the Hebrew text. Adding a third masculine singular pronominal suffix to the accusative sign before Edom (reading אֶתוֹ [’eto], “him,” instead of just אֶת [’et]) and taking Edom as the subject of verbs allows one to translate the verse in a way that is more consistent with the context, which depicts an Israelite defeat, not victory. There is, however, no evidence for this emendation.

[8:21]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “and the people fled to their tents.”

[18:26]  ⁵⁶ sn Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the empire.

[18:26]  ⁵⁷ tn Or “Hebrew.”

[23:2]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “read in their ears.”

[23:3]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “cut,” that is, “made, agreed to.”

[23:3]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “walk after.”

[23:3]  ⁶¹ tn Or “soul.”

[23:3]  ⁶² tn Heb “words.”

[23:3]  ⁶³ tn Heb “stood in the covenant.”

[3:4]  ⁶⁴ tn For a discussion of the meaning of term (נֹקֵד, noqed), see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 43.

[3:4]  ⁶⁵ tn The vav + perfect here indicates customary action contemporary with the situation described in the preceding main clause. See IBHS 533-34 §32.2.3e.

[4:41]  ⁶⁶ tn Or “and let them eat.”

[6:1]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “the sons of the prophets.”

[6:1]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “sit before you.”

[6:1]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “narrow, tight.”

[10:2]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “And now when this letter comes to you – with you are the sons of your master and with you are chariots and horses and a fortified city and weapons.”

[14:14]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “the sons of the pledges.”

[14:14]  ⁷² map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[17:9]  ⁷³ tn The meaning of the verb וַיְחַפְּאוּ (vayÿkhappÿ’u), translated here “said,” is uncertain. Some relate it to the verbal root חָפַה (khafah), “to cover,” and translate “they did it in secret” (see BDB 341 s.v. חָפָא). However, the pagan practices specified in the following sentences were hardly done in secret. Others propose a meaning “ascribe, impute,” which makes good contextual sense but has little etymological support (see HALOT 339 s.v. חפא). In this case Israel claimed that the Lord authorized their pagan practices.

[17:9]  ⁷⁴ sn That is, from the city’s perimeter to the central citadel.

[17:11]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “and they did evil things, angering the Lord.”

[17:25]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “in the beginning of their living there.”

[17:25]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “fear.”

[17:32]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “feared.”

[17:32]  ⁷⁹ tn Heb “and they appointed for themselves from their whole people priests for the high places and they were serving for them in the house[s] of the high places.”

[18:23]  ⁸⁰ tn Heb “exchange pledges.”

[23:33]  ⁸¹ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has “when [he was] ruling in Jerusalem,” but the marginal reading (Qere), which has support from Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses, has “[preventing him] from ruling in Jerusalem.”

[23:33]  ⁸² tn Or “fine.”

[23:33]  ⁸³ 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 7,500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold (cf. NCV, NLT); CEV “almost four tons of silver and about seventy-five pounds of gold.”

[4:39]  ⁸⁴ tn Heb “a vine of the field.”

[4:39]  ⁸⁵ tn Heb “[some] of the gourds of the field.”

[4:39]  ⁸⁶ tn Heb “he came and cut [them up].”

[4:39]  ⁸⁷ tc The Hebrew text reads, “for they did not know” (יָדָעוּ, yada’u) but some emend the final shureq (וּ, indicating a third plural subject) to holem vav (וֹ, a third masculine singular pronominal suffix on a third singular verb) and read “for he did not know it.” Perhaps it is best to omit the final vav as dittographic (note the vav at the beginning of the next verb form) and read simply, “for he did not know.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 59.

[4:42]  ⁸⁸ tn Heb “man of God.”

[4:42]  ⁸⁹ tn On the meaning of the word צִקְלוֹן (tsiqlon), “ear of grain,” see HALOT 148 s.v. בָּצֵק and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 59.

[4:42]  ⁹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:23]  ⁹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:23]  ⁹² tn Heb “Search carefully and observe so that there are not here with you any servants of the Lord, only the servants of Baal.”

[17:24]  ⁹³ tn The object is supplied in the translation.

[17:24]  ⁹⁴ sn In vv. 24-29 Samaria stands for the entire northern kingdom of Israel.

[22:13]  ⁹⁵ tn Or “inquire of.”

[22:13]  ⁹⁶ tn Heb “concerning.”

[22:13]  ⁹⁷ tn Heb “for great is the anger of the Lord which has been ignited against us.”

[22:13]  ⁹⁸ tn Heb “by doing all that is written concerning us.” Perhaps עָלֵינוּ (’alenu), “concerning us,” should be altered to עָלָיו (’alav), “upon it,” in which case one could translate, “by doing all that is written in it.”

[23:35]  ⁹⁹ tn Heb “And the silver and the gold Jehoiakim gave to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the silver at the command of Pharaoh, [from] each according to his tax he collected the silver and the gold, from the people of the land, to give to Pharaoh Necho.”

[10:6]  ¹⁰⁰ tn Heb “If you are mine and you are listening to my voice.”

[10:6]  ¹⁰¹ sn Jehu’s command is intentionally vague. Does he mean that they should bring the guardians (those who are “heads” over Ahab’s sons) for a meeting, or does he mean that they should bring the literal heads of Ahab’s sons with them? (So LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and some mss of the Targum) The city leaders interpret his words in the literal sense, but Jehu’s command is so ambiguous he is able to deny complicity in the executions (see v. 9).

[10:6]  ¹⁰² tn Heb “great,” probably in wealth, position, and prestige.