2 Raja-raja 8:16-24

Jehoram’s Reign over Judah

8:16 In the fifth year of the reign of Israel’s King Joram, son of Ahab, Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram became king over Judah. ¹  8:17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem. ²  8:18 He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel, just as Ahab’s dynasty had done, for he married Ahab’s daughter. ³  He did evil in the sight of ⁴  the Lord. 8:19 But the Lord was unwilling to destroy Judah. He preserved Judah for the sake of ⁵  his servant David to whom he had promised a perpetual dynasty. ⁶ 

8:20 During his reign Edom freed themselves from Judah’s control and set up their own king. ⁷  8:21 Joram ⁸  crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites, who had surrounded him, attacked at night and defeated him and his chariot officers. ⁹  The Israelite army retreated to their homeland. ¹⁰  8:22 So Edom has remained free from Judah’s control to this very day. ¹¹  At that same time Libnah also rebelled.

8:23 The rest of the events of Joram’s reign, including a record of his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. ¹²  8:24 Joram passed away ¹³  and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. His son Ahaziah replaced him as king.

2 Raja-raja 8:2

8:2 So the woman did as the prophet said. ¹⁴  She and her family went and lived in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

1 Tawarikh 21:1

The Lord Sends a Plague against Israel

21:1 An adversary ¹⁵  opposed ¹⁶  Israel, inciting David to count how many warriors Israel had. ¹⁷ 

[8:16]  ¹ tc The Hebrew text reads, “and in the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, and [or, ‘while’?] Jehoshaphat [was?] king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah became king.” The first reference to “Jehoshaphat king of Judah” is probably due to a scribe accidentally copying the phrase from the later in the verse. If the Hebrew text is retained, the verse probably refers to the beginning of a coregency between Jehoshaphat and Jehoram.

[8:17]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:18]  ³ tn Heb “he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab did, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife.”

[8:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[8:19]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew has only one sentence, “and the Lord was unwilling to destroy Judah for the sake of.” The translation divides it for the sake of clarity.

[8:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “just as he had promised to give him and his sons a lamp all the days.” The metaphorical “lamp” symbolizes the Davidic dynasty; this is reflected in the translation.

[8:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “in his days Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah and enthroned a king over them.”

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

[8:21]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the people fled to their tents.”

[8:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah until this day.”

[8:23]  ¹² tn Heb “As for the rest of the acts of Joram and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”

[8:24]  ¹³ tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”

[8:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and the woman got up and did according to the word of the man of God.”

[21:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Satan.” The Hebrew word שָׂטָן (satan) can refer to an adversary in general or Satan in particular. There is no article accompanying the term here, which suggests it should be understood generally (cf. NAB “a satan”).

[21:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “stood against.”

[21:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and incited David to count Israel.” As v. 5 indicates, David was not interested in a general census, but in determining how much military strength he had.

[21:1]  sn The parallel text in 2 Sam 24:1 says, “The Lord’s anger again raged against Israel and he incited David against them, saying: ‘Go, count Israel and Judah!’“ The version of the incident in the Book of 2 Samuel gives an underlying theological perspective, while the Chronicler simply describes what happened from a human perspective. Many interpreters and translations render the Hebrew שָׂטָן as a proper name here, “Satan” (NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). However, the Hebrew term שָׂטָן, which means “adversary,” is used here without the article. Elsewhere when it appears without the article, it refers to a personal or national adversary in the human sphere, the lone exception being Num 22:22, 32, where the angel of the Lord assumes the role of an adversary to Balaam. When referring elsewhere to the spiritual entity known in the NT as Satan, the noun has the article and is used as a title, “the Adversary” (see Job 1:6-9, 12; 2:1-4, 6-7; Zech 3:1-2). In light of usage elsewhere the adversary in 1 Chr 21:1 is likely a human enemy, probably a nearby nation whose hostility against Israel pressured David into numbering the people so he could assess his military strength. For compelling linguistic and literary arguments against taking the noun as a proper name here, see S. Japhet, I & II Chronicles (OTL), 374-75.