2 Raja-raja 8:4-8

8:4 Now the king was talking to Gehazi, the prophet’s ¹  servant, and said, “Tell me all the great things which Elisha has done.” 8:5 While Gehazi ²  was telling the king how Elisha ³  had brought the dead back to life, the woman whose son he had brought back to life came to ask the king for her house and field. ⁴  Gehazi said, “My master, O king, this is the very woman and this is her son whom Elisha brought back to life!” 8:6 The king asked the woman about it, and she gave him the details. ⁵  The king assigned a eunuch to take care of her request and ordered him, ⁶  “Give her back everything she owns, as well as the amount of crops her field produced from the day she left the land until now.”

Elisha Meets with Hazael

8:7 Elisha traveled to Damascus while King Ben Hadad of Syria was sick. The king ⁷  was told, “The prophet ⁸  has come here.” 8:8 So the king told Hazael, “Take a gift ⁹  and go visit the prophet. Request from him an oracle from the Lord. Ask him, ¹⁰  ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

2 Raja-raja 8:14-17

8:14 He left Elisha and went to his master. Ben Hadad ¹¹  asked him, “What did Elisha tell you?” Hazael ¹²  replied, “He told me you would surely recover.” 8:15 The next day Hazael ¹³  took a piece of cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over Ben Hadad’s ¹⁴  face until he died. Then Hazael replaced him as king.

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. ¹⁵  8:17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem. ¹⁶ 

[8:4]  ¹ tn Heb “man of God’s.”

[8:5]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gehazi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:5]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “and look, the woman whose son he had brought back to life was crying out to the king for her house and her field.”

[8:5]  sn The legal background of the situation is uncertain. For a discussion of possibilities, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 87-88.

[8:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the king asked the woman and she told him.”

[8:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he assigned to her an official, saying.”

[8:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “man of God” (also a second time in this verse and in v. 11).

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

[8:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Inquire of the Lord through him, saying.”

[8:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Ben Hadad) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:14]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Hazael) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Hazael) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Ben Hadad) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:16]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.