2:11 As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a fiery chariot 6 pulled by fiery horses appeared. 7 They went between Elijah and Elisha, 8 and Elijah went up to heaven in a windstorm.
2:15 When the members of the prophetic guild in Jericho, 9 who were standing at a distance, 10 saw him do this, they said, “The spirit that energized Elijah 11 rests upon Elisha.” They went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him.
1 tn Heb “said to him.”
2 tn Heb “an owner of hair.” This idiomatic expression indicates that Elijah was very hairy. For other examples where the idiom “owner of” is used to describe a characteristic of someone, see HALOT 143 s.v. בַּעַל. For example, an “owner of dreams” is one who frequently has dreams (Gen 37:19) and an “owner of anger” is a hot-tempered individual (Prov 22:24).
3 tn Heb “belt of skin” (i.e., one made from animal hide).
4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
1 sn In this third panel the verb “come down” (יָרַד, yarad) occurs again, this time describing Elijah’s descent from the hill at the Lord’s command. The moral of the story seems clear: Those who act as if they have authority over God and his servants just may pay for their arrogance with their lives; those who, like the third commander, humble themselves and show the proper respect for God’s authority and for his servants will be spared and find God quite cooperative.
1 tn Though the noun is singular here, it may be collective, in which case it could be translated “chariots.”
2 tn Heb “look, a chariot of fire and horses of fire.”
3 tn Heb “and they made a division between the two of them.”
1 map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.
2 tn Heb “and the sons of the prophets who were in Jericho, [who were standing] opposite, saw him and said.”
3 tn Heb “the spirit of Elijah.”
1 tn Heb “and he struck down all the remaining ones to Ahab in Samaria until he destroyed him.”
2 tn Heb “according to the word of the