2 Kings 10:25

10:25 When he finished offering the burnt sacrifice, Jehu ordered the royal guard ¹  and officers, “Come in and strike them down! Don’t let any escape!” So the royal guard and officers struck them down with the sword and left their bodies lying there. ²  Then they entered the inner sanctuary of the temple of Baal. ³ 

2 Kings 17:16

17:16 They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God; they made two metal calves and an Asherah pole, bowed down to all the stars in the sky, ⁴  and worshiped ⁵  Baal.

2 Kings 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 ⁶  and worshiped ⁷  them.

2 Kings 23:5

23:5 He eliminated ⁸  the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices ⁹  on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices ¹⁰  to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.)

¹ tn Heb “runners.”

² tn Heb “and they threw.” No object appears. According to M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 116), this is an idiom for leaving a corpse unburied.

³ tn Heb “and they came to the city of the house of Baal.” It seems unlikely that a literal city is meant. Some emend עִיר (’ir), “city,” to דְּבִיר (dÿvir) “holy place,” or suggest that עִיר is due to dittography of the immediately preceding עַד (’ad) “to.” Perhaps עִיר is here a technical term meaning “fortress” or, more likely, “inner room.”

⁴ tn The phrase כָל צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם (khol tsÿva’ hashamayim), traditionally translated “all the host of heaven,” refers to the heavenly lights, including stars and planets. In 1 Kgs 22:19 these heavenly bodies are pictured as members of the Lord’s royal court or assembly, but many other texts view them as the illegitimate objects of pagan and Israelite worship.

⁵ tn Or “served.”

⁷ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 17:16.

⁸ tn Or “served.”

¹⁰ tn Perhaps, “destroyed.”

¹¹ tn Or “burn incense.”

¹² tn Or “burned incense.”