10:18 Jehu assembled all the people and said to them, “Ahab worshiped 18 Baal a little; Jehu will worship 19 him with great devotion. 20
10:25 When he finished offering the burnt sacrifice, Jehu ordered the royal guard 21 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. 22 Then they entered the inner sanctuary of the temple of Baal. 23
23:4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests, 31 and the guards 32 to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of 33 Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. 34 The king 35 burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces 36 of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 37
1 tn Or “pulled down.”
2 tn The verb “they demolished” is repeated in the Hebrew text.
3 tn Heb “and they made it into.”
4 tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has the hapax legomenon מַחֲרָאוֹת (makhara’ot), “places to defecate” or “dung houses” (note the related noun חרא (khr’)/חרי (khri), “dung,” HALOT 348-49 s.v. *חֲרָאִים). The marginal reading (Qere) glosses this, perhaps euphemistically, מוֹצָאוֹת (motsa’ot), “outhouses.”
5 tn Heb “set apart”; or “observe as holy.”
9 tn Heb “destroyed Baal.”
13 tn Heb “and the house of Baal was filled mouth to mouth.”
17 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 tn Heb “Search carefully and observe so that there are not here with you any servants of the
21 tn Heb “and now, all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests summon to me.”
22 tn Heb “acted with deception [or, ‘trickery’].”
25 tn Heb “and he said to the one who was over the wardrobe.”
29 tn Or “tore down.”
30 tn Or “images.”
31 tn The Hebrew construction translated “smashed…to bits” is emphatic. The adverbial infinitive absolute (הֵיטֵב [hetev], “well”) accompanying the Piel form of the verb שָׁבַר (shavar), “break,” suggests thorough demolition.
32 tn Heb “the priest.” Jehoiada’s name is added for clarification.
33 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
37 tn Or “served.
38 tn Or “serve.”
39 tn Heb “much” or “greatly.”
41 tn Heb “runners.”
42 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.
43 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.”
45 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.
46 tn Or “served.”
49 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 17:16.
50 tn Or “served.”
53 tn Perhaps, “destroyed.”
54 tn Or “burn incense.”
55 tn Or “burned incense.”
57 tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.
58 tn Or “doorkeepers.”
59 tn Heb “for.”
60 tn Heb “all the host of heaven” (also in v. 5).
61 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
62 tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.
63 map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.