2 Kings 18:11

18:11 The king of Assyria deported the people of Israel ¹  to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes.

2 Kings 18:2

18:2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. ²  His mother ³  was Abi, ⁴  the daughter of Zechariah.

2 Kings 7:10

7:10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers ⁵  of the city. They told them, “We entered the Syrian camp and there was no one there. We didn’t even hear a man’s voice. ⁶  But the horses and donkeys are still tied up, and the tents remain up.” ⁷ 

2 Kings 7:1

7:1 Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says, ‘About this time tomorrow a seah ⁸  of finely milled flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’”

2 Kings 17:9

17:9 The Israelites said things about the Lord their God that were not right. ⁹  They built high places in all their cities, from the watchtower to the fortress. ¹⁰ 

2 Kings 17:2

17:2 He did evil in the sight of ¹¹  the Lord, but not to the same degree as the Israelite kings who preceded him.

2 Kings 1:8

1:8 They replied, ¹²  “He was a hairy man ¹³  and had a leather belt ¹⁴  tied around his waist.” The king ¹⁵  said, “He is Elijah the Tishbite.”

¹ tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” as the object of the verb.

² map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

³ tn Heb “the name of his mother.”

⁴ tn The parallel passage in 2 Chr 29:1 has “Abijah.”

⁵ tn The MT has a singular form (“gatekeeper”), but the context suggests a plural. The pronoun that follows (“them”) is plural and a plural noun appears in v. 11. The Syriac Peshitta and the Targum have the plural here.

⁶ tn Heb “and, look, there was no man or voice of a man there.”

⁷ tn Heb “but the horses are tied up and the donkeys are tied up and the tents are as they were.”

⁸ sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 7 quarts.

⁹ tn The meaning of the verb וַיְחַפְּאוּ (vayÿkhappÿ’u), translated here “said,” is uncertain. Some relate it to the verbal root חָפַה (khafah), “to cover,” and translate “they did it in secret” (see BDB 341 s.v. חָפָא). However, the pagan practices specified in the following sentences were hardly done in secret. Others propose a meaning “ascribe, impute,” which makes good contextual sense but has little etymological support (see HALOT 339 s.v. חפא). In this case Israel claimed that the Lord authorized their pagan practices.

¹⁰ sn That is, from the city’s perimeter to the central citadel.

¹¹ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

¹² tn Heb “said to him.”

¹³ 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).

¹⁴ tn Heb “belt of skin” (i.e., one made from animal hide).

¹⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.