18:17 The king of Assyria sent his commanding general, the chief eunuch, and the chief adviser 1 from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, 2 along with a large army. They went up and arrived at Jerusalem. They went 3 and stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. 4
19:32 So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
“He will not enter this city,
nor will he shoot an arrow here. 5
He will not attack it with his shield-carrying warriors, 6
nor will he build siege works against it.
1 sn For a discussion of these titles see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 229-30.
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 “and they went up and came.”
4 tn Heb “the field of the washer.”
5 tn Heb “there.”
6 tn Heb “[with] a shield.” By metonymy the “shield” stands for the soldier who carries it.
7 tn Heb “came out.”
8 sn That is, the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, 597
9 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tn Or “against.”
11 sn This would have been Jan 15, 588
12 tn The MT has simply “of the month,” but the parallel passage in Jer 52:6 has “fourth month,” and this is followed by almost all English translations. The word “fourth,” however, is not actually present in the MT of 2 Kgs 25:3.
13 tn Heb “the people of the land.”
14 tn Heb “the city was breached.”
15 tn The Hebrew text is abrupt here: “And all the men of war by the night.” The translation attempts to capture the sense.
16 sn The king’s garden is mentioned again in Neh 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the city of David. This would have been in the southern part of the city near the Tyropean Valley which agrees with the reference to the “two walls” which were probably the walls on the eastern and western hills.
17 sn Heb “toward the Arabah.” The Arabah was the rift valley north and south of the Dead Sea. Here the intention was undoubtedly to escape across the Jordan to Moab or Ammon. It appears from Jer 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.
18 tn Or “on the right side,” i.e., the omen mark on the right side of the liver.
19 tn Heb “to open the mouth” for slaughter.
20 tn Heb “to raise up a voice in a battle cry.”
21 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
22 tn Grk “he sent his soldiers, destroyed those murderers.” The verb ἀπώλεσεν (apwlesen) is causative, indicating that the king was the one behind the execution of the murderers. In English the causative idea is not expressed naturally here; either a purpose clause (“he sent his soldiers to put those murderers to death”) or a relative clause (“he sent his soldier who put those murderers to death”) is preferred.
23 tn The Greek text reads here πόλις (polis), which could be translated “town” or “city.” The prophetic reference is to the city of Jerusalem, so “city” is more appropriate here.
24 sn Jesus now predicted the events that would be fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in
25 sn An embankment refers to either wooden barricades or earthworks, or a combination of the two.
26 tn Grk “They will raze you to the ground.”
27 tn Grk “your children within you.” The phrase “[your] walls” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the city of Jerusalem, metaphorically pictured as an individual, is spoken of here.
28 sn (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.
29 tn Grk “leave stone on stone.”
30 tn Grk “the time of your visitation.” To clarify what this refers to, the words “from God” are supplied at the end of the verse, although they do not occur in the Greek text.