2 Kings 19:7

19:7 Look, I will take control of his mind; ¹  he will receive ²  a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down ³  with a sword in his own land.”’”

2 Kings 20:3

20:3 “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you ⁴  faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, ⁵  and how I have carried out your will.” ⁶  Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. ⁷ 

¹ tn Heb “I will put in him a spirit.” The precise sense of רוּחַ (ruakh), “spirit,” is uncertain in this context. It may refer to a spiritual being who will take control of his mind (see 1 Kgs 22:19), or it could refer to a disposition of concern and fear. In either case the Lord’s sovereignty over the king is apparent.

² tn Heb “hear.”

³ tn Heb “cause him to fall,” that is, “kill him.”

⁴ tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.

⁵ tn Heb “and with a complete heart.”

⁶ tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”

⁷ tn Heb “wept with great weeping.”