6:20 When they had entered Samaria, Elisha said, “O Lord, open their eyes, so they can see.” The Lord opened their eyes and they saw that they were in the middle of Samaria. 38
6:32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house with the community leaders. 39 The king 40 sent a messenger on ahead, but before he arrived, 41 Elisha 42 said to the leaders, 43 “Do you realize this assassin intends to cut off my head?” 44 Look, when the messenger arrives, shut the door and lean against it. His master will certainly be right behind him.” 45
7:17 Now the king had placed the officer who was his right-hand man 49 at the city gate. When the people rushed out, they trampled him to death in the gate. 50 This fulfilled the prophet’s word which he had spoken when the king tried to arrest him. 51 7:18 The prophet told the king, “Two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and a seah of finely milled flour for a shekel; this will happen about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria.” 7:19 But the officer replied to the prophet, “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” 52 Elisha 53 said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” 54 7:20 This is exactly what happened to him. The people trampled him to death in the city gate.
1 tn Heb “Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen off him.” The wording is changed slightly in the translation for the sake of variety of expression (see v. 13).
2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Or “healed.”
4 tn Heb “there will no longer be from there death and miscarriage [or, ‘barrenness’].”
5 tn Heb “according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.”
6 tn Heb “he cursed them in the name of the
7 tn Traditionally “the
8 tn Heb “before whom I stand.”
9 tn Heb “if I did not lift up the face of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah.”
10 tn Heb “I would not look at you or see you.”
11 tn The term used refers to one who plays a stringed instrument, perhaps a harp.
12 tn Heb “the hand of the
13 tn Heb “making this valley cisterns, cisterns.” The Hebrew noun גֵּב (gev) means “cistern” in Jer 14:3 (cf. Jer 39:10). The repetition of the noun is for emphasis. See GKC 396 §123.e. The verb (“making”) is an infinitive absolute, which has to be interpreted in light of the context. The translation above takes it in an imperatival sense. The command need not be understood as literal, but as hyperbolic. Telling them to build cisterns is a dramatic way of leading into the announcement that he would miraculously provide water in the desert. Some prefer to translate the infinitive as an imperfect with the Lord as the understood subject, “I will turn this valley [into] many pools.”
14 tn Heb “Go, ask for containers from outside, from all your neighbors, empty containers.”
15 tn Heb “Do not borrow just a few.”
16 tn Heb “all these vessels.”
17 tn Heb “to her son.”
18 tn Heb “at this appointed time, at the time [when it is] reviving.” For a discussion of the second phrase see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 57.
19 tn Heb “according to the word of the man of God.”
20 tn Heb “and his skin was restored, like the skin of a small child.”
21 tn Heb “cling to.”
22 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gehazi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
23 tn Traditionally, “he went from before him, leprous like snow.” But see the note at 5:1, as well as M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 66.
24 tn Heb “man of God” (also in v. 9).
25 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
26 tn The vav + perfect here indicates action contemporary with the preceding main verb (“sent”). See IBHS 533-34 §32.2.3e.
27 tn Heb “and the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God spoke to him, and he warned it and he guarded himself there, not once and not twice.”
28 tn Heb “and the heart of the king of Syria was stirred up over this thing.”
29 tn Heb “servants.”
30 tn Heb “Will you not tell me who among us [is] for the king of Israel?” The sarcastic rhetorical question expresses the king’s suspicion.
31 tn Heb “and he saw, and look.”
32 tn Heb “and they came down to him.”
33 tn Or “this nation,” perhaps emphasizing the strength of the Syrian army.
34 tn On the basis of the Akkadian etymology of the word, M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 74) translate “blinding light.” HALOT 761 s.v. סַנְוֵרִים suggests the glosses “dazzling, deception.”
35 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
36 tn Heb “according to the word of Elisha.”
37 map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.
38 tn Heb “and they saw, and look, [they were] in the middle of Samaria.”
39 tn Heb “and the elders were sitting with him.”
40 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
41 tn Heb “sent a man from before him, before the messenger came to him.”
42 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
43 tn Heb “elders.”
44 tn Heb “Do you see that this son of an assassin has sent to remove my head?”
45 tn Heb “Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”
46 sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 7 quarts.
47 sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 7 quarts.
48 tn Heb “according to the word of the
49 tn Heb “the officer on whose hand he leans.”
50 tn Heb “and the people trampled him in the gate and he died.”
51 tn Heb “just as the man of God had spoken, [the word] which he spoke when the king came down to him.”
52 tn Heb “the
53 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
54 tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”