2 Kings 2:16

2:16 They said to him, “Look, there are fifty capable men with your servants. Let them go and look for your master, for the wind sent from the Lord ¹  may have carried him away and dropped him on one of the hills or in one of the valleys.” But Elisha ²  replied, “Don’t send them out.”

2 Kings 5:11

5:11 Naaman went away angry. He said, “Look, I thought for sure he would come out, stand there, invoke the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the area, and cure the skin disease.

2 Kings 7:2

7:2 An officer who was the king’s right-hand man ³  responded to the prophet, ⁴  “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” ⁵  Elisha ⁶  said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” ⁷ 

2 Kings 10:6

10:6 He wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are really on my side and are willing to obey me, ⁸  then take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel at this time tomorrow.” ⁹  Now the king had seventy sons, and the prominent ¹⁰  men of the city were raising them.

2 Kings 10:30

10:30 The Lord said to Jehu, “You have done well. You have accomplished my will and carried out my wishes with regard to Ahab’s dynasty. Therefore four generations of your descendants will rule over Israel.” ¹¹ 

2 Kings 18:14

18:14 King Hezekiah of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria, who was at Lachish, “I have violated our treaty. ¹²  If you leave, I will do whatever you demand.” ¹³  So the king of Assyria demanded that King Hezekiah of Judah pay three hundred talents ¹⁴  of silver and thirty talents of gold.

2 Kings 18:17

18:17 The king of Assyria sent his commanding general, the chief eunuch, and the chief adviser ¹⁵  from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, ¹⁶  along with a large army. They went up and arrived at Jerusalem. They went ¹⁷  and stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. ¹⁸ 

¹ tn Or “the spirit of the Lord.”

² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “the officer on whose hand the king leans.”

⁴ tn Heb “man of God.”

⁵ tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” Opening holes in the sky would allow the waters stored up there to pour to the earth and assure a good crop. But, the officer argues, even if this were to happen, it would take a long time to grow and harvest the crop.

⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”

⁵ tn Heb “If you are mine and you are listening to my voice.”

⁶ sn Jehu’s command is intentionally vague. Does he mean that they should bring the guardians (those who are “heads” over Ahab’s sons) for a meeting, or does he mean that they should bring the literal heads of Ahab’s sons with them? (So LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and some mss of the Targum) The city leaders interpret his words in the literal sense, but Jehu’s command is so ambiguous he is able to deny complicity in the executions (see v. 9).

⁷ tn Heb “great,” probably in wealth, position, and prestige.

⁷ tn Heb “Because you have done well by doing what is proper in my eyes – according to all which was in my heart you have done to the house of Ahab – sons of four generations will sit for you on the throne of Israel.” In the Hebrew text the Lord’s statement is one long sentence (with a parenthesis). The translation above divides it into shorter sentences for stylistic reasons.

⁹ tn Or “I have done wrong.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “Return from upon me; what you place upon me, I will carry.”

¹¹ tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 22,500 pounds of silver and 2,250 pounds of gold.

¹¹ sn For a discussion of these titles see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 229-30.

¹² map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹³ tn Heb “and they went up and came.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “the field of the washer.”