2 Kings 22:5-6

22:5 Have them hand it over to the construction foremen¹ assigned to the Lord’s temple. They in turn should pay the temple workers to repair it,² 22:6 including craftsmen, builders, and masons, and should buy wood and chiseled stone for the repair work.³

2 Kings 22:2

22:2 He did what the Lord approved⁴ and followed in his ancestor David’s footsteps;⁵ he did not deviate to the right or the left.

2 Kings 24:11-12

24:11 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city while his generals were besieging it. 24:12 King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, his servants, his officials, and his eunuchs surrendered⁶ to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign,⁷ took Jehoiachin⁸ prisoner.

2 Kings 1:9-11

1:9 The king⁹ sent a captain and his fifty soldiers¹⁰ to retrieve Elijah.¹¹ The captain¹² went up to him, while he was sitting on the top of a hill.¹³ He told him, “Prophet,¹⁴ the king says, ‘Come down!’” 1:10 Elijah replied to the captain,¹⁵ “If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire then came down¹⁶ from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.

1:11 The king¹⁷ sent another captain and his fifty soldiers to retrieve Elijah. He went up and told him,¹⁸ “Prophet, this is what the king says, ‘Come down at once!’”¹⁹

¹tn Heb “doers of the work.”

²tn Heb “and let them give it to the doers of the work who are in the house of the Lord to repair the damages to the house.”

³tn Heb “and to buy wood and chiseled stone to repair the house.”

⁴tn Heb “he did what was proper in the eyes of the Lord.”

⁵tn Heb “and walked in all the way of David his father.”

⁶tn Heb “came out.”

⁷sn That is, the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, 597 b.c.

⁸tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰tn Heb “officer of fifty and his fifty.”

¹¹tn Heb “to him.”

¹²tn Heb “he”; the referent (the captain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹³sn The prophet Elijah’s position on the top of the hill symbolizes his superiority to the king and his messengers.

¹⁴tn Heb “man of God” (also in vv. 10, 11, 12, 13).

¹⁵tn Heb “answered and said to the officer of fifty.”

¹⁶tn Wordplay contributes to the irony here. The king tells Elijah to “come down” (Hebrew יָרַד, yarad), but Elijah calls fire down (יָרַד) on the arrogant king’s officer.

¹⁷tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁸tc The MT reads, “he answered and said to him.” The verb “he answered” (וַיַּעַן, vayya’an) is probably a corruption of “he went up” (וַיַּעַל, vayya’al). See v. 9.

¹⁹sn In this second panel of the three-paneled narrative, the king and his captain are more arrogant than before. The captain uses a more official sounding introduction (“this is what the king says”) and the king adds “at once” to the command.