2 Kings 24:12

24:12 King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, his servants, his officials, and his eunuchs surrendered ¹  to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign, ²  took Jehoiachin ³  prisoner.

2 Kings 25:6-7

25:6 They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, ⁴  where he ⁵  passed sentence on him. 25:7 Zedekiah’s sons were executed while Zedekiah was forced to watch. ⁶  The king of Babylon ⁷  then had Zedekiah’s eyes put out, bound him in bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon.

2 Kings 25:2

25:2 The city remained under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

2 Kings 1:6

1:6 They replied, ⁸  “A man came up to meet us. He told us, “Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: “You must think there is no God in Israel! That explains why you are sending for an oracle from Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. ⁹  Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.”’”

2 Kings 1:10

1:10 Elijah replied to the captain, ¹⁰  “If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire then came down ¹¹  from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.

¹ tn Heb “came out.”

² sn That is, the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, 597 b.c.

³ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ sn Riblah was a strategic town on the Orontes River in Syria. It was at a crossing of the major roads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pharaoh Necho had earlier received Jehoahaz there and put him in chains (2 Kgs 23:33) prior to taking him captive to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his base camp for conducting his campaigns against the Palestinian states there and was now sitting in judgment on prisoners brought to him.

⁵ tn The Hebrew text has the plural form of the verb, but the parallel passage in Jer 52:9 has the singular.

⁶ tn Heb “were killed before his eyes.”

⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Heb “said to him.”

⁹ tn Heb “Is it because there is no God in Israel [that] you are sending to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?” The translation seeks to bring out the sarcastic tone of the rhetorical question. In v. 3 the messengers are addressed (in the phrase “you are on your way” the second person plural pronoun is used in Hebrew), but here the king is addressed (in the phrase “you are sending” the second person singular pronoun is used).

¹⁰ tn Heb “answered and said to the officer of fifty.”

¹¹ tn 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.