4:1 Now a wife of one of the prophets 3 appealed 4 to Elisha for help, saying, “Your servant, my husband is dead. You know that your servant was a loyal follower of the Lord. 5 Now the creditor is coming to take away my two boys to be his servants.”
12:9 Jehoiada the priest took a chest and drilled a hole in its lid. He placed it on the right side of the altar near the entrance of 17 the Lord’s temple. The priests who guarded the entrance would put into it all the silver brought to the Lord’s temple.
14:23 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Judah’s King Amaziah, son of Joash, Jeroboam son of Joash became king over Israel. He reigned for forty-one years in Samaria. 18
1 tn Heb “that we might inquire of the
2 tn Heb “who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” This refers to one of the typical tasks of a servant.
3 tn Heb “a wife from among the wives of the sons of the prophets.”
4 tn Or “cried out.”
5 tn Heb “your servant feared the
5 tn Heb “a vine of the field.”
6 tn Heb “[some] of the gourds of the field.”
7 tn Heb “he came and cut [them up].”
8 tc The Hebrew text reads, “for they did not know” (יָדָעוּ, yada’u) but some emend the final shureq (וּ, indicating a third plural subject) to holem vav (וֹ, a third masculine singular pronominal suffix on a third singular verb) and read “for he did not know it.” Perhaps it is best to omit the final vav as dittographic (note the vav at the beginning of the next verb form) and read simply, “for he did not know.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 59.
7 tn Heb “they ate and drank.”
8 tn Heb “and they hid [it].”
9 tn Heb “and they took from there.”
9 tn Heb “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.” The MT is dittographic here; the words “that remain in it. Look they are like all the people of Israel” have been accidentally repeated. The original text read, “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.”
10 tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”
11 tn Heb “and the king asked the woman and she told him.”
12 tn Heb “and he assigned to her an official, saying.”
13 tn Heb “on the right side of the altar as a man enters.”
15 map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.
17 tn Heb “and Menahem brought out the silver over Israel, over the prominent men of means, to give to the king of Assyria, fifty shekels of silver for each man.”
19 tc The second plural subject may refer to the leaders of the Assyrian army. However, some prefer to read “whom I deported,” changing the verb to a first person singular form with a third masculine plural pronominal suffix. This reading has some support from Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic witnesses.
20 tc Heb “and let them go and let them live there, and let him teach them the requirements of the God of the land.” The two plural verbs seem inconsistent with the preceding and following contexts, where only one priest is sent back to Samaria. The singular has the support of Greek, Syriac, and Latin witnesses.
21 tn Heb “eighteen cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.
22 tn Heb “three cubits.” The parallel passage in Jer 52:22 has “five.”