9:30 Jehu approached Jezreel. When Jezebel heard the news, she put on some eye liner, 4 fixed up her hair, and leaned out the window.
13:4 Jehoahaz asked for the Lord’s mercy 5 and the Lord responded favorably, 6 for he saw that Israel was oppressed by the king of Syria. 7
18:28 The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, 14 “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria.
19:8 When the chief adviser heard the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish, he left and went to Libnah, where the king was campaigning. 15 19:9 The king 16 heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was marching out to fight him. 17 He again sent messengers to Hezekiah, ordering them:
19:25 20 Certainly you must have heard! 21
Long ago I worked it out,
In ancient times I planned 22 it;
and now I am bringing it to pass.
The plan is this:
Fortified cities will crash
into heaps of ruins. 23
20:12 At that time Merodach-Baladan 24 son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah was ill.
1 tn Heb “had come up to fight them.”
2 tn Heb “and they mustered all who tied on a belt and upwards, and they stood at the border.”
3 sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 7 quarts.
5 tn Heb “she fixed her eyes with antimony.” Antimony (פּוּךְ, pukh) was used as a cosmetic. The narrator portrays her as a prostitute (see Jer 4:30), a role she has played in the spiritual realm (see the note at v. 22).
7 tn Heb “appeased the face of the
8 tn Heb “and the
9 tn Heb “for he saw the oppression of Israel, for the king of Syria oppressed them.”
9 tn Heb “did not listen.”
10 tn Heb “went up.”
11 tn Heb “looked at each other [in the] face.”
11 tn Heb “listened to him.”
12 tn Heb “the king of Assyria.”
13 tn Heb “it.”
13 tn The Hebrew text also has, “and he spoke and said.”
15 tn Heb “and the chief adviser returned and he found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish.”
17 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 tn Heb “heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, ‘Look, he has come out to fight with you.’”
19 tn Heb “Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, annihilating them.”
20 tn Heb “and will you be rescued?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No, of course not!”
21 tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.
22 tn Heb “Have you not heard?” The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s amazement that anyone might be ignorant of what he is about to say.
23 tn Heb “formed.”
24 tn Heb “and it is to cause to crash into heaps of ruins fortified cities.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb תְּהִי (tÿhi) is the implied plan, referred to in the preceding lines with third feminine singular pronominal suffixes.
23 tc The MT has “Berodach-Baladan,” but several Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses agree with the parallel passage in Isa 39:1 and read “Merodach-Baladan.”
25 tn Heb “listen.”
27 tn Heb “so that everyone who hears it, his two ears will quiver.”