2 Kings 6:31-32

6:31 Then he said, “May God judge me severely 1  if Elisha son of Shaphat still has his head by the end of the day!” 2 

6:32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house with the community leaders. 3  The king 4  sent a messenger on ahead, but before he arrived, 5  Elisha 6  said to the leaders, 7  “Do you realize this assassin intends to cut off my head?” 8  Look, when the messenger arrives, shut the door and lean against it. His master will certainly be right behind him.” 9 

2 Kings 21:6

21:6 He passed his son 10  through the fire 11  and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it. 12  He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 13 

2 Kings 21:20

21:20 He did evil in the sight of 14  the Lord, just like his father Manasseh had done.

1 tn Heb “So may God do to me, and so may he add.”

2 tn Heb “if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat stays on him today.”

3 tn Heb “and the elders were sitting with him.”

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

5 tn Heb “sent a man from before him, before the messenger came to him.”

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

7 tn Heb “elders.”

8 tn Heb “Do you see that this son of an assassin has sent to remove my head?”

9 tn Heb “Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”

10 tc The LXX has the plural “his sons” here.

11 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.

12 tn Heb “and he set up a ritual pit, along with conjurers.” The Hebrew אוֹב (’ov), “ritual pit,” refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits. In 1 Sam 28:7 the witch of Endor is called a בַעֲלַת אוֹב (ba’alat ’ov), “owner of a ritual pit.” See H. Hoffner, “Second millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew ’OñBù,” JBL 86 (1967), 385-401.

13 tc Heb “and he multiplied doing what is evil in the eyes of the Lord, angering.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix (“him”) has been accidentally omitted in the MT by haplography (note the vav that immediately follows).

14 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”