6:32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house with the community leaders. 1 The king 2 sent a messenger on ahead, but before he arrived, 3 Elisha 4 said to the leaders, 5 “Do you realize this assassin intends to cut off my head?” 6 Look, when the messenger arrives, shut the door and lean against it. His master will certainly be right behind him.” 7
23:8 He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined 10 the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba. 11 He tore down the high place of the goat idols 12 situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate.
1 tn Heb “and the elders were sitting with him.”
2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “sent a man from before him, before the messenger came to him.”
4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “elders.”
6 tn Heb “Do you see that this son of an assassin has sent to remove my head?”
7 tn Heb “Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”
8 tn Heb “and now, all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests summon to me.”
9 tn Heb “acted with deception [or, ‘trickery’].”
15 tn Heb “defiled; desecrated,” that is, “made ritually unclean and unusable.”
16 sn These towns marked Judah’s northern and southern borders, respectively, at the time of Josiah.
17 tc The Hebrew text reads “the high places of the gates,” which is problematic in that the rest of the verse speaks of a specific gate. The translation assumes an emendation to בָּמוֹת הַשְּׁעָרִים (bamot hashÿ’arim), “the high place of the goats” (that is, goat idols). Worship of such images is referred to in Lev 17:7 and 2 Chr 11:15. For a discussion of the textual issue, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 286-87.
22 tn The parallel passage in Jer 52:25 has “seven.”
23 tn Heb “five seers of the king’s face.”
24 tn Heb “the people of the land.”