2 Kings 6:32

6:32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house with the community leaders.¹ The king² sent a messenger on ahead, but before he arrived,³ Elisha⁴ 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

2 Kings 10:6

10:6 He wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are really on my side and are willing to obey me,⁸ then take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel at this time tomorrow.”⁹ Now the king had seventy sons, and the prominent¹⁰ men of the city were raising them.

2 Kings 10:19

10:19 So now, bring to me all the prophets of Baal, as well as all his servants and priests.¹¹ None of them must be absent, for I am offering a great sacrifice to Baal. Any of them who fail to appear will lose their lives.” But Jehu was tricking them¹² so he could destroy the servants of Baal.

2 Kings 23:8

23:8 He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined¹³ the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba.¹⁴ He tore down the high place of the goat idols¹⁵ situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate.

2 Kings 25:19

25:19 From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five¹⁶ of the king’s advisers¹⁷ who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens¹⁸ for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city.

¹tn Heb “and the elders were sitting with him.”

²tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³tn Heb “sent a man from before him, before the messenger came to him.”

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

⁵tn Heb “elders.”

⁶tn Heb “Do you see that this son of an assassin has sent to remove my head?”

⁷tn Heb “Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”

⁸tn Heb “If you are mine and you are listening to my voice.”

⁹sn Jehu’s command is intentionally vague. Does he mean that they should bring the guardians (those who are “heads” over Ahab’s sons) for a meeting, or does he mean that they should bring the literal heads of Ahab’s sons with them? (So LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and some mss of the Targum) The city leaders interpret his words in the literal sense, but Jehu’s command is so ambiguous he is able to deny complicity in the executions (see v. 9).

¹⁰tn Heb “great,” probably in wealth, position, and prestige.

¹⁵tn Heb “and now, all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests summon to me.”

¹⁶tn Heb “acted with deception [or, ‘trickery’].”

²²tn Heb “defiled; desecrated,” that is, “made ritually unclean and unusable.”

²³sn These towns marked Judah’s northern and southern borders, respectively, at the time of Josiah.

²⁴tc 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.

²⁹tn The parallel passage in Jer 52:25 has “seven.”

³⁰tn Heb “five seers of the king’s face.”

³¹tn Heb “the people of the land.”