2 Kings 6:32

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 

2 Kings 7:12

7:12 The king got up in the night and said to his advisers, ⁸  “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are starving, so they left the camp and hid in the field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and enter the city.’”

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, ⁹  then take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel at this time tomorrow.” ¹⁰  Now the king had seventy sons, and the prominent ¹¹  men of the city were raising them.

2 Kings 14:9

14:9 King Jehoash of Israel sent this message back to King Amaziah of Judah, “A thornbush in Lebanon sent this message to a cedar in Lebanon, ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ Then a wild animal ¹²  of Lebanon came by and trampled down the thorn. ¹³ 

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 “servants” (also in v. 13).

¹⁵ tn Heb “If you are mine and you are listening to my voice.”

¹⁶ sn 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).

¹⁷ tn Heb “great,” probably in wealth, position, and prestige.

²² tn Heb “the animal of the field.”

²³ sn Judah is the thorn in the allegory. Amaziah’s success has deceived him into thinking he is on the same level as the major powers in the area (symbolized by the cedar). In reality he is not capable of withstanding an attack by a real military power such as Israel (symbolized by the wild animal).