2 Kings 9:22

9:22 When Jehoram saw Jehu, he asked, “Is everything all right, Jehu?” He replied, “How can everything be all right as long as your mother Jezebel promotes idolatry and pagan practices?” ¹ 

2 Kings 9:34

9:34 He went inside and had a meal. ²  Then he said, “Dispose of this accursed woman’s corpse. Bury her, for after all, she was a king’s daughter.” ³ 

2 Kings 9:1

Jehu Becomes King

9:1 Now Elisha the prophet summoned a member of the prophetic guild ⁴  and told him, “Tuck your robes into your belt, take this container ⁵  of olive oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead.

2 Kings 21:5-15

21:5 In the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple he built altars for all the stars in the sky. 21:6 He passed his son ⁶  through the fire ⁷  and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it. ⁸  He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ⁹  21:7 He put an idol of Asherah he had made in the temple, about which the Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon, “This temple in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will be my permanent home. ¹⁰  21:8 I will not make Israel again leave the land I gave to their ancestors, ¹¹  provided that they carefully obey all I commanded them, the whole law my servant Moses ordered them to obey.” 21:9 But they did not obey, ¹²  and Manasseh misled them so that they sinned more than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed from before the Israelites.

21:10 So the Lord announced through ¹³  his servants the prophets: 21:11 “King Manasseh of Judah has committed horrible sins. ¹⁴  He has sinned more than the Amorites before him and has encouraged Judah to sin by worshiping his disgusting idols. ¹⁵  21:12 So this is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I am about to bring disaster on Jerusalem and Judah. The news will reverberate in the ears of those who hear about it. ¹⁶  21:13 I will destroy Jerusalem the same way I did Samaria ¹⁷  and the dynasty of Ahab. ¹⁸  I will wipe Jerusalem clean, just as one wipes a plate on both sides. ¹⁹  21:14 I will abandon this last remaining tribe among my people ²⁰  and hand them over to their enemies; they will be plundered and robbed by all their enemies, ²¹  21:15 because they have done evil in my sight ²²  and have angered me from the time their ancestors left Egypt right up to this very day!’”

2 Kings 21:25

21:25 The rest of Amon’s accomplishments are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. ²³ 

¹ tn Heb “How [can there be] peace as long as the adulterous acts of Jezebel your mother and her many acts of sorcery [continue]?” In this instance “adulterous acts” is employed metaphorically for idolatry. As elsewhere in the OT, worshiping other gods is viewed as spiritual adultery and unfaithfulness to the one true God. The phrase “many acts of sorcery” could be taken literally, for Jezebel undoubtedly utilized pagan divination practices, but the phrase may be metaphorical, pointing to her devotion to pagan customs in general.

² tn Heb “and he went and ate and drank.”

³ tn Heb “Attend to this accursed woman and bury her for she was the daughter of a king.”

⁴ tn Heb “one of the sons of the prophets.”

⁵ tn Or “flask.”

⁶ tc The LXX has the plural “his sons” here.

⁷ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.

⁸ 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.

⁹ 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).

¹⁰ tn Heb “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I chose from all the tribes of Israel, I will place my name perpetually (or perhaps “forever”).”

¹¹ tn Heb “I will not again make the feet of Israel wander from the land which I gave to their fathers.”

¹² tn Heb “listen.”

¹³ tn Heb “spoke by the hand of.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “these horrible sins.”

¹⁵ sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.

¹⁶ tn Heb “so that everyone who hears it, his two ears will quiver.”

¹⁷ map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.

¹⁸ tn Heb “I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab.” The measuring line and plumb line are normally used in building a structure, not tearing it down. But here they are used ironically as metaphors of judgment, emphasizing that he will give careful attention to the task of judgment.

¹⁹ tn Heb “just as one wipes a plate, wiping and turning [it] on its face.” The word picture emphasizes how thoroughly the Lord will judge the city.

²⁰ tn Heb “the remnant of my inheritance.” In this context the Lord’s remnant is the tribe of Judah, which had been preserved when the Assyrians conquered and deported the northern tribes. See 17:18 and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 269.

²¹ tn Heb “they will become plunder and spoils of war for all their enemies.”

²² tn Heb “in my eyes.”

²³ tc Heb “As for the rest of the things of Amon which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?” Many Hebrew mss have וְכָל (vÿcol), “and all,” before אֲשֶׁר (’asher). In this case we can translate, “As for the rest of the events of Amon’s reign, and all his accomplishments,….”