2 Chronicles 15:16

15:16 King Asa also removed Maacah his grandmother ¹  from her position as queen mother ²  because she had made a loathsome Asherah pole. Asa cut down her Asherah pole and crushed and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

2 Chronicles 15:2

15:2 He met ³  Asa and told him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin! The Lord is with you when you are loyal to him. ⁴  If you seek him, he will respond to you, ⁵  but if you reject him, he will reject you.

2 Chronicles 23:4-6

23:4 This is what you must do. One third of you priests and Levites who are on duty during the Sabbath will guard the doors. 23:5 Another third of you will be stationed at the royal palace and still another third at the Foundation Gate. All the others ⁶  will stand in the courtyards of the Lord’s temple. 23:6 No one must enter the Lord’s temple except the priests and Levites who are on duty. They may enter because they are ceremonially pure. All the others should carry out their assigned service to the Lord.

John 18:1

Betrayal and Arrest

18:1 When he had said these things, ⁷  Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley. ⁸  There was an orchard ⁹  there, and he and his disciples went into it.

[15:16]  ¹ tn Heb “mother,” but Hebrew often uses “father” and “mother” for grandparents and even more remote ancestors.

[15:16]  ² tn The Hebrew term גְּבִירָה (gÿvirah) can denote “queen” or “queen mother” depending on the context. Here the latter is indicated, since Maacah was the wife of Rehoboam and mother of Abijah.

[15:2]  ³ tn Heb “went out before.”

[15:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “when you are with him.”

[15:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “he will allow himself to be found by you.”

[23:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “all the people.”

[18:1]  ⁷ sn When he had said these things appears to be a natural transition at the end of the Farewell Discourse (the farewell speech of Jesus to his disciples in John 13:31-17:26, including the final prayer in 17:1-26). The author states that Jesus went out with his disciples, a probable reference to their leaving the upper room where the meal and discourse described in chaps. 13-17 took place (although some have seen this only as a reference to their leaving the city, with the understanding that some of the Farewell Discourse, including the concluding prayer, was given en route, cf. 14:31). They crossed the Kidron Valley and came to a garden, or olive orchard, identified in Matt 26:36 and Mark 14:32 as Gethsemane. The name is not given in Luke’s or John’s Gospel, but the garden must have been located somewhere on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives.

[18:1]  ⁸ tn Grk “the wadi of the Kidron,” or “the ravine of the Kidron” (a wadi is a stream that flows only during the rainy season and is dry during the dry season).

[18:1]  ⁹ tn Or “a garden.”