2 Kings 1:1

Elijah Confronts the King and His Commanders

1:1 After Ahab died, Moab rebelled against Israel. ¹ 

2 Kings 9:8

9:8 Ahab’s entire family will die. I ²  will cut off every last male belonging to Ahab in Israel, including even the weak and incapacitated. ³ 

2 Kings 10:32

10:32 In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel’s territory. ⁴  Hazael attacked their eastern border. ⁵ 

2 Kings 6:8

Elisha Defeats an Army

6:8 Now the king of Syria was at war with Israel. He consulted his advisers, who said, “Invade ⁶  at such and such ⁷  a place.”

2 Kings 13:3

13:3 The Lord was furious with ⁸  Israel and handed them over to ⁹  King Hazael of Syria and to Hazael’s son Ben Hadad for many years. ¹⁰ 

2 Kings 17:18

17:18 So the Lord was furious ¹¹  with Israel and rejected them; ¹²  only the tribe of Judah was left.

2 Kings 1:3

1:3 But the Lord’s angelic messenger told Elijah the Tishbite, “Get up, go to meet the messengers from the king of Samaria. Say this to them: ‘You must think there is no God in Israel! That explains why you are on your way to seek an oracle from Baal Zebub the god of Ekron. ¹³ 

2 Kings 5:8

5:8 When Elisha the prophet ¹⁴  heard that the king had torn his clothes, he sent this message to the king, “Why did you tear your clothes? Send him ¹⁵  to me so he may know there is a prophet in Israel.”

2 Kings 5:15

5:15 He and his entire entourage returned to the prophet. Naaman ¹⁶  came and stood before him. He said, “For sure ¹⁷  I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel! Now, please accept a gift from your servant.”

2 Kings 6:12

6:12 One of his advisers said, “No, my master, O king. The prophet Elisha who lives in Israel keeps telling the king of Israel the things you say in your bedroom.”

2 Kings 14:28

14:28 The rest of the events of Jeroboam’s reign, including all his accomplishments, his military success in restoring Israelite control over Damascus and Hamath, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. ¹⁸ 

2 Kings 17:13

17:13 The Lord solemnly warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and all the seers, “Turn back from your evil ways; obey my commandments and rules that are recorded in the law. I ordered your ancestors to keep this law and sent my servants the prophets to remind you of its demands.” ¹⁹ 

2 Kings 1:16

1:16 Elijah ²⁰  said to the king, ²¹  “This is what the Lord says, ‘You sent messengers to seek an oracle from Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. You must think there is no God in Israel from whom you can seek an oracle! ²²  Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.’” ²³ 

2 Kings 1:6

1:6 They replied, ²⁴  “A man came up to meet us. He told us, “Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: “You must think there is no God in Israel! That explains why you are sending for an oracle from Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. ²⁵  Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.”’”

[1:1]  ¹ sn This statement may fit better with the final paragraph of 1 Kgs 22.

[9:8]  ² tc The LXX has the second person, “you.”

[9:8]  ³ tn Heb “and I will cut off from Ahab those who urinate against a wall, [including both those who are] restrained and let free [or, ‘abandoned’] in Israel.” On the phrase וְעָצוּר וְעָזוּב (vÿ’atsur vÿ’azur, translated here “weak and incapacitated”) see the note at 1 Kgs 14:10.

[10:32]  ³ tn Heb “began to cut off Israel.”

[10:32]  ⁴ tn Heb “Hazael struck them down in all the territory of Israel, from the Jordan on the east.” In the Hebrew text the phrase “from the Jordan on the east” begins v. 33.

[6:8]  ⁴ tc The verb form used here is difficult to analyze. On the basis of the form נְחִתִּים (nÿkhitim) in v. 9 from the root נָחַת (nakhat), it is probably best to emend the verb to תִּנְחְתוּ (tinkhÿtu; a Qal imperfect form from the same root). The verb נָחַת in at least two other instances carries the nuance “go down, descend” in a military context. For a defense of this view, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 72.

[6:8]  ⁵ sn The advisers would have mentioned a specific location, but the details are not significant to the narrator’s purpose, so he simply paraphrases here.

[13:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the anger of the Lord burned against.”

[13:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “he gave them into the hand of.”

[13:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “all the days.”

[17:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “very angry.”

[17:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “turned them away from his face.”

[1:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “Is it because there is no God in Israel [that] you are going to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?” The translation seeks to bring out the sarcastic tone of the rhetorical question.

[5:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “man of God” (also in vv. 15, 20).

[5:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “Let him come.”

[5:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Naaman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “look.”

[14:28]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jeroboam, and all which he did and his strength, [and] how he fought and how he restored Damascus and Hamath to Judah in Israel, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel?” The phrase “to Judah” is probably not original; it may be a scribal addition by a Judahite scribe who was trying to link Jeroboam’s conquests with the earlier achievements of David and Solomon, who ruled in Judah. The Syriac Peshitta has simply “to Israel.” M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 162) offer this proposal, but acknowledge that it is “highly speculative.”

[17:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “obey my commandments and rules according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets.”

[1:16]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “him”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Because you sent messengers to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, is there no God in Israel to inquire of his word?”

[1:16]  ¹⁵ sn For the third time in this chapter we read the Lord’s sarcastic question to king and the accompanying announcement of judgment. The repetition emphasizes one of the chapter’s main themes. Israel’s leaders should seek guidance from their own God, not a pagan deity, for Israel’s sovereign God is the one who controls life and death.

[1:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “said to him.”

[1:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Is it because there is no God in Israel [that] you are sending to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?” The translation seeks to bring out the sarcastic tone of the rhetorical question. In v. 3 the messengers are addressed (in the phrase “you are on your way” the second person plural pronoun is used in Hebrew), but here the king is addressed (in the phrase “you are sending” the second person singular pronoun is used).