2 Kings 1:2

1:2 Ahaziah fell through a window lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria ¹  and was injured. He sent messengers with these orders, ²  “Go, ask ³  Baal Zebub, ⁴  the god of Ekron, if I will survive this injury.”

2 Kings 2:14

2:14 He took the cloak that had fallen off Elijah, ⁵  hit the water with it, and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” When he hit the water, it divided and Elisha crossed over.

2 Kings 3:19

3:19 You will defeat every fortified city and every important ⁶  city. You must chop down ⁷  every productive ⁸  tree, stop up all the springs, and cover all the cultivated land with stones.” ⁹ 

2 Kings 3:25

3:25 They tore down the cities and each man threw a stone into every cultivated field until they were covered. ¹⁰  They stopped up every spring and chopped down every productive tree.

Only Kir Hareseth was left intact, ¹¹  but the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.

2 Kings 7:4

7:4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation, ¹²  and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect ¹³  to the Syrian camp! If they spare us, ¹⁴  we’ll live; if they kill us – well, we were going to die anyway.” ¹⁵ 

2 Kings 10:10

10:10 Therefore take note that not one of the judgments the Lord announced against Ahab’s dynasty has failed to materialize. The Lord had done what he announced through his servant Elijah.” ¹⁶ 

[1:2]  ¹ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[1:2]  ² tn Heb “and he sent messengers and said to them.”

[1:2]  ³ tn That is, “seek an oracle from.”

[1:2]  ⁴ sn Apparently Baal Zebub refers to a local manifestation of the god Baal at the Philistine city of Ekron. The name appears to mean “Lord of the Flies,” but it may be a deliberate scribal corruption of Baal Zebul, “Baal, the Prince,” a title known from the Ugaritic texts. For further discussion and bibliography, see HALOT 261 s.v. זְבוּב בַּעַל and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 25.

[2:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen off him.” The wording is changed slightly in the translation for the sake of variety of expression (see v. 13).

[3:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “choice” or “select.”

[3:19]  ¹⁰ tn Elisha places the object first and uses an imperfect verb form. The stylistic shift may signal that he is now instructing them what to do, rather than merely predicting what would happen.

[3:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “good.”

[3:19]  ¹² tn Heb “and ruin every good portion with stones.”

[3:25]  ¹³ tn Heb “and [on] every good portion they were throwing each man his stone and they filled it.” The vav + perfect (“and they filled”) here indicates customary action contemporary with the situation described in the preceding main clause (where a customary imperfect is used, “they were throwing”). See the note at 3:4.

[3:25]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “until he had allowed its stones to remain in Kir Hareseth.”

[7:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”

[7:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “fall.”

[7:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “keep us alive.”

[7:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “we will die.” The paraphrastic translation attempts to bring out the logical force of their reasoning.

[10:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “Know then that there has not fallen from the word of the Lord to the ground that which the Lord spoke against the house of Ahab. The Lord has done that which he spoke by the hand of his servant Elijah.”