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. ¹ 

2 Kings 7:6

7:6 The Lord had caused the Syrian camp to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a large army. Then they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has paid the kings of the Hittites and Egypt to attack us!”

2 Kings 7:13

7:13 One of his advisers replied, “Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city. (Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people – we’re all going to die!) ²  Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.” ³ 

2 Kings 8:9

8:9 So Hazael went to visit Elisha. ⁴  He took along a gift, ⁵  as well as ⁶  forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son, ⁷  King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question, ⁸  ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

2 Kings 9:21

9:21 Jehoram ordered, “Hitch up my chariot.” ⁹  When his chariot had been hitched up, ¹⁰  King Jehoram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah went out in their respective chariots ¹¹  to meet Jehu. They met up with him ¹²  in the plot of land that had once belonged to Naboth of Jezreel.

2 Kings 10:24

10:24 They went inside to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside. He had told them, “If any of the men inside get away, you will pay with your lives!” ¹³ 

2 Kings 12:4

12:4 Jehoash said to the priests, “I place at your disposal ¹⁴  all the consecrated silver that has been brought to the Lord’s temple, including the silver collected from the census tax, ¹⁵  the silver received from those who have made vows, ¹⁶  and all the silver that people have voluntarily contributed to the Lord’s temple. ¹⁷ 

2 Kings 14:13

14:13 King Jehoash of Israel captured King Amaziah of Judah, son of Jehoash son of Ahaziah, in Beth Shemesh. He ¹⁸  attacked ¹⁹  Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate – a distance of about six hundred feet. ²⁰ 

2 Kings 19:4

19:4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. ²¹  When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. ²²  So pray for this remnant that remains.’” ²³ 

2 Kings 19:23

19:23 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ²⁴ 

‘With my many chariots ²⁵ 

I climbed up the high mountains,

the slopes of Lebanon.

I cut down its tall cedars,

and its best evergreens.

I invaded its most remote regions, ²⁶ 

its thickest woods.

2 Kings 19:29

19:29 ²⁷ This will be your confirmation that I have spoken the truth: ²⁸  This year you will eat what grows wild, ²⁹  and next year ³⁰  what grows on its own from that. But in the third year you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce. ³¹ 

2 Kings 23:11

23:11 He removed from the entrance to the Lord’s temple the statues of horses ³²  that the kings of Judah had placed there in honor of the sun god. (They were kept near the room of Nathan Melech the eunuch, which was situated among the courtyards.) ³³  He burned up the chariots devoted to the sun god. ³⁴ 

2 Kings 23:24

23:24 Josiah also got rid of ³⁵  the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits, ³⁶  the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images, ³⁷  and all the detestable idols that had appeared in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. In this way he carried out the terms of the law ³⁸  recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s temple.

2 Kings 25:25

25:25 But in the seventh month ³⁹  Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, ⁴⁰  came with ten of his men and murdered Gedaliah, ⁴¹  as well as the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.

[1:3]  ¹ 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.

[7:13]  ² tn Heb “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.” The MT is dittographic here; the words “that remain in it. Look they are like all the people of Israel” have been accidentally repeated. The original text read, “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.”

[7:13]  ³ tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”

[8:9]  ³ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:9]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”

[8:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “and.” It is possible that the conjunction is here explanatory, equivalent to English “that is.” In this case the forty camel loads constitute the “gift” and one should translate, “He took along a gift, consisting of forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus.”

[8:9]  ⁶ sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.

[8:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “saying.”

[9:21]  ⁴ tn The words “my chariot” are added for clarification.

[9:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he hitched up his chariot.”

[9:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “each in his chariot and they went out.”

[9:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “they found him.”

[10:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “The man who escapes from the men whom I am bringing into your hands, [it will be] his life in place of his life.”

[12:4]  ⁶ tn The words “I place at your disposal” are added in the translation for clarification.

[12:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “the silver of passing over a man.” The precise meaning of the phrase is debated, but עָבַר (’avar), “pass over,” probably refers here to counting, suggesting the reference is to a census conducted for taxation purposes. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 137.

[12:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “the silver of persons, his valuation.” The precise meaning of the phrase is uncertain, but parallels in Lev 27 suggest that personal vows are referred to here. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 137.

[12:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “all the silver which goes up on the heart of a man to bring to the house of the Lord.”

[14:13]  ⁷ tc The MT has the plural form of the verb, but the final vav (ו) is virtually dittographic. The word that immediately follows in the Hebrew text begins with a yod (י). The form should be emended to the singular, which is consistent in number with the verb (“he broke down”) that follows.

[14:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “came to.”

[14:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “four hundred cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.

[19:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”

[19:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”

[19:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”

[19:23]  ⁹ tn The word is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai), “lord,” but some Hebrew mss have יְהוָה (yehvah), “Lord.”

[19:23]  ¹⁰ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has בְּרֶכֶב (bÿrekhev), but this must be dittographic (note the following רִכְבִּי [rikhbi], “my chariots”). The marginal reading (Qere) בְּרֹב (bÿrov), “with many,” is supported by many Hebrew mss and ancient versions, as well as the parallel passage in Isa 37:24.

[19:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the lodging place of its extremity.”

[19:29]  ¹⁰ tn At this point the word concerning the king of Assyria (vv. 21-28) ends and the Lord again directly addresses Hezekiah and the people (see v. 20).

[19:29]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and this is your sign.” In this case the אוֹת (’ot), “sign,” is a future confirmation of God’s intervention designated before the actual intervention takes place. For similar “signs” see Exod 3:12 and Isa 7:14-25.

[19:29]  ¹² sn This refers to crops that grew up on their own (that is, without cultivation) from the seed planted in past years.

[19:29]  ¹³ tn Heb “and in the second year.”

[19:29]  ¹⁴ tn The four plural imperatival verb forms in v. 29b are used rhetorically. The Lord commands the people to plant, harvest, etc. to emphasize the certainty of restored peace and prosperity. See IBHS 572 §34.4.c.

[23:11]  ¹¹ tn The MT simply reads “the horses.” The words “statues of” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:11]  ¹² tn Heb “who/which was in the […?].” The meaning of the Hebrew term פַּרְוָרִים (parvarim), translated here “courtyards,” is uncertain. The relative clause may indicate where the room was located or explain who Nathan Melech was, “the eunuch who was in the courtyards.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 288-89, who translate “the officer of the precincts.”

[23:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire.”

[23:24]  ¹² tn Here בִּעֵר (bi’er) is not the well attested verb “burn,” but the less common homonym meaning “devastate, sweep away, remove.” See HALOT 146 s.v. בער.

[23:24]  ¹³ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 21:6.

[23:24]  ¹⁴ sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.

[23:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “carrying out the words of the law.”

[25:25]  ¹³ sn It is not altogether clear whether this is in the same year that Jerusalem fell or not. The wall was breached in the fourth month (= early July; Jer 39:2) and Nebuzaradan came and burned the palace, the temple, and many of the houses and tore down the wall in the fifth month (= early August; Jer 52:12). That would have left time between the fifth month and the seventh month (October) to gather in the harvest of grapes, dates and figs, and olives (Jer 40:12). However, many commentators feel that too much activity takes place in too short a time for this to have been in the same year and posit that it happened the following year or even five years later when a further deportation took place, possibly in retaliation for the murder of Gedaliah and the Babylonian garrison at Mizpah (Jer 52:30). The assassination of Gedaliah had momentous consequences and was commemorated in one of the post exilic fast days lamenting the fall of Jerusalem (Zech 8:19).

[25:25]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[was] from the seed of the kingdom.”

[25:25]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and they struck down Gedaliah and he died.”