2 Kings 11:6

11:6 Another third of you will be stationed at the Foundation ¹  Gate. Still another third of you will be stationed at the gate behind the royal guard. ²  You will take turns guarding the palace. ³ 

2 Kings 11:19

11:19 He took the officers of the units of hundreds, the Carians, the royal bodyguard, and all the people of land, and together they led the king down from the Lord’s temple. They entered the royal palace through the Gate of the Royal Bodyguard, ⁴  and the king ⁵  sat down on the royal throne.

2 Kings 11:11

11:11 The royal bodyguard ⁶  took their stations, each holding his weapon in his hand. They lined up from the south side of the temple to the north side and stood near the altar and the temple, surrounding the king. ⁷ 

2 Kings 10:25

10:25 When he finished offering the burnt sacrifice, Jehu ordered the royal guard ⁸  and officers, “Come in and strike them down! Don’t let any escape!” So the royal guard and officers struck them down with the sword and left their bodies lying there. ⁹  Then they entered the inner sanctuary of the temple of Baal. ¹⁰ 

[11:6]  ¹ tn Heb “the gate of Sur” (followed by many English versions) but no such gate is mentioned elsewhere in the OT. The parallel account in 2 Chr 23:5 has “Foundation Gate.” סוּר (sur), “Sur,” may be a corruption of יְסוֹד (yÿsod) “foundation,” involving in part dalet-resh confusion.

[11:6]  ² tn Heb “the runners.”

[11:6]  ³ tn The meaning of מַסָּח (massakh) is not certain. The translation above, rather than understanding it as a genitive modifying “house,” takes it as an adverb describing how the groups will guard the palace. See HALOT 605 s.v. מַסָּח for the proposed meaning “alternating” (i.e., “in turns”).

[11:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Gate of the Runners of the House of the King.”

[11:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “the runners” (also in v. 19).

[11:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the runners stood, each with his weapons in his hand, from the south shoulder of the house to the north shoulder of the house, at the altar and at the house, near the king all around.”

[10:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “runners.”

[10:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and they threw.” No object appears. According to M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 116), this is an idiom for leaving a corpse unburied.

[10:25]  ¹² tn Heb “and they came to the city of the house of Baal.” It seems unlikely that a literal city is meant. Some emend עִיר (’ir), “city,” to דְּבִיר (dÿvir) “holy place,” or suggest that עִיר is due to dittography of the immediately preceding עַד (’ad) “to.” Perhaps עִיר is here a technical term meaning “fortress” or, more likely, “inner room.”