2 Kings 11:7

11:7 The two units who are off duty on the Sabbath will guard the Lord’s temple and protect the king. ¹ 

2 Kings 5:22-23

5:22 He answered, “Everything is fine. ²  My master sent me with this message, ‘Look, two servants of the prophets just arrived from the Ephraimite hill country. ³  Please give them a talent ⁴  of silver and two suits of clothes.’” 5:23 Naaman said, “Please accept two talents of silver. ⁵  He insisted, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, along with two suits of clothes. He gave them to two of his servants and they carried them for Gehazi. ⁶ 

[11:7]  ¹ tn Verses 5b-7 read literally, “the third of you, the ones entering [on] the Sabbath and the ones guarding the guard of the house of the king, and the third in the gate of Sur, and the third in the gate behind the runners, and you will guard the guard of the house, alternating. And the two units of you, all the ones going out [on] the Sabbath, and they will guard the guard of the house of the Lord for the king.” The precise meaning of this text is impossible to determine. It would appear that the Carians and royal bodyguard were divided into three units. One unit would serve during the Sabbath; the other two would be off duty on the Sabbath. Jehoiada divided the first unit into three groups and assigned them different locations. The two off duty units were assigned the task of guarding the king.

[5:22]  ² tn Heb “peace.”

[5:22]  ³ tn Heb “Look now, here, two servants came to me from the Ephraimite hill country, from the sons of the prophets.”

[5:22]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 75 pounds of silver (cf. NCV, NLT, CEV).

[5:23]  ³ tn Heb “Be resolved and accept two talents.”

[5:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “before him.”