Discovery Box2 Kings 14:21
Context14:21 All the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in his father Amaziah’s place.
2 Kings 14:1
Context14:1 In the second year of the reign of Israel’s King Joash son of Joahaz, 1 Joash’s 2 son Amaziah became king over Judah.
2 Kings 2:1--3:27
Context2:1 Just before 3 the Lord took Elijah up to heaven in a windstorm, Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal. 2:2 Elijah told Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Bethel.” 4 But Elisha said, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. 2:3 Some members of the prophetic guild 5 in Bethel came out to Elisha and said, “Do you know that today the Lord is going to take your master from you?” 6 He answered, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.”
2:4 Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” 7 But he replied, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho. 2:5 Some members of the prophetic guild in Jericho approached Elisha and said, “Do you know that today the Lord is going to take your master from you?” He answered, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.”
2:6 Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” But he replied, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they traveled on together. 2:7 The fifty members of the prophetic guild went and stood opposite them at a distance, while Elijah and Elisha 8 stood by the Jordan. 2:8 Elijah took his cloak, folded it up, and hit the water with it. The water divided, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
2:9 When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “What can I do for you, 9 before I am taken away from you?” Elisha answered, “May I receive a double portion of the prophetic spirit that energizes you.” 10 2:10 Elijah 11 replied, “That’s a difficult request! 12 If you see me taken from you, may it be so, but if you don’t, it will not happen.”
2:11 As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a fiery chariot 13 pulled by fiery horses appeared. 14 They went between Elijah and Elisha, 15 and Elijah went up to heaven in a windstorm. 2:12 While Elisha was watching, he was crying out, “My father, my father! The chariot and horsemen of Israel!” 16 Then he could no longer see him. He grabbed his clothes and tore them in two. 2:13 He picked up Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen off him, and went back and stood on the shore of the Jordan. 2:14 He took the cloak that had fallen off Elijah, 17 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.
2:15 When the members of the prophetic guild in Jericho, 18 who were standing at a distance, 19 saw him do this, they said, “The spirit that energized Elijah 20 rests upon Elisha.” They went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him. 2:16 They said to him, “Look, there are fifty capable men with your servants. Let them go and look for your master, for the wind sent from the Lord 21 may have carried him away and dropped him on one of the hills or in one of the valleys.” But Elisha 22 replied, “Don’t send them out.” 2:17 But they were so insistent, he became embarrassed. So he said, “Send them out.” They sent the fifty men out and they looked for three days, but could not find Elijah. 23 2:18 When they came back, Elisha 24 was staying in Jericho. He said to them, “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t go’?”
2:19 The men of the city said to Elisha, “Look, the city has a good location, as our 25 master can see. But the water is bad and the land doesn’t produce crops.” 26 2:20 Elisha 27 said, “Get me a new jar and put some salt in it.” So they got it. 2:21 He went out to the spring and threw the salt in. Then he said, “This is what the Lord says, ‘I have purified 28 this water. It will no longer cause death or fail to produce crops.” 29 2:22 The water has been pure to this very day, just as Elisha prophesied. 30
2:23 He went up from there to Bethel. 31 As he was traveling up the road, some young boys 32 came out of the city and made fun of him, saying, “Go on up, baldy! Go on up, baldy!” 2:24 When he turned around and saw them, he called God’s judgment down on them. 33 Two female bears came out of the woods and ripped forty-two of the boys to pieces. 2:25 From there he traveled to Mount Carmel and then back to Samaria. 34
3:1 In the eighteenth year of King Jehoshaphat’s reign over Judah, Ahab’s son Jehoram became king over Israel in Samaria; 35 he ruled for twelve years. 3:2 He did evil in the sight of 36 the Lord, but not to the same degree as his father and mother. He did remove the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made. 3:3 Yet he persisted in 37 the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who encouraged Israel to sin; he did not turn from them. 38
3:4 Now King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder. 39 He would send as tribute 40 to the king of Israel 100,000 male lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. 3:5 When Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. 3:6 At that time King Jehoram left Samaria and assembled all Israel for war. 3:7 He sent 41 this message to King Jehoshaphat of Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you fight with me against Moab?” Jehoshaphat 42 replied, “I will join you in the campaign; my army and horses are at your disposal.” 43 3:8 He then asked, “Which invasion route are we going to take?” 44 Jehoram 45 answered, “By the road through the Desert of Edom.” 3:9 So the kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom 46 set out together. They wandered around on the road for seven days and finally ran out of water for the men and animals they had with them. 3:10 The king of Israel said, “Oh no! 47 Certainly the Lord has summoned these three kings so that he can hand them over to the king of Moab!” 3:11 Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here that we might seek the Lord’s direction?” 48 One of the servants of the king of Israel answered, “Elisha son of Shapat is here; he used to be Elijah’s servant.” 49 3:12 Jehoshaphat said, “The Lord speaks through him.” 50 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to visit him.
3:13 Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Why are you here? 51 Go to your father’s prophets or your mother’s prophets!” The king of Israel replied to him, “No, for the Lord is the one who summoned these three kings so that he can hand them over to Moab.” 3:14 Elisha said, “As certainly as the Lord who rules over all 52 lives (whom I serve), 53 if I did not respect King Jehoshaphat of Judah, 54 I would not pay attention to you or acknowledge you. 55 3:15 But now, get me a musician.” 56 When the musician played, the Lord energized him, 57 3:16 and he said, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Make many cisterns in this valley,’ 58 3:17 for this is what the Lord says, ‘You will not feel 59 any wind or see any rain, but this valley will be full of water and you and your cattle and animals will drink.’ 3:18 This is an easy task for the Lord; 60 he will also hand Moab over to you. 3:19 You will defeat every fortified city and every important 61 city. You must chop down 62 every productive 63 tree, stop up all the springs, and cover all the cultivated land with stones.” 64
3:20 Sure enough, the next morning, at the time of the morning sacrifice, water came flowing down from Edom and filled the land. 65 3:21 Now all Moab had heard that the kings were attacking, 66 so everyone old enough to fight was mustered and placed at the border. 67 3:22 When they got up early the next morning, the sun was shining on the water. To the Moabites, who were some distance away, the water looked red like blood. 3:23 The Moabites 68 said, “It’s blood! The kings are totally destroyed! 69 They have struck one another down! Now, Moab, seize the plunder!” 3:24 When they approached the Israelite camp, the Israelites rose up and struck down the Moabites, who then ran from them. The Israelites 70 thoroughly defeated 71 Moab. 3:25 They tore down the cities and each man threw a stone into every cultivated field until they were covered. 72 They stopped up every spring and chopped down every productive tree.
Only Kir Hareseth was left intact, 73 but the slingers surrounded it and attacked it. 3:26 When the king of Moab realized he was losing the battle, 74 he and 700 swordsmen tried to break through and attack 75 the king of Edom, but they failed. 3:27 So he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him up as a burnt sacrifice on the wall. There was an outburst of divine anger against Israel, 76 so they broke off the attack 77 and returned to their homeland.
[14:1] 1 sn The name Joahaz is an alternate form of Jehoahaz.
[14:1] 2 sn The referent here is Joash of Judah (see 12:21), not Joash of Israel, mentioned earlier in the verse.
[2:2] 1 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
[2:3] 1 tn Heb “the sons of the prophets.”
[2:3] 2 tn Heb “from your head.” The same expression occurs in v. 5.
[2:4] 1 map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
[2:7] 1 tn Heb “the two of them.” The referents (Elijah and Elisha) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
[2:9] 1 tn Heb “Ask! What can I do for you….?”
[2:9] 2 tn Heb “May a double portion of your spirit come to me.”
[2:10] 1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[2:10] 2 tn Heb “You have made difficult [your] request.”
[2:11] 1 tn Though the noun is singular here, it may be collective, in which case it could be translated “chariots.”
[2:11] 2 tn Heb “look, a chariot of fire and horses of fire.”
[2:11] 3 tn Heb “and they made a division between the two of them.”
[2:12] 1 sn Elisha may be referring to the fiery chariot(s) and horses as the Lord’s spiritual army that fights on behalf of Israel (see 2 Kgs 6:15-17; 7:6). However, the juxtaposition with “my father” (clearly a reference to Elijah as Elisha’s mentor), and the parallel in 2 Kgs 13:14 (where the king addresses Elisha with these words), suggest that Elisha is referring to Elijah. In this case Elijah is viewed as a one man army, as it were. When the Lord spoke through him, his prophetic word was as powerful as an army of chariots and horses. See M. A. Beek, “The Meaning of the Expression ‘The Chariots and Horsemen of Israel’ (II Kings ii 12),” The Witness of Tradition (OTS 17), 1-10.
[2:14] 1 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).
[2:15] 1 map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
[2:15] 2 tn Heb “and the sons of the prophets who were in Jericho, [who were standing] opposite, saw him and said.”
[2:15] 3 tn Heb “the spirit of Elijah.”
[2:16] 1 tn Or “the spirit of the
[2:16] 2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[2:17] 1 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[2:18] 1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[2:19] 2 tn Heb “miscarries” or “is barren.”
[2:20] 1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[2:21] 2 tn Heb “there will no longer be from there death and miscarriage [or, ‘barrenness’].”
[2:22] 1 tn Heb “according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.”
[2:23] 1 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
[2:23] 2 tn The word נַעַר (na’ar), here translated “boy,” can refer to a broad age range, including infants as well as young men. But the qualifying term “young” (or “small”) suggests these youths were relatively young. The phrase in question (“young boy”) occurs elsewhere in 1 Sam 20:35; 1 Kgs 3:7 (used by Solomon in an hyperbolic manner); 11:17; 2 Kgs 5:14; and Isa 11:6.
[2:24] 1 tn Heb “he cursed them in the name of the
[2:25] 1 sn The two brief episodes recorded in vv. 19-25 demonstrate Elisha’s authority and prove that he is the legitimate prophetic heir of Elijah. He has the capacity to bring life and blessing to those who recognize his authority, or death and judgment to those who reject him.
[3:1] 1 map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
[3:2] 1 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[3:3] 1 tn Heb “held tight,” or “clung to.”
[3:3] 2 tc The Hebrew text has the singular, “it.” Some ancient witnesses read the plural, which seems preferable since the antecedent (“sins”) is plural. Another option is to emend the plural “sins” to a singular. One ancient Greek witness has the singular “sin.”
[3:4] 1 tn For a discussion of the meaning of term (נֹקֵד, noqed), see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 43.
[3:4] 2 tn The vav + perfect here indicates customary action contemporary with the situation described in the preceding main clause. See IBHS 533-34 §32.2.3e.
[3:7] 1 tn Heb “went and sent.”
[3:7] 2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoshaphat) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[3:7] 3 tn Heb “I will go up – like me, like you; like my people, like your people; like my horses; like your horses.”
[3:8] 1 tn Heb “Where is the road we will go up?”
[3:8] 2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[3:9] 1 tn Heb “the king of Israel and the king of Judah and the king of Edom.”
[3:11] 1 tn Heb “that we might inquire of the
[3:11] 2 tn Heb “who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” This refers to one of the typical tasks of a servant.
[3:12] 1 tn Heb “the word of the
[3:13] 1 tn Or “What do we have in common?” The text reads literally, “What to me and to you?”
[3:14] 1 tn Traditionally “the
[3:14] 2 tn Heb “before whom I stand.”
[3:14] 3 tn Heb “if I did not lift up the face of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah.”
[3:14] 4 tn Heb “I would not look at you or see you.”
[3:15] 1 tn The term used refers to one who plays a stringed instrument, perhaps a harp.
[3:15] 2 tn Heb “the hand of the
[3:16] 1 tn Heb “making this valley cisterns, cisterns.” The Hebrew noun גֵּב (gev) means “cistern” in Jer 14:3 (cf. Jer 39:10). The repetition of the noun is for emphasis. See GKC 396 §123.e. The verb (“making”) is an infinitive absolute, which has to be interpreted in light of the context. The translation above takes it in an imperatival sense. The command need not be understood as literal, but as hyperbolic. Telling them to build cisterns is a dramatic way of leading into the announcement that he would miraculously provide water in the desert. Some prefer to translate the infinitive as an imperfect with the Lord as the understood subject, “I will turn this valley [into] many pools.”
[3:18] 1 tn Heb “and this is easy in the eyes of the
[3:19] 1 tn Heb “choice” or “select.”
[3:19] 2 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] 4 tn Heb “and ruin every good portion with stones.”
[3:20] 1 tn Heb “and in the morning, when the offering is offered up, look, water was coming from the way of Edom, and the land was filled with water.”
[3:21] 1 tn Heb “had come up to fight them.”
[3:21] 2 tn Heb “and they mustered all who tied on a belt and upwards, and they stood at the border.”
[3:23] 1 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Moabites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[3:23] 2 tn The translation assumes the verb is חָרַב (kharav, “to be desolate”). The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb form for emphasis. (For another example of the Hophal infinitive with a Niphal finite verb, see Lev 19:20. Cf. also IBHS 582 §35.2.1c.) Some prefer to derive the verb from a proposed homonym meaning “at HALOT 349 s.v. II חרב and BDB 352 s.v. חָרְבָה).
[3:24] 2 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) suggests, “and they went, striking down,” but the marginal reading (Qere) is “they struck down, striking down.” For a discussion of the textual problem, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 46.
[3:25] 1 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] 2 tn Heb “until he had allowed its stones to remain in Kir Hareseth.”
[3:26] 1 tn Heb “and the king of Moab saw that the battle was too strong for him.”
[3:26] 2 tn Heb “he took with him seven hundred men, who drew the sword, to break through against.”
