Discovery Box2 Kings 18:17
Context18:17 The king of Assyria sent his commanding general, the chief eunuch, and the chief adviser 1 from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, 2 along with a large army. They went up and arrived at Jerusalem. They went 3 and stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. 4
2 Kings 18:19
Context18:19 The chief adviser said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: “What is your source of confidence? 5
2 Kings 18:27-35
Context18:27 But the chief adviser said to them, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. 6 His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you.” 7
18:28 The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, 8 “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria. 18:29 This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you from my hand! 9 18:30 Don’t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord when he says, “The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 18:31 Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. 10 Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, 18:32 until I come and take you to a land just like your own – a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Then you will live and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.” 18:33 Have any of the gods of the nations actually rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria? 11 18:34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? 12 Indeed, did any gods rescue Samaria 13 from my power? 14 18:35 Who among all the gods of the lands has rescued their lands from my power? So how can the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’” 15
2 Kings 19:9
Context19:9 The king 16 heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was marching out to fight him. 17 He again sent messengers to Hezekiah, ordering them:
2 Kings 19:23
Context19:23 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, 18
‘With my many chariots 19
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, 20
its thickest woods.
2 Kings 19:2
Context19:2 He sent Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, 21 clothed in sackcloth, with this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz:
2 Kings 1:9-16
Context1:9 The king 22 sent a captain and his fifty soldiers 23 to retrieve Elijah. 24 The captain 25 went up to him, while he was sitting on the top of a hill. 26 He told him, “Prophet, 27 the king says, ‘Come down!’” 1:10 Elijah replied to the captain, 28 “If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire then came down 29 from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.
1:11 The king 30 sent another captain and his fifty soldiers to retrieve Elijah. He went up and told him, 31 “Prophet, this is what the king says, ‘Come down at once!’” 32 1:12 Elijah replied to them, 33 “If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire from God 34 came down from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.
1:13 The king 35 sent a third captain and his fifty soldiers. This third captain went up and fell 36 on his knees before Elijah. He begged for mercy, “Prophet, please have respect for my life and for the lives of these fifty servants of yours. 1:14 Indeed, 37 fire came down from the sky and consumed the two captains who came before me, along with their men. 38 So now, please have respect for my life.” 1:15 The Lord’s angelic messenger said to Elijah, “Go down with him. Don’t be afraid of him.” So he got up and went down 39 with him to the king.
1:16 Elijah 40 said to the king, 41 “This is what the Lord says, ‘You sent messengers to seek an oracle from Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. You must think there is no God in Israel from whom you can seek an oracle! 42 Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.’” 43
2 Kings 1:1
Context
[18:17] 1 sn For a discussion of these titles see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 229-30.
[18:17] 2 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[18:17] 3 tn Heb “and they went up and came.”
[18:17] 4 tn Heb “the field of the washer.”
[18:19] 5 tn Heb “What is this object of trust in which you are trusting?”
[18:27] 6 tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.
[18:27] 7 tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”
[18:28] 8 tn The Hebrew text also has, “and he spoke and said.”
[18:29] 9 tc The MT has “his hand,” but this is due to graphic confusion of vav (ו) and yod (י). The translation reads “my hand,” along with many medieval Hebrew
[18:31] 10 tn Heb “make with me a blessing and come out to me.”
[18:33] 11 tn Heb “Have the gods of the nations really rescued, each his land, from the hand of the king of Assyria?” The infinitive absolute lends emphasis to the main verb. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not!”
[18:34] 12 tn The parallel passage in Isa 36:19 omits “Hena and Ivvah.” The rhetorical questions in v. 34a suggest the answer, “Nowhere, they seem to have disappeared in the face of Assyria’s might.”
[18:34] 13 map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
[18:34] 14 tn Heb “that they rescued Samaria from my hand?” But this gives the impression that the gods of Sepharvaim were responsible for protecting Samaria, which is obviously not the case. The implied subject of the plural verb “rescued” must be the generic “gods of the nations/lands” (vv. 33, 35).
[18:35] 15 tn Heb “that the
[19:9] 16 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[19:9] 17 tn Heb “heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, ‘Look, he has come out to fight with you.’”
[19:23] 18 tn The word is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai), “lord,” but some Hebrew
[19:23] 19 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
[19:23] 20 tn Heb “the lodging place of its extremity.”
[19:2] 21 tn Heb “elders of the priests.”
[1:9] 22 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[1:9] 23 tn Heb “officer of fifty and his fifty.”
[1:9] 25 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the captain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[1:9] 26 sn The prophet Elijah’s position on the top of the hill symbolizes his superiority to the king and his messengers.
[1:9] 27 tn Heb “man of God” (also in vv. 10, 11, 12, 13).
[1:10] 28 tn Heb “answered and said to the officer of fifty.”
[1:10] 29 tn Wordplay contributes to the irony here. The king tells Elijah to “come down” (Hebrew יָרַד, yarad), but Elijah calls fire down (יָרַד) on the arrogant king’s officer.
[1:11] 30 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[1:11] 31 tc The MT reads, “he answered and said to him.” The verb “he answered” (וַיַּעַן, vayya’an) is probably a corruption of “he went up” (וַיַּעַל, vayya’al). See v. 9.
[1:11] 32 sn In this second panel of the three-paneled narrative, the king and his captain are more arrogant than before. The captain uses a more official sounding introduction (“this is what the king says”) and the king adds “at once” to the command.
[1:12] 33 tc Two medieval Hebrew
[1:12] 34 tn Or “intense fire.” The divine name may be used idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the fire. Whether one translates אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) here as a proper name or idiomatically, this addition to the narrative (the name is omitted in the first panel, v. 10b) emphasizes the severity of the judgment and is appropriate given the more intense command delivered by the king to the prophet in this panel.
[1:13] 35 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[1:13] 36 tn Heb “went up and approached and kneeled.”
[1:14] 38 tn Heb “their fifty.”
[1:15] 39 sn In this third panel the verb “come down” (יָרַד, yarad) occurs again, this time describing Elijah’s descent from the hill at the Lord’s command. The moral of the story seems clear: Those who act as if they have authority over God and his servants just may pay for their arrogance with their lives; those who, like the third commander, humble themselves and show the proper respect for God’s authority and for his servants will be spared and find God quite cooperative.
[1:16] 40 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[1:16] 41 tn Heb “him”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[1:16] 42 tn Heb “Because you sent messengers to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, is there no God in Israel to inquire of his word?”
[1:16] 43 sn For the third time in this chapter we read the Lord’s sarcastic question to king and the accompanying announcement of judgment. The repetition emphasizes one of the chapter’s main themes. Israel’s leaders should seek guidance from their own God, not a pagan deity, for Israel’s sovereign God is the one who controls life and death.
[1:1] 44 sn This statement may fit better with the final paragraph of 1 Kgs 22.
