2 Kings 3:19

3:19 You will defeat every fortified city and every important ¹  city. You must chop down ²  every productive ³  tree, stop up all the springs, and cover all the cultivated land with stones.” ⁴ 

2 Kings 18:8

18:8 He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from the watchtower to the city fortress. ⁵ 

2 Kings 10:25

10:25 When he finished offering the burnt sacrifice, Jehu ordered the royal guard ⁶  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. ⁷  Then they entered the inner sanctuary of the temple of Baal. ⁸ 

2 Kings 17:9

17:9 The Israelites said things about the Lord their God that were not right. ⁹  They built high places in all their cities, from the watchtower to the fortress. ¹⁰ 

[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]  ³ tn Heb “good.”

[3:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “and ruin every good portion with stones.”

[18:8]  ⁵ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 17:9.

[10:25]  ⁹ tn Heb “runners.”

[10:25]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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.”

[17:9]  ¹³ tn The meaning of the verb וַיְחַפְּאוּ (vayÿkhappÿ’u), translated here “said,” is uncertain. Some relate it to the verbal root חָפַה (khafah), “to cover,” and translate “they did it in secret” (see BDB 341 s.v. חָפָא). However, the pagan practices specified in the following sentences were hardly done in secret. Others propose a meaning “ascribe, impute,” which makes good contextual sense but has little etymological support (see HALOT 339 s.v. חפא). In this case Israel claimed that the Lord authorized their pagan practices.

[17:9]  ¹⁴ sn That is, from the city’s perimeter to the central citadel.