2 Kings 4:1

Elisha Helps a Widow and Her Sons

4:1 Now a wife of one of the prophets ¹  appealed ²  to Elisha for help, saying, “Your servant, my husband is dead. You know that your servant was a loyal follower of the Lord. ³  Now the creditor is coming to take away my two boys to be his servants.”

2 Kings 7:10

7:10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers ⁴  of the city. They told them, “We entered the Syrian camp and there was no one there. We didn’t even hear a man’s voice. ⁵  But the horses and donkeys are still tied up, and the tents remain up.” ⁶ 

2 Kings 7:13

7:13 One of his advisers replied, “Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city. (Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people – we’re all going to die!) ⁷  Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.” ⁸ 

2 Kings 9:23

9:23 Jehoram turned his chariot around and took off. ⁹  He said to Ahaziah, “It’s a trap, ¹⁰  Ahaziah!”

2 Kings 21:8

21:8 I will not make Israel again leave the land I gave to their ancestors, ¹¹  provided that they carefully obey all I commanded them, the whole law my servant Moses ordered them to obey.”

[4:1]  ¹ tn Heb “a wife from among the wives of the sons of the prophets.”

[4:1]  ² tn Or “cried out.”

[4:1]  ³ tn Heb “your servant feared the Lord.” “Fear” refers here to obedience and allegiance, the products of healthy respect for the Lord’s authority.

[7:10]  ⁴ tn The MT has a singular form (“gatekeeper”), but the context suggests a plural. The pronoun that follows (“them”) is plural and a plural noun appears in v. 11. The Syriac Peshitta and the Targum have the plural here.

[7:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “and, look, there was no man or voice of a man there.”

[7:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “but the horses are tied up and the donkeys are tied up and the tents are as they were.”

[7:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.” The MT is dittographic here; the words “that remain in it. Look they are like all the people of Israel” have been accidentally repeated. The original text read, “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.”

[7:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”

[9:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and Jehoram turned his hands and fled.” The phrase “turned his hands” refers to how he would have pulled on the reins in order to make his horses turn around.

[9:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Deceit, Ahaziah.”

[21:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will not again make the feet of Israel wander from the land which I gave to their fathers.”