2 Kings 4:19

4:19 He said to his father, “My head! My head!” His father ¹  told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

2 Kings 6:25

6:25 Samaria’s food supply ran out. ²  They laid siege to it so long that ³  a donkey’s head was selling for eighty shekels of silver ⁴  and a quarter of a kab ⁵  of dove’s droppings ⁶  for five shekels of silver. ⁷ 

2 Kings 6:31

6:31 Then he said, “May God judge me severely ⁸  if Elisha son of Shaphat still has his head by the end of the day!” ⁹ 

2 Kings 9:30

9:30 Jehu approached Jezreel. When Jezebel heard the news, she put on some eye liner, ¹⁰  fixed up her hair, and leaned out the window.

2 Kings 10:7-8

10:7 When they received the letter, they seized the king’s sons and executed all seventy of them. ¹¹  They put their heads in baskets and sent them to him in Jezreel. 10:8 The messenger came and told Jehu, ¹²  “They have brought the heads of the king’s sons.” Jehu ¹³  said, “Stack them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning.”

2 Kings 19:21

19:21 This is what the Lord says about him: ¹⁴ 

“The virgin daughter Zion ¹⁵ 

despises you, she makes fun of you;

Daughter Jerusalem

shakes her head after you. ¹⁶ 

2 Kings 25:18

25:18 The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah, the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers.

2 Kings 1:9

1:9 The king ¹⁷  sent a captain and his fifty soldiers ¹⁸  to retrieve Elijah. ¹⁹  The captain ²⁰  went up to him, while he was sitting on the top of a hill. ²¹  He told him, “Prophet, ²²  the king says, ‘Come down!’”

2 Kings 2:3

2:3 Some members of the prophetic guild ²³  in Bethel came out to Elisha and said, “Do you know that today the Lord is going to take your master from you?” ²⁴  He answered, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.”

2 Kings 2:5

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 Kings 9:3

9:3 Take the container of olive oil, pour it over his head, and say, ‘This is what the Lord says, “I have designated ²⁵  you as king over Israel.”’ Then open the door and run away quickly!” ²⁶ 

2 Kings 9:6

9:6 So Jehu ²⁷  got up and went inside. Then the prophet ²⁸  poured the olive oil on his head and said to him, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I have designated you as king over the Lord’s people Israel.

2 Kings 25:27

Jehoiachin in Babylon

25:27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh ²⁹  day of the twelfth month, ³⁰  King Evil-Merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned ³¹  King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him ³²  from prison.

2 Kings 6:32

6:32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house with the community leaders. ³³  The king ³⁴  sent a messenger on ahead, but before he arrived, ³⁵  Elisha ³⁶  said to the leaders, ³⁷  “Do you realize this assassin intends to cut off my head?” ³⁸  Look, when the messenger arrives, shut the door and lean against it. His master will certainly be right behind him.” ³⁹ 

2 Kings 10:6

10:6 He wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are really on my side and are willing to obey me, ⁴⁰  then take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel at this time tomorrow.” ⁴¹  Now the king had seventy sons, and the prominent ⁴²  men of the city were raising them.

[4:19]  ¹ tn Heb “He”; the referent (the boy’s father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:25]  ² tn Heb “and there was a great famine in Samaria.”

[6:25]  ³ tn Heb “and look, [they] were besieging it until.”

[6:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “eighty, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.

[6:25]  ⁵ sn A kab was a unit of dry measure, equivalent to approximately one quart.

[6:25]  ⁶ tn The consonantal text (Kethib) reads, “dove dung” (חֲרֵייוֹנִים, khareyonim), while the marginal reading (Qere) has “discharge” (דִּבְיוֹנִים, divyonim). Based on evidence from Akkadian, M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 79) suggest that “dove’s dung” was a popular name for the inedible husks of seeds.

[6:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “five, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.

[6:31]  ³ tn Heb “So may God do to me, and so may he add.”

[6:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat stays on him today.”

[9:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “she fixed her eyes with antimony.” Antimony (פּוּךְ, pukh) was used as a cosmetic. The narrator portrays her as a prostitute (see Jer 4:30), a role she has played in the spiritual realm (see the note at v. 22).

[10:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “and when the letter came to them, they took the sons of the king and slaughtered seventy men.”

[10:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “this is the word which the Lord has spoken about him.”

[19:21]  ⁸ sn Zion (Jerusalem) is pictured here as a young, vulnerable daughter whose purity is being threatened by the would-be Assyrian rapist. The personification hints at the reality which the young girls of the city would face if the Assyrians conquer it.

[19:21]  ⁹ sn Shaking the head was a mocking gesture of derision.

[1:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “officer of fifty and his fifty.”

[1:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to him.”

[1:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the captain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ¹² sn The prophet Elijah’s position on the top of the hill symbolizes his superiority to the king and his messengers.

[1:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “man of God” (also in vv. 10, 11, 12, 13).

[2:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “the sons of the prophets.”

[2:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from your head.” The same expression occurs in v. 5.

[9:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “anointed.”

[9:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and open the door and run away and do not delay.”

[9:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:6]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the prophet) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:27]  ¹² sn The parallel account in Jer 52:31 has “twenty-fifth.”

[25:27]  ¹³ sn The twenty-seventh day would be March 22, 561 b.c. in modern reckoning.

[25:27]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “lifted up the head of.”

[25:27]  ¹⁵ tn The words “released him” are supplied in the translation on the basis of Jer 52:31.

[6:32]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the elders were sitting with him.”

[6:32]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:32]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “sent a man from before him, before the messenger came to him.”

[6:32]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:32]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “elders.”

[6:32]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Do you see that this son of an assassin has sent to remove my head?”

[6:32]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”

[10:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “If you are mine and you are listening to my voice.”

[10:6]  ¹⁵ sn Jehu’s command is intentionally vague. Does he mean that they should bring the guardians (those who are “heads” over Ahab’s sons) for a meeting, or does he mean that they should bring the literal heads of Ahab’s sons with them? (So LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and some mss of the Targum) The city leaders interpret his words in the literal sense, but Jehu’s command is so ambiguous he is able to deny complicity in the executions (see v. 9).

[10:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “great,” probably in wealth, position, and prestige.