2 Kings 4:8

Elisha Gives Life to a Boy

4:8 One day Elisha traveled to Shunem, where a prominent ¹  woman lived. She insisted that he stop for a meal. ²  So whenever he was passing through, he would stop in there for a meal. ³ 

2 Kings 2:8

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 Kings 4:9

4:9 She said to her husband, “Look, I’m sure ⁴  that the man who regularly passes through here is a very special prophet. ⁵ 

2 Kings 6:9

6:9 But the prophet sent this message to the king of Israel, “Make sure you don’t pass through this place because Syria is invading there.”

2 Kings 6:26

6:26 While the king of Israel was passing by on the city wall, a woman shouted to him, “Help us, my master, O king!”

2 Kings 16:3

16:3 He followed in the footsteps of ⁶  the kings of Israel. He passed his son through the fire, ⁷  a horrible sin practiced by the nations ⁸  whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites.

2 Kings 17:17

17:17 They passed their sons and daughters through the fire, ⁹  and practiced divination and omen reading. They committed themselves to doing evil in the sight of the Lord and made him angry. ¹⁰ 

2 Kings 21:6

21:6 He passed his son ¹¹  through the fire ¹²  and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it. ¹³  He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ¹⁴ 

2 Kings 23:10

23:10 The king ¹⁵  ruined Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that no one could pass his son or his daughter through the fire to Molech. ¹⁶ 

2 Kings 2:9

2:9 When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “What can I do for you, ¹⁷  before I am taken away from you?” Elisha answered, “May I receive a double portion of the prophetic spirit that energizes you.” ¹⁸ 

2 Kings 2:14

2:14 He took the cloak that had fallen off Elijah, ¹⁹  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 Kings 4:31

4:31 Now Gehazi went on ahead of them. He placed the staff on the child’s face, but there was no sound or response. When he came back to Elisha ²⁰  he told him, “The child did not wake up.”

2 Kings 6:30

6:30 When the king heard what the woman said, he tore his clothes. As he was passing by on the wall, the people could see he was wearing sackcloth under his clothes. ²¹ 

2 Kings 8:21

8:21 Joram ²²  crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites, who had surrounded him, attacked at night and defeated him and his chariot officers. ²³  The Israelite army retreated to their homeland. ²⁴ 

2 Kings 12:4

12:4 Jehoash said to the priests, “I place at your disposal ²⁵  all the consecrated silver that has been brought to the Lord’s temple, including the silver collected from the census tax, ²⁶  the silver received from those who have made vows, ²⁷  and all the silver that people have voluntarily contributed to the Lord’s temple. ²⁸ 

2 Kings 18:12

18:12 This happened because they did not obey ²⁹  the Lord their God and broke his agreement with them. ³⁰  They did not pay attention to and obey all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded. ³¹ 

2 Kings 14:9

14:9 King Jehoash of Israel sent this message back to King Amaziah of Judah, “A thornbush in Lebanon sent this message to a cedar in Lebanon, ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ Then a wild animal ³²  of Lebanon came by and trampled down the thorn. ³³ 

[4:8]  ¹ tn Heb “great,” perhaps “wealthy.”

[4:8]  ² tn Or “she urged him to eat some food.”

[4:8]  ³ tn Or “he would turn aside there to eat some food.”

[4:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “I know.”

[4:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “holy man of God.”

[16:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “he walked in the way of.”

[16:3]  ⁸ sn This may refer to child sacrifice, though some interpret it as a less drastic cultic practice. For discussion see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 266-67.

[16:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”

[17:17]  ¹⁰ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.

[17:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they sold themselves to doing what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, angering him.”

[21:6]  ¹³ tc The LXX has the plural “his sons” here.

[21:6]  ¹⁴ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.

[21:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and he set up a ritual pit, along with conjurers.” The Hebrew אוֹב (’ov), “ritual pit,” refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits. In 1 Sam 28:7 the witch of Endor is called a בַעֲלַת אוֹב (ba’alat ’ov), “owner of a ritual pit.” See H. Hoffner, “Second millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew ’OñBù,” JBL 86 (1967), 385-401.

[21:6]  ¹⁶ tc Heb “and he multiplied doing what is evil in the eyes of the Lord, angering.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix (“him”) has been accidentally omitted in the MT by haplography (note the vav that immediately follows).

[23:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:10]  ¹⁷ sn Attempts to identify this deity with a god known from the ancient Near East have not yet yielded a consensus. For brief discussions see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor II Kings (AB), 288 and HALOT 592 s.v. מֹלֶךְ. For more extensive studies see George C. Heider, The Cult of Molek, and John Day, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament.

[2:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Ask! What can I do for you….?”

[2:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “May a double portion of your spirit come to me.”

[2:14]  ²² 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).

[4:31]  ²⁵ tn Heb “to meet him.”

[6:30]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the people saw, and look, [there was] sackcloth against his skin underneath.”

[8:21]  ³¹ sn Joram is a short form of the name Jehoram.

[8:21]  ³² tn Heb “and he arose at night and defeated Edom, who had surrounded him, and the chariot officers.” The Hebrew text as it stands gives the impression that Joram was surrounded and launched a victorious night counterattack. It would then be quite natural to understand the last statement in the verse to refer to an Edomite retreat. Yet v. 22 goes on to state that the Edomite revolt was successful. Therefore, if the MT is retained, it may be better to understand the final statement in v. 21 as a reference to an Israelite retreat (made in spite of the success described in the preceding sentence). The translation above assumes an emendation of the Hebrew text. Adding a third masculine singular pronominal suffix to the accusative sign before Edom (reading אֶתוֹ [’eto], “him,” instead of just אֶת [’et]) and taking Edom as the subject of verbs allows one to translate the verse in a way that is more consistent with the context, which depicts an Israelite defeat, not victory. There is, however, no evidence for this emendation.

[8:21]  ³³ tn Heb “and the people fled to their tents.”

[12:4]  ³⁴ tn The words “I place at your disposal” are added in the translation for clarification.

[12:4]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the silver of passing over a man.” The precise meaning of the phrase is debated, but עָבַר (’avar), “pass over,” probably refers here to counting, suggesting the reference is to a census conducted for taxation purposes. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 137.

[12:4]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the silver of persons, his valuation.” The precise meaning of the phrase is uncertain, but parallels in Lev 27 suggest that personal vows are referred to here. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 137.

[12:4]  ³⁷ tn Heb “all the silver which goes up on the heart of a man to bring to the house of the Lord.”

[18:12]  ³⁷ tn Heb “listen to the voice of.”

[18:12]  ³⁸ tn Heb “his covenant.”

[18:12]  ³⁹ tn Heb “all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded, and they did not listen and they did not act.”

[14:9]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “the animal of the field.”

[14:9]  ⁴¹ sn Judah is the thorn in the allegory. Amaziah’s success has deceived him into thinking he is on the same level as the major powers in the area (symbolized by the cedar). In reality he is not capable of withstanding an attack by a real military power such as Israel (symbolized by the wild animal).