Discovery Box2 Kings 8:1-20
Context8:1 Now Elisha advised the woman whose son he had brought back to life, “You and your family should go and live somewhere else for a while, 1 for the Lord has decreed that a famine will overtake the land for seven years.” 8:2 So the woman did as the prophet said. 2 She and her family went and lived in the land of the Philistines for seven years. 8:3 After seven years the woman returned from the land of the Philistines and went to ask the king to give her back her house and field. 3 8:4 Now the king was talking to Gehazi, the prophet’s 4 servant, and said, “Tell me all the great things which Elisha has done.” 8:5 While Gehazi 5 was telling the king how Elisha 6 had brought the dead back to life, the woman whose son he had brought back to life came to ask the king for her house and field. 7 Gehazi said, “My master, O king, this is the very woman and this is her son whom Elisha brought back to life!” 8:6 The king asked the woman about it, and she gave him the details. 8 The king assigned a eunuch to take care of her request and ordered him, 9 “Give her back everything she owns, as well as the amount of crops her field produced from the day she left the land until now.”
8:7 Elisha traveled to Damascus while King Ben Hadad of Syria was sick. The king 10 was told, “The prophet 11 has come here.” 8:8 So the king told Hazael, “Take a gift 12 and go visit the prophet. Request from him an oracle from the Lord. Ask him, 13 ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’” 8:9 So Hazael went to visit Elisha. 14 He took along a gift, 15 as well as 16 forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son, 17 King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question, 18 ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’” 8:10 Elisha said to him, “Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover,’ 19 but the Lord has revealed to me that he will surely die.” 8:11 Elisha 20 just stared at him until Hazael became uncomfortable. 21 Then the prophet started crying. 8:12 Hazael asked, “Why are you crying, my master?” He replied, “Because I know the trouble you will cause the Israelites. You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, smash their children to bits, and rip open their pregnant women.” 8:13 Hazael said, “How could your servant, who is as insignificant as a dog, accomplish this great military victory?” 22 Elisha answered, “The Lord has revealed to me that you will be the king of Syria.” 23 8:14 He left Elisha and went to his master. Ben Hadad 24 asked him, “What did Elisha tell you?” Hazael 25 replied, “He told me you would surely recover.” 8:15 The next day Hazael 26 took a piece of cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over Ben Hadad’s 27 face until he died. Then Hazael replaced him as king.
8:16 In the fifth year of the reign of Israel’s King Joram, son of Ahab, Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram became king over Judah. 28 8:17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem. 29 8:18 He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel, just as Ahab’s dynasty had done, for he married Ahab’s daughter. 30 He did evil in the sight of 31 the Lord. 8:19 But the Lord was unwilling to destroy Judah. He preserved Judah for the sake of 32 his servant David to whom he had promised a perpetual dynasty. 33
8:20 During his reign Edom freed themselves from Judah’s control and set up their own king. 34
[8:1] 1 tn Heb “Get up and go, you and your house, and live temporarily where you can live temporarily.”
[8:2] 2 tn Heb “and the woman got up and did according to the word of the man of God.”
[8:3] 3 tn Heb “and went out to cry out to the king for her house and her field.”
[8:4] 4 tn Heb “man of God’s.”
[8:5] 5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gehazi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[8:5] 6 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[8:5] 7 tn Heb “and look, the woman whose son he had brought back to life was crying out to the king for her house and her field.”
[8:6] 8 tn Heb “and the king asked the woman and she told him.”
[8:6] 9 tn Heb “and he assigned to her an official, saying.”
[8:7] 10 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[8:7] 11 tn Heb “man of God” (also a second time in this verse and in v. 11).
[8:8] 12 tn The Hebrew text also has “in your hand.”
[8:8] 13 tn Heb “Inquire of the
[8:9] 14 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[8:9] 15 tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”
[8:9] 16 tn Heb “and.” It is possible that the conjunction is here explanatory, equivalent to English “that is.” In this case the forty camel loads constitute the “gift” and one should translate, “He took along a gift, consisting of forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus.”
[8:9] 17 sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.
[8:10] 19 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) reads, “Go, say, ‘Surely you will not (לֹא, lo’) recover” In this case the vav beginning the next clause should be translated, “for, because.” The marginal reading (Qere) has, “Go, say to him (לוֹ, lo), ‘You will surely recover.” In this case the vav (ו) beginning the next clause should be translated, “although, but.” The Qere has the support of some medieval Hebrew
[8:11] 20 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[8:11] 21 tn Heb “and he made his face stand [i.e., be motionless] and set [his face?] until embarrassment.”
[8:13] 22 tn Heb “Indeed, what is your servant, a dog, that he could do this great thing?” With his reference to a dog, Hazael is not denying that he is a “dog” and protesting that he would never commit such a dastardly “dog-like” deed. Rather, as Elisha’s response indicates, Hazael is suggesting that he, like a dog, is too insignificant to ever be in a position to lead such conquests.
[8:13] 23 tn Heb “The
[8:14] 24 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Ben Hadad) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[8:14] 25 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Hazael) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[8:15] 26 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Hazael) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[8:15] 27 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Ben Hadad) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[8:16] 28 tc The Hebrew text reads, “and in the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, and [or, ‘while’?] Jehoshaphat [was?] king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah became king.” The first reference to “Jehoshaphat king of Judah” is probably due to a scribe accidentally copying the phrase from the later in the verse. If the Hebrew text is retained, the verse probably refers to the beginning of a coregency between Jehoshaphat and Jehoram.
[8:17] 29 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[8:18] 30 tn Heb “he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab did, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife.”
[8:18] 31 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[8:19] 32 tn The Hebrew has only one sentence, “and the
[8:19] 33 tn Heb “just as he had promised to give him and his sons a lamp all the days.” The metaphorical “lamp” symbolizes the Davidic dynasty; this is reflected in the translation.
[8:20] 34 tn Heb “in his days Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah and enthroned a king over them.”
