2 Kings 8:20-22

8:20 During his reign Edom freed themselves from Judah’s control and set up their own king. ¹  8:21 Joram ²  crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites, who had surrounded him, attacked at night and defeated him and his chariot officers. ³  The Israelite army retreated to their homeland. ⁴  8:22 So Edom has remained free from Judah’s control to this very day. ⁵  At that same time Libnah also rebelled.

2 Kings 8:2

8:2 So the woman did as the prophet said. ⁶  She and her family went and lived in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

2 Kings 21:8

21:8 I will not make Israel again leave the land I gave to their ancestors, ⁷  provided that they carefully obey all I commanded them, the whole law my servant Moses ordered them to obey.”

2 Kings 21:10

21:10 So the Lord announced through ⁸  his servants the prophets:

2 Kings 1:17

1:17 He died just as the Lord had prophesied through Elijah. ⁹  In the second year of the reign of King Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat over Judah, Ahaziah’s brother Jehoram replaced him as king of Israel, because he had no son. ¹⁰ 

[8:20]  ¹ tn Heb “in his days Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah and enthroned a king over them.”

[8:21]  ² sn Joram is a short form of the name Jehoram.

[8:21]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the people fled to their tents.”

[8:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “and Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah until this day.”

[8:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the woman got up and did according to the word of the man of God.”

[21:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will not again make the feet of Israel wander from the land which I gave to their fathers.”

[21:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “spoke by the hand of.”

[1:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord which he spoke through Elijah.”

[1:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Jehoram replaced him as king…because he had no son.” Some ancient textual witnesses add “his brother,” which was likely added on the basis of the statement later in the verse that Ahaziah had no son.