Discovery Box2 Kings 8:20-29
Context8:20 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.
8:23 The rest of the events of Joram’s reign, including a record of his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 6 8:24 Joram passed away 7 and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. His son Ahaziah replaced him as king.
8:25 In the twelfth year of the reign of Israel’s King Joram, son of Ahab, Jehoram’s son Ahaziah became king over Judah. 8:26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. 8 His mother was Athaliah, the granddaughter 9 of King Omri of Israel. 8:27 He followed in the footsteps of Ahab’s dynasty and did evil in the sight of 10 the Lord, like Ahab’s dynasty, for he was related to Ahab’s family. 11
8:28 He joined Ahab’s son Joram in a battle against King Hazael of Syria at Ramoth Gilead in which the Syrians defeated Joram. 8:29 King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians 12 in Ramah when he fought against King Hazael of Syria. King Ahaziah son of Jehoram of Judah went down to visit 13 Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he was ill.
[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.”
[8:23] 6 tn Heb “As for the rest of the acts of Joram and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
[8:24] 7 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
[8:26] 8 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[8:26] 9 tn Hebrew בַּת (bat), “daughter,” can refer, as here to a granddaughter. See HALOT 166 s.v. בַּת.
[8:27] 10 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[8:27] 11 tn Heb “and he walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the
