translation_id: net-engnet

label: NET translator note

text: For location see Map2-B1 ; Map4-D3 ; Map5-E2 ; Map6-A4 ; Map7-C1 .


text: Heb “in the eyes of.”


text: Heb “held tight,” or “clung to.”


label: NET textual note

text: The Hebrew text has the singular, “it.” Some ancient witnesses read the plural, which seems preferable since the antecedent (“sins”) is plural. Another option is to emend the plural “sins” to a singular. One ancient Greek witness has the singular “sin.”


text: For a discussion of the meaning of term ( נֹקֵד , noqed ), see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 43.


text: The vav + perfect here indicates customary action contemporary with the situation described in the preceding main clause. See IBHS 533-34 §32.2.3e.


text: Heb “went and sent.”


text: Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoshaphat) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “I will go up – like me, like you; like my people, like your people; like my horses; like your horses.”


text: Heb “Where is the road we will go up?”


text: Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “the king of Israel and the king of Judah and the king of Edom.”


text: Or “ah.”


text: Heb “that we might inquire of the Lord through him?”


text: Heb “who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” This refers to one of the typical tasks of a servant.


text: Heb “the word of the Lord is with him.”


text: Or “What do we have in common?” The text reads literally, “What to me and to you?”


text: Traditionally “the Lord of hosts.”


text: Heb “before whom I stand.”


text: Heb “if I did not lift up the face of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah.”


text: Heb “I would not look at you or see you.”


text: The term used refers to one who plays a stringed instrument, perhaps a harp.


text: Heb “the hand of the Lord came on him.” This may refer to what typically happened, “[for] when a musician played, the hand of the Lord would come upon him.”


text: Heb “making this valley cisterns, cisterns.” The Hebrew noun גֵּב ( gev ) means “cistern” in Jer 14:3 (cf. Jer 39:10 ). The repetition of the noun is for emphasis. See GKC 396 §123. e . The verb (“making”) is an infinitive absolute, which has to be interpreted in light of the context. The translation above takes it in an imperatival sense. The command need not be understood as literal, but as hyperbolic. Telling them to build cisterns is a dramatic way of leading into the announcement that he would miraculously provide water in the desert. Some prefer to translate the infinitive as an imperfect with the Lord as the understood subject, “I will turn this valley [into] many pools.”


text: Heb “see.”


text: Heb “and this is easy in the eyes of the Lord .”


text: Heb “choice” or “select.”


text: Elisha places the object first and uses an imperfect verb form. The stylistic shift may signal that he is now instructing them what to do, rather than merely predicting what would happen.


text: Heb “good.”


text: Heb “and ruin every good portion with stones.”


text: Heb “and in the morning, when the offering is offered up, look, water was coming from the way of Edom, and the land was filled with water.”


text: Heb “had come up to fight them.”


text: Heb “and they mustered all who tied on a belt and upwards, and they stood at the border.”


text: Heb “they”; the referent (the Moabites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: The translation assumes the verb is חָרַב ( kharav , “to be desolate”). The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb form for emphasis. (For another example of the Hophal infinitive with a Niphal finite verb, see Lev 19:20 . Cf. also IBHS 582 §35.2.1c.) Some prefer to derive the verb from a proposed homonym meaning “at HALOT 349 s.v. II חרב and BDB 352 s.v. חָרְבָה ).


text: Heb “they.”


text: The consonantal text ( Kethib ) suggests, “and they went, striking down,” but the marginal reading ( Qere ) is “they struck down, striking down.” For a discussion of the textual problem, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 46.


text: Heb “and [on] every good portion they were throwing each man his stone and they filled it.” The vav + perfect (“and they filled”) here indicates customary action contemporary with the situation described in the preceding main clause (where a customary imperfect is used, “they were throwing”). See the note at 3:4 .


text: Heb “until he had allowed its stones to remain in Kir Hareseth.”


text: Heb “and the king of Moab saw that the battle was too strong for him.”


text: Heb “he took with him seven hundred men, who drew the sword, to break through against.”


text: Heb “there was great anger against Israel.” sn The meaning of this statement is uncertain, for the subject of the anger is not indicated. Except for two relatively late texts, the noun קֶצֶף ( qetsef ) refers to an outburst of divine anger. But it seems unlikely the Lord would be angry with Israel, for he placed his stamp of approval on the campaign (vv. 16-19 ). D. N. Freedman suggests the narrator, who obviously has a bias against the Omride dynasty, included this observation to show that the Lord would not allow the Israelite king to “have an undiluted victory” (as quoted in M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings [AB], 52, n. 8). Some suggest that the original source identified Chemosh the Moabite god as the subject and that his name was later suppressed by a conscientious scribe, but this proposal raises more questions than it answers. For a discussion of various views, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 47-48, 51-52.


text: Heb “they departed from him.”