translation_id: net-engnet

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “a wife from among the wives of the sons of the prophets.”


text: Or “cried out.”


text: Heb “your servant feared the Lord .” “Fear” refers here to obedience and allegiance, the products of healthy respect for the Lord’s authority.


text: Heb “Go, ask for containers from outside, from all your neighbors, empty containers.”


text: Heb “Do not borrow just a few.”


text: Heb “all these vessels.”


text: Heb “to her son.”


text: Heb “man of God” (also in vv. 16, 22, 25, 27 [twice]).


text: Heb “great,” perhaps “wealthy.”


text: Or “she urged him to eat some food.”


text: Or “he would turn aside there to eat some food.”


text: Heb “I know.”


text: Heb “holy man of God.”


text: Heb “a small upper room of a wall”; according to HALOT 832 s.v. עֲלִיָּה , this refers to “a fully walled upper room.”


text: Heb “and let’s put there for him.”


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


text: Heb “turned aside.”


text: Or “slept there.”


text: Heb “Call for this Shunammite woman.”


text: Heb “and he called for her and she stood before him.”


text: Heb “he said to him.”


text: Heb “you have turned trembling to us with all this trembling.” The exaggerated language is probably idiomatic. The point seems to be that she has taken great pains or gone out of her way to be kind to them. Her concern was a sign of her respect for the prophetic office.


text: Heb “Among my people I am living.” This answer suggests that she has security within the context of her family.


text: Heb “and he said.”


text: Heb “Call for her.”


text: Heb “and he called her.”


text: Heb “and he called for her and she stood in the door.”


text: Heb “at this appointed time, at the time [when it is] reviving.” For a discussion of the second phrase see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 57.


text: Heb “to his father, to the harvesters.”


text: Heb “He”; the referent (the boy’s father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “knees.”


text: Heb “man of God’s.”


text: Heb “peace.”


text: Heb “lead [the donkey on] and go.”


text: Heb “do not restrain for me the riding unless I say to you.”


text: Heb “went and came.”


text: Heb “the man of God.” The phrase has been replaced by the relative pronoun “he” in the translation for stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “she said.” The narrator streamlines the story at this point, omitting any reference to Gehazi running to meet her and asking her the questions.


text: Heb “her soul [i.e., ‘disposition’] is bitter.”


text: Heb “take my staff in your hand.”


text: Heb “If you meet a man, do not greet him with a blessing; if a man greets you with a blessing, do not answer.”


text: Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The referent must be Elisha here, since the following verse makes it clear that Gehazi had gone on ahead of them.


text: Heb “to meet him.”


text: Heb “look.”


text: Heb “and closed the door behind the two of them.”


text: Heb “he went up and lay down over.”


text: Heb “his” (also in the next two clauses).


text: Or perhaps, “body”; Heb “flesh.”


text: Heb “and he returned and went into the house, once here and once there.”


text: Heb “and he went up.”


text: Heb “and he called for her.”


text: Heb “the sons of the prophets were sitting before him.”


text: The words “the fire” are added for clarification.


text: Heb “sons of the prophets.”


text: Heb “a vine of the field.”


text: Heb “[some] of the gourds of the field.”


text: Heb “he came and cut [them up].”


label: NET textual note

text: The Hebrew text reads, “for they did not know” ( יָדָעוּ , yada ’ u ) but some emend the final shureq ( וּ , indicating a third plural subject) to holem vav ( וֹ , a third masculine singular pronominal suffix on a third singular verb) and read “for he did not know it.” Perhaps it is best to omit the final vav as dittographic (note the vav at the beginning of the next verb form) and read simply, “for he did not know.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 59.


text: Heb “and they poured out [the stew].” The plural subject is probably indefinite.


text: Or “and let them eat.”


text: Heb “man of God.”


text: On the meaning of the word צִקְלוֹן ( tsiqlon ), “ear of grain,” see HALOT 148 s.v. בָּצֵק and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 59.


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


text: Heb “How can I set this before a hundred men?”


text: The verb forms are infinitives absolute ( Heb “eating and leaving over”) and have to be translated in light of the context.