translation_id: net-engnet

label: NET translator note

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


text: Heb “to the officers of Jezreel, the elders, and to the guardians of Ahab, saying.” It is not certain why the officials of Jezreel would be in Samaria. They may have fled there after they heard what happened to Joram and before Jehu entered the city. They would have had time to flee while Jehu was pursuing Ahaziah.


text: Heb “And now when this letter comes to you – with you are the sons of your master and with you are chariots and horses and a fortified city and weapons.”


text: Hebrew יָשָׁר ( yashar ) does not have its normal moral/ethical nuance here (“upright”), but a more neutral sense of “proper, right, suitable.” For the gloss “capable,” see HALOT 450 s.v. יָשָׁר .


text: Or “fight for.”


text: Heb “they were very, very afraid.” The term מְאֹד ( me ’ od ) “very,” is repeated for emphasis.


text: Heb “did not stand before him.”


text: Heb “How can we stand?”


text: Heb “the one who was over the house.”


text: Heb “the one who was over the city.”


text: Or “elders.”


text: Heb “servants.”


text: Heb “Do what is good in your eyes.”


text: Heb “If you are mine and you are listening to my voice.”


text: Heb “great,” probably in wealth, position, and prestige.


text: Heb “and when the letter came to them, they took the sons of the king and slaughtered seventy men.”


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


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


text: Heb “Know then that there has not fallen from the word of the Lord to the ground that which the Lord spoke against the house of Ahab. The Lord has done that which he spoke by the hand of his servant Elijah.”


text: Heb “and he arose and went and came to Samaria.”


text: Heb “found.”


text: Or “brothers.”


text: Heb “for the peace of.”


text: Heb “and he went from there and found Jehonadab son of Rekab [who was coming] to meet him.”


text: Heb “and he blessed him and said to him.”


text: Heb “Is there with your heart [what is] right, as my heart [is] with your heart?”


label: NET textual note

text: Heb “Jehonadab said, ‘There is and there is. Give your hand.’” If the text is allowed to stand, there are two possible ways to understand the syntax of וָיֵשׁ ( vayesh ), “and there is”: (1) The repetition of יֵשׁ ( yesh , “there is and there is”) could be taken as emphatic, “indeed I am.” In this case, the entire statement could be taken as Jehonadab’s words or one could understand the words “give your hand” as Jehu’s. In the latter case the change in speakers is unmarked. (2) וָיֵשׁ begins Jehu’s response and has a conditional force, “if you are.” In this case, the transition in speakers is unmarked. However, it is possible that וַיֹּאמֶר ( vayyo ’ mer ), “and he said,” or וַיֹּאמֶר יֵהוּא ( vayyo ’ mer yehu ), “and Jehu said,” originally appeared between יֵשׁ and וָיֵשׁ and has accidentally dropped from the text by homoioarcton (note that both the proposed וַיֹּאמֶר and וָיֵשׁ begin with vav , ו ). The present translation assumes such a textual reconstruction; it is supported by the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate.


text: Heb “and see my zeal for the Lord .”


text: The MT has a plural form, but this is most likely an error. The LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate all have the singular.


text: Heb “and he struck down all the remaining ones to Ahab in Samaria until he destroyed him.”


text: Or “served.


text: Or “serve.”


text: Heb “much” or “greatly.”


text: Heb “and now, all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests summon to me.”


text: Heb “acted with deception [or, ‘trickery’].”


text: Heb “set apart”; or “observe as holy.”


text: Heb “and the house of Baal was filled mouth to mouth.”


text: Heb “and he said to the one who was over the wardrobe.”


text: Heb “Search carefully and observe so that there are not here with you any servants of the Lord , only the servants of Baal.”


text: Heb “The man who escapes from the men whom I am bringing into your hands, [it will be] his life in place of his life.”


text: Heb “runners.”


text: Heb “and they threw.” No object appears. According to M. Cogan and H. Tadmor ( II Kings [AB], 116), this is an idiom for leaving a corpse unburied.


text: Heb “and they came to the city of the house of Baal.” It seems unlikely that a literal city is meant. Some emend עִיר (’ ir ), “city,” to דְּבִיר ( dÿvir ) “holy place,” or suggest that עִיר is due to dittography of the immediately preceding עַד (’ ad ) “to.” Perhaps עִיר is here a technical term meaning “fortress” or, more likely, “inner room.”


text: Or “pulled down.”


text: The verb “they demolished” is repeated in the Hebrew text.


text: Heb “and they made it into.”


text: The consonantal text ( Kethib ) has the hapax legomenon מַחֲרָאוֹת ( makhara ’ ot ), “places to defecate” or “dung houses” (note the related noun חרא ( khr ’)/ חרי ( khri ), “dung,” HALOT 348-49 s.v. * חֲרָאִים ). The marginal reading ( Qere ) glosses this, perhaps euphemistically, מוֹצָאוֹת ( motsa ’ ot ), “outhouses.”


text: Heb “destroyed Baal.”


text: For location see Map4-G4 ; Map5-C1 ; Map6-E3 ; Map7-D1 ; Map8-G3 .


text: Heb “Except the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat which he caused Israel to commit, Jehu did not turn aside from after them – the golden calves which [were in] Bethel and which [were] in Dan.”


text: Heb “Because you have done well by doing what is proper in my eyes – according to all which was in my heart you have done to the house of Ahab – sons of four generations will sit for you on the throne of Israel.” In the Hebrew text the Lord’s statement is one long sentence (with a parenthesis). The translation above divides it into shorter sentences for stylistic reasons. sn Jehu ruled over Israel from approximately 841-814 b.c. Four of his descendants (Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, and Zechariah) ruled from approximately 814-753 b.c. The dynasty came to an end when Shallum assassinated Zechariah in 753 b.c . See 2 Kgs 15:8-12 .


text: Heb “But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart.”


text: Heb “He did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam which he caused Israel to commit.”


text: Heb “began to cut off Israel.”


text: Heb “Hazael struck them down in all the territory of Israel, from the Jordan on the east.” In the Hebrew text the phrase “from the Jordan on the east” begins v. 33 .


text: Heb “all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassehites, from Aroer which is near the Arnon Valley, and Gilead, and Bashan.”


text: Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jehu, and all which he did and all his strength, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel?”


text: Heb “lay down with his fathers.”


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