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2 Kings 8
New English Translation

Elisha Again Helps the Shunammite Woman

8 Now Elisha advised the woman whose son he had brought back to life, “You and your family should go and live somewhere else for a while,[a] for the Lord has decreed that a famine will overtake the land for seven years.” 2 So the woman did as the prophet said.[b] She and her family went and lived in the land of the Philistines for seven years. 3 After seven years the woman returned from the land of the Philistines and went to ask the king to give her back her house and field.[c] 4 Now the king was talking to Gehazi, the prophet’s[d] servant, and said, “Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.” 5 While Gehazi[e] was telling the king how Elisha[f] had brought the dead back to life, the woman whose son he had brought back to life came to ask the king for her house and field.[g] Gehazi said, “My master, O king, this is the very woman, and this is her son whom Elisha brought back to life!” 6 The king asked the woman about it, and she gave him the details.[h] The king assigned a eunuch to take care of her request and ordered him,[i] “Give her back everything she owns, as well as the amount of crops her field produced from the day she left the land until now.”

Elisha Meets with Hazael

7 Elisha traveled to Damascus while King Ben Hadad of Syria was sick. The king[j] was told, “The prophet[k] has come here.” 8 So the king told Hazael, “Take a gift[l] and go visit the prophet. Request from him an oracle from the Lord. Ask him,[m] ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’” 9 So Hazael went to visit Elisha.[n] He took along a gift,[o] as well as[p] forty camel-loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son,[q] King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question,[r] ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’” 10 Elisha said to him, “Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover,’[s] but the Lord has revealed to me that he will surely die.” 11 Elisha[t] just stared at him until Hazael became uncomfortable.[u] Then the prophet started crying. 12 Hazael asked, “Why are you crying, my master?” He replied, “Because I know the trouble you will cause the Israelites. You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, smash their children to bits, and rip open their pregnant women.” 13 Hazael said, “How could your servant, who is as insignificant as a dog, accomplish this great military victory?”[v] Elisha answered, “The Lord has revealed to me that you will be the king of Syria.”[w] 14 He left Elisha and went to his master. Ben Hadad[x] asked him, “What did Elisha tell you?” Hazael[y] replied, “He told me you would surely recover.” 15 The next day Hazael[z] took a piece of cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over Ben Hadad’s[aa] face until he died. Then Hazael replaced him as king.

Jehoram’s Reign over Judah

16 In the fifth year of the reign of Israel’s King Joram, son of Ahab, Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram became king over Judah.[ab] 17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem. 18 He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel, just as Ahab’s dynasty had done, for he married Ahab’s daughter.[ac] He did evil in the sight of[ad] the Lord. 19 But the Lord was unwilling to destroy Judah. He preserved Judah for the sake of[ae] his servant David to whom he had promised a perpetual dynasty.[af]

20 During his reign Edom freed themselves from Judah’s control and set up their own king.[ag] 21 Jehoram[ah] crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites, who had surrounded him, attacked at night and defeated him and his chariot officers.[ai] The Israelite army retreated to their homeland.[aj] 22 So Edom has remained free from Judah’s control to this very day.[ak] At that same time Libnah also rebelled.

23 The rest of the events of Jehoram’s reign, including a record of his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.[al] 24 Jehoram passed away[am] and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Ahaziah replaced him as king.

Ahaziah Takes the Throne of Judah

25 In the twelfth year of the reign of Israel’s King Joram, son of Ahab, Jehoram’s son Ahaziah became king over Judah. 26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. His mother was Athaliah, the granddaughter[an] of King Omri of Israel. 27 He followed in the footsteps of Ahab’s dynasty and did evil in the sight of[ao] the Lord, as Ahab’s dynasty had done, for he was related to Ahab’s family.[ap]

28 He joined Ahab’s son Joram in a battle against King Hazael of Syria at Ramoth Gilead in which the Syrians defeated Joram. 29 King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians[aq] in Ramah when he fought against King Hazael of Syria. King Ahaziah son of Jehoram of Judah went down to visit[ar] Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he was ill.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 8:1 tn Heb “Get up and go, you and your house, and live temporarily where you can live temporarily.”
  2. 2 Kings 8:2 tn Heb “and the woman got up and did according to the word of the man of God.”
  3. 2 Kings 8:3 tn Heb “and went out to cry out to the king for her house and her field.”
  4. 2 Kings 8:4 tn Heb “man of God’s.”
  5. 2 Kings 8:5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gehazi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  6. 2 Kings 8:5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  7. 2 Kings 8:5 tn Heb “and look, the woman whose son he had brought back to life was crying out to the king for her house and her field.”sn The legal background of the situation is uncertain. For a discussion of possibilities, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 87-88.
  8. 2 Kings 8:6 tn Heb “and the king asked the woman and she told him.”
  9. 2 Kings 8:6 tn Heb “and he assigned to her an official, saying.”
  10. 2 Kings 8:7 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  11. 2 Kings 8:7 tn Heb “man of God” (also a second time in this verse and in v. 11).
  12. 2 Kings 8:8 tn The Hebrew text also has “in your hand.”
  13. 2 Kings 8:8 tn Heb “Inquire of the Lord through him, saying.”
  14. 2 Kings 8:9 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  15. 2 Kings 8:9 tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”
  16. 2 Kings 8:9 tn Heb “and.” It is possible that the conjunction is here explanatory, equivalent to English “that is.” In this case the forty camel-loads constitute the “gift” and one should translate, “He took along a gift, consisting of forty camel-loads of all the fine things of Damascus.”
  17. 2 Kings 8:9 sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.
  18. 2 Kings 8:9 tn Heb “saying.”
  19. 2 Kings 8:10 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) reads, “Go, say, ‘Surely you will not (לֹא, loʾ) live.’” In this case the vav beginning the next clause could be translated “for” or “because.” The reading tradition (Qere) has, “Go, say to him (לוֹ, lo), ‘You will surely recover.’” In this case the vav (ו) beginning the next clause would be translated “although” or “but.” The Qere has the support of some medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, and is consistent with v. 14, where Hazael tells the king, “You will surely recover.” It also fits the immediate context. The sentence “you will live,” to be told to Ben Hadad and meaning to recover from the sickness contrasts telling Hazael that Ben Hadad will die. The missing component is the means of Ban Hadad’s death. So Elisha looks at Hazael until he is embarrassed, because as a prophet he knows that Hazael will kill Ben Hadad (not the sickness). It is possible that a scribe has changed לוֹ, “to him,” to לֹא, “not,” because he felt that Elisha would not lie to the king. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 90. But it is possible that Hazael, once he found out he would become the next king, decided to lie to the king to facilitate his assassination plot by making the king feel secure.
  20. 2 Kings 8:11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  21. 2 Kings 8:11 tn Heb “and he made his face stand [i.e., be motionless] and set [his face?] until embarrassment.”
  22. 2 Kings 8:13 tn Heb “Indeed, what is your servant, a dog, that he could do this great thing?” With his reference to a dog, Hazael is not denying that he is a “dog” and protesting that he would never commit such a dastardly “dog-like” deed. Rather, as Elisha’s response indicates, Hazael is suggesting that he, like a dog, is too insignificant to ever be in a position to lead such conquests.
  23. 2 Kings 8:13 tn Heb “The Lord has shown me you [as] king over Syria.”
  24. 2 Kings 8:14 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Ben Hadad) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  25. 2 Kings 8:14 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Hazael) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  26. 2 Kings 8:15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Hazael) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  27. 2 Kings 8:15 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Ben Hadad) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  28. 2 Kings 8:16 tc The Hebrew text reads, “and in the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, and [or, ‘while’?] Jehoshaphat [was?] king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah became king.” The first reference to “Jehoshaphat king of Judah” is probably due to a scribe accidentally copying the phrase from later in the verse. If the Hebrew text is retained, the verse probably refers to the beginning of a coregency between Jehoshaphat and Jehoram.
  29. 2 Kings 8:18 tn Heb “he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab did, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife.”
  30. 2 Kings 8:18 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
  31. 2 Kings 8:19 tn The Hebrew has only one sentence, “and the Lord was unwilling to destroy Judah for the sake of.” The translation divides it for the sake of clarity.
  32. 2 Kings 8:19 tn Heb “just as he had said to him, to give to him a lamp for his sons all the days.” The metaphorical “lamp” symbolizes the Davidic dynasty; this is reflected in the translation.
  33. 2 Kings 8:20 tn Heb “in his days Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah and enthroned a king over them.”
  34. 2 Kings 8:21 tn Heb “Joram,” which is a short form of the name Jehoram (also in vv. 23, 24).
  35. 2 Kings 8:21 tc 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 Jehoram 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). Instead the translation assumes an emendation of the Hebrew text, adding a vav (ו) to the accusative sign before Edom, reading אֹתוֹ (ʾoto, “him,”) instead of just אֶת (ʾet). In this reading, Edom is the subject of the verb rather than the direct object, “Edom struck him.” This is more consistent with the context but there is no manuscript evidence in favor of this.
  36. 2 Kings 8:21 tn Heb “and the people fled to their tents.”
  37. 2 Kings 8:22 tn Heb “and Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah until this day.”
  38. 2 Kings 8:23 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?”
  39. 2 Kings 8:24 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
  40. 2 Kings 8:26 tn Hebrew בַּת (bat), “daughter,” can refer, as here to a granddaughter. See HALOT 166 s.v. בַּת.
  41. 2 Kings 8:27 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
  42. 2 Kings 8:27 tn Heb “and he walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord like the house of Ahab, for he was a relative by marriage of the house of Ahab.” For this use of חֲתַן (khatan), normally “son-in-law,” see HALOT 365 s.v. חָתָן. Ahab was Ahaziah’s grandfather on his mother’s side.
  43. 2 Kings 8:29 tn Heb “which the Syrians inflicted [on] him.”
  44. 2 Kings 8:29 tn Heb “to see.”
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列王纪下 8
Chinese New Version (Simplified)

书念妇人复得她的产业

8 以利沙告诉那妇人（她的儿子曾被以利沙救活），说：“你和你全家要动身，离开这里，住在你可以寄居的地方，因为耶和华宣布了将有饥荒，这饥荒要临到这地七年。” 2 那妇人就动身，按照神人所说的去作。她和她的全家离去，住在非利士地七年。 3 七年结束的时候，那妇人从非利士地回来，就去为自己的房屋、田产哀求王。 4 那时王正在和神人的仆人基哈西交谈，说：“请你向我讲述以利沙所作的一切大事。” 5 他正向王讲述以利沙叫死人复活的事的时候；看哪，以利沙曾救活她的儿子的那妇人来为她的房屋、田产哀求王。基哈西说：“我主我王，这就是那妇人了，她的这个儿子就是以利沙救活的了。” 6 王问那妇人，她就告诉他一切事。于是王指派一个太监给他，说：“把所有属于她的，以及从她离开此地直到现在，她田地的一切出产都归还她。”

亚兰王便．哈达患病

7 以利沙来到大马士革。亚兰王便．哈达患了病。有人告诉他说：“神人来到这里了。” 8 王对哈薛说：“你带着礼物，去见神人，托他求问耶和华说：‘我这病能痊愈吗？’” 9 于是哈薛去见以利沙。他带着礼物，就是大马士革各样的美物，由四十匹骆驼驮着，去站在他的面前，说：“你的儿子亚兰王便．哈达派我到你这里来，问你说：‘我这病能痊愈吗？’” 10 以利沙对他说：“你去告诉他说：‘你一定会痊愈的’，但耶和华指示我，他一定要死。” 11 以利沙定睛看着他，直到他感到局促不安；然后，神人哭了起来。 12 哈薛说：“我主为甚么哭起来了？”他回答：“因为我已知道你要对以色列人施行的恶事。他们的城堡，你要放火焚烧；他们的年轻人，你要用刀杀死；他们的婴孩，你要摔死；他们的孕妇，你要剖开。” 13 哈薛说：“你仆人算甚么？不过是一条狗罢了；怎可以作这样的大事呢？”以利沙说：“耶和华已指示我，你要作王统治亚兰。” 14 于是他离开以利沙，回到他主人那里。便．哈达对他说：“以利沙对你说了些甚么呢？”他说：“他对我说：‘你一定痊愈的。’”

便．哈达被杀身亡

15 第二天，哈薛拿被窝浸在水里，然后蒙住便．哈达的面，他就死了；于是哈薛接续他作王。

约兰作犹大王(A)

16 以色列王亚哈的儿子约兰第五年，犹大王约沙法还在的时候，犹大王约沙法的儿子约兰登基作了王。 17 他登基时是三十二岁；在耶路撒冷作王八年。 18 他照着以色列诸王的道路而行，好象亚哈家所行的；因为他娶了亚哈的女儿为妻，并且行耶和华看为恶的事。 19 但耶和华因他仆人大卫的缘故不愿毁灭犹大，却要照他应许大卫的，赐给他和他的后裔永远有灯光延续。

以东人与立拿人背叛犹大(B)

20 约兰王在位的日子，以东人反叛，脱离犹大人的手，自己立王统治本国。 21 于是约兰过到撒益去，并且带着他所有的战车。他夜间起来攻击包围他和他的战车军长的以东人，他的军民却逃回自己的帐棚去了。 22 于是以东人背叛，脱离犹大人的手，直到今日；那时立拿人也同时背叛。 23 约兰其余的事迹和他所行的一切，不是都写在犹大列王的年代志上吗？ 24 约兰和他的祖先同睡；人把他埋葬在大卫城和他的祖先一起；他的儿子亚哈谢接续他作王。

亚哈谢作犹大王(C)

25 以色列王亚哈的儿子约兰在位第十二年，犹大王约兰的儿子亚哈谢作犹大王。 26 他登基时是二十二岁，在耶路撒冷作王一年。他母亲名叫亚他利雅，是以色列王暗利的孙女。 27 他照着亚哈家的道路而行，行耶和华看为恶的事，好象亚哈家一样，因为他是亚哈家的女婿。 28 亚哈谢与亚哈的儿子约兰往基列的拉末，同亚兰王哈薛交战；亚兰人击伤了约兰。 29 约兰于是回去，到耶斯列治伤，就是当他攻打亚兰王哈薛时，亚兰人在拉末击伤他的。犹大王约兰的儿子亚哈谢因为亚哈的儿子约兰病了，所以下到耶斯列去探望他。

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