A NOTE ON THIS RENDERING

THE WITNESS

This is the Second Book of Kings as the Greek keeps it: the Fourth of the Kingdoms, and the last of them. It takes up the story where the Third left off — Mo'av in revolt, Eliyahu still upon the earth — and carries it to its end, the burning of the house of YAHUAH and the carrying-away to Bavel. Here the Greek and the Hebrew walk closely together: the great supplements and reversals that marked the Third of the Kingdoms are not repeated, and the reader who knows the Hebrew book will find its order and its verses largely kept. The House renders the Greek witness as it stands — Brenton's public-domain Septuagint — and where the two traditions differ, the note says so. The witness-line reads Rendered from the Septuagint.

THE ONE SUPPLEMENT

The Greek adds little the Hebrew lacks; its one visible addition stands at the close of the first chapter, at verses 18a—18d — a synchronizing note that sets the reign of Yehoram in its place among the kings. The House prints it where the Greek sets it, with its lettered numbering kept, and renumbers nothing to smooth the seam.

THE NAME, AND THE LORD WHO IS NOT DIVINE

As throughout the shelf: YAHUAH stands wherever the Greek says Kyrios, and is never glossed; the human lord is kept in lower case, distinct from the Name; Elohim stands for Theos; the Lord Almighty is YAHUAH Shaddai, and the Lord of hosts YAHUAH Tzeva'ot. And the oath that runs through the book — As YAHUAH lives — carries the Name.

THE LAND THE GREEK CALLS SYRIA

The Greek's Syria is restored to Aram, so that Na'aman's master, Chaza'el and the son of Hadad, and Retzin are kings of Aram, and Avanah and Parpar are the rivers of Dammesek. It is the same restoration by which the Greek's Egypt is set back to Mitzrayim.

THE EMPIRES

This is the book in which the empires come, and the House restores their lands to the Hebrew names: Ashur for Assyria, Bavel for Babylon, Ninveh for Nineveh, and the Kasdim for the Chaldeans; Perat for the great river Euphrates; Kush for Ethiopia, and Madai for the Medes. Their kings are set in Hebrew where a form is known — Tiglat-Pil'eser and Shalman'eser, Sancheriv and Nevuchadnetzar, and Evil-Merodach who lifted up the head of the captive king. But the Assyrian court-titles — Rabshakeh, Tartan, Rab-saris — are offices and not names, and are kept as the witness gives them.

THE GODS OF THE NATIONS

When Ashur empties Shomron and fills it with strangers, the strangers bring their gods, and the seventeenth chapter names them: Sukkoth-benoth and Nergal, Ashima, Nivchaz and Tartak, Adramelech and Anamelech — and Nisroch, in whose house Sancheriv fell. The House does not force these foreign names into a Hebrew they never wore; it leaves them as the witness gives them, restoring only where a true Hebrew form is known.

THE PROPHETS

The book belongs, in its first half, to the neviim: Eliyahu taken up in the chariot of fire, and the mantle fallen to Elisha; Elisha through his long cycle of signs; Yeshayahu son of Amotz standing beside Chizkiyahu against Ashur; Chuldah the prophetess who read the found scroll; and the word of Yonah son of Amitai, remembered here in passing. Each is restored to its House form.

THE NAMES RESTORED

The kings of both houses run to their end in this book, and the House restores them: for Yisra'el, Yehu and Yehoachaz, Yehoash and Yarov'am, down through Menachem and Pekach to Hoshea the last; for Yehudah, Atalyah and Yoash, Amatzyahu and Uziyahu, Achaz and Chizkiyahu, Menasheh and Yoshiyahu, and Tzidkiyahu who saw the end. Each is set in Hebrew and glossed once at its first appearance; the obscure and the Greek-worn names are left as the witness gives them.

THE SCROLL, AND THE VESSELS OF WORSHIP

Around the finding of the scroll in the days of Yoshiyahu and the cleansing that followed, the House restores the holy things in their tongue: the book of the Torah that Chilkiyahu the kohen found in the house; the kohanim and the neviim; the mizbeach and its vessels; the Shabbat, and the Pesach that the king kept as it had not been kept in the days of the judges. The house itself is left a house, and the sacrifices in plain English, that the narrative may carry its own weight.

THE TONGUE

The vocabulary as applied in this book, each term glossed at its first appearance and bare thereafter: YAHUAH — never glossed — with Elohim, Shaddai, and Tzeva'ot; brit (covenant) and aron (the ark); Torah (law), mitzvot (commandments), chukim (statutes), mishpatim (ordinances); kohen and kohanim, navi and neviim; mizbeach (altar), Mishkan (tabernacle), Ruach (spirit), Shabbat (sabbath), Pesach (passover); Aram for Syria, and Ashur, Bavel, Ninveh, Kasdim, Perat, Kush, and Madai for the empires and their river; and the long roll of restored names, kings and prophets and places, each in its House form. The Greek's own peculiar names are kept as the witness gives them.

RULE X.4

The text is rendered as it stands. The translation is never adjusted to fit a conclusion. Interpretation belongs to the introductions and the notes — never to the verse.