1. And Elisha had spoken to the woman. The syntax and the form of the Hebrew verb indicate a pluperfect, as reflected in the translation—a careful indication of tense because the action about to be reported unfolds seven years after Elisha’s words to the woman. Oddly, in this episode she is never referred to as “the Shunammite.”

4. And the king was speaking to Gehazi. There is no hint here that Gehazi has been stricken with a ghastly skin disease. This is one of several indications that the stories about Elisha brought together in this cycle probably originated independently. The fact that Gehazi is a presence in the court recounting the great acts of his master has led some interpreters to infer that in this particular story Elisha is assumed to have died.

5. crying out to the king. The Hebrew verb used here has a technical sense of making a plea for justice from the king.

for her house and for her field. These substantial possessions have obviously been seized by others during her seven years’ absence.

6. a certain eunuch. Although this is the plain meaning of the Hebrew noun saris, it is possible that the term came to designate a particular kind of court official, without reference to genital mutilation.

all the yield of the field from the day she left the land till now. She is legally entitled not only to resume possession of the land but to receive all the profit made from it during her absence.

8. Take tribute in your hand and go to meet the man of God. If there is any continuity between this story and the story of Naaman, Elisha’s powers would be well-known and respected in the Aramean court.

inquire of the LORD through him. Ben-Hadad does not assume that YHWH is the one and only God, but he has reason to think that this Hebrew deity served by Elisha has great potency.

9. a load of forty camels. This makes the tribute a very grand gift.

10. Go, say to him, “You will surely survive,” but the LORD has shown me that he is doomed to die. Elisha’s response is devious: you can tell him he will survive his grave illness, which will be technically true because he is to die from quite a different cause. Some interpreters imagine that Elisha is encouraging Hazael to assassinate Ben-Hadad, but this is implausible because Elisha foresees that when he becomes king, Hazael will ravage the people of Israel. What has happened is simply that God has revealed to him both Ben-Hadad’s fate and the future course of war between Aram and Israel.

11. And his face froze. This is the likely sense of the somewhat obscure Hebrew, which is literally, “and he made his face stand [still].”

and he was dumbfounded. The received text shows wayasem, “and he put.” But two Hebrew manuscripts and the Vulgate have wayishom, to be desolate or dumbfounded, which is much more likely. The subject of both these verbs must be Hazael, who is astounded, and at a loss, to hear Elisha’s stark prophecy.

13. How could your servant, a dog, do this great thing? The humble self-designation reflects the fact that Hazael, though he is some sort of court official, is not of the royal line. In an inscription by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III, Hazael is in fact referred to as “son of no one.” One notes that he has no moral compunctions about the prospect of perpetrating the most barbaric cruelties on the men, women, and infants of Israel; on the contrary, these were common acts in military conquest and thus part of what constituted a “great thing” that he is not sure he is worthy to do.

The LORD has showed you to me as king over Aram. These words may not be intended to instigate the assassination, but they certainly have the effect of giving Hazael the idea.

15. he took a cloth and soaked it in water and spread it over his face. The subject of the verb is Hazael. He kills the king by suffocating him (there will be no blood visible and perhaps the courtiers will conclude that Ben-Hadad died of his illness). The king, of course, in his greatly weakened state is in no shape to resist the murderous act.

21. as he arose in the night, the Edomites surrounding him struck him. The Masoretic Text reads: as he arose in the night, he struck the Edomites surrounding him. This reading may reflect scribal wishful thinking. To begin with, it is syntactically peculiar, and the clear indication is that the Israelites were defeated in a successful rebellion by the Edomites. Furthermore, the “troops,” ʿam, who flee to their tents—that is, to their homes—is a term generally referring to Israelite troops, not, as it appears here in the received text, to Edomites.

26. his mother’s name was Athaliah daughter of Omri. In verse 18 she is identified as Ahab’s daughter, though perhaps the Hebrew bat could encompass granddaughter. In any case, the familial connection through marriage with the house of Ahab leads to trouble.