meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Commentary/Radak/Prophets/Radak on II Kings/English/Sefaria Community Translation.txt"}
text: Radak on II Kings
  רד"ק על מלכים ב'
  Sefaria Community Translation
  
  
  Radak on II Kings
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
  Verse 2
  
  
  
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  Verse 10
  
  You asked something difficult ~ It would have been enough for you if you had asked a just part of my spirit, or even half, but asking for it twice is something difficult, and even though [it is difficult] if you have the spiritual strength to see me as I am taken from you then I will know that from God this will happen, and so you will have what you asked.
  
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  Verse 19
  
  "Look, the town is a pleasant place to live..." Up to this point we have no indication that the waters of Jericho were bad, or that they caused bereavement. If it had been son, the people would not have loved it nor would they have transgressed the ban against rebuilding it. Furthermore, if the waters had been bad all along how is it that Eliyahu did not heal them? Finally, if they had caused bereavement for the many years they had been settled there the people would have given up and left. Therefore it appears that the evil had come to the waters recently due to the wickedness of the city's residents, and it was the bad waters which caused the ground to be a source of bereavement - killing many who drank from them. From an interpretive perspective, the verse is saying that Jericho was cursed and a source of bereavement because Joshua had cursed it. Then Eliyahu added his own curse in the when Hiel's two sons died and Eliyahu and King Ahav came to comfort him, as described above in I Kings 16:34 and the midrash. The Sages taught "Look, the town is a pleasant place to live in...but the water is bad and the land causes bereavement." What could be good about it?! R' Yochanan said: the inhabitants always see the grace of a place. (Sotah 47a)   
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
  Verse 2
  
  
  
  Verse 3
  
  
  
  Verse 4
  
  
  
  Verse 5
  
  
  
  Verse 6
  
  
  
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  Verse 27
  
  "So he took his eldest son" - My lord father of blessed memory interpreted this to mean that the son of the king of Edom who was fit to rule after him was in the custody of the king of Moab, and that for this reason he [the king of Edom] came with the two kings [of Judah and Israel], since with their help he planned to save his son from captivity under the king of Moab. When the king of Moab planned to break through to the king of Edom and could not, in his wrath he took the son of the king of Edom and brought him up on the wall  and burned him before his father's eyes. This is what "he offered him up as a burnt offering" means - that he burned him as one burns a burnt offering.
  "A great wrath came upon Israel" - from the king of Edom, since he had thought that with their help he would save his son from captivity under the king of Moab. This is what the scripture "because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime" (Amos 2:1) means. And my rabbi and brother, R' Moses of blessed memory interpreted this to mean that when the king of Moab planned to break through to the king of Edom, then and there he took his son captive. In that very war he abducted him from them, and then he brought him up on the wall and burned him before his father's eyes. A great wrath came upon Israel from the king of Edom, since they hadn't helped him save him [his son] from them [Moab]...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
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  Our sages of blessed memory said in Horayot:10, that being a King is work; You need to carry the burdens of  the nation, listen to them, and judge their cases in court whether you want to or not. If being a King is work, and the leprosy caused him to lived alone, then he was free from the work of being a king. Therefore, it was called a House of Freedom. Alternatively, the sages said this 'house of freedom' was a cemetery as it says in the verse (Psalms 88:6) "...among the dead who are free".
  
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  Verse 16
  
  ...He split open all the pregnant women as an act of vengeance and disgrace...
  
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  Verse 19
  
  
  
  Verse 20
  
  He did not stay there but returned to his home seeing that he recived the money and no longer protect him from other enemies