2 Kings 11 - NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

11:4 Carites. They also appear in the consonantal Hebrew text of 2Sa 20:23 as part of the elite royal bodyguard alongside the Pelethites. They may well be essentially the same body as the Kerethites, with whom the Pelethites normally appear in the OT (2Sa 8:18; 15:18; 20:7, 23; 1Ki 1:38, 44). The Pelethites were perhaps Philistines, and the Kerethites Cretans—mercenaries who served as David’s bodyguard in the period after his service to Achish king of Gath (1Sa 27; 29); the Carites were the later royal bodyguard of Davidic kings.

11:14 the pillar. This probably refers to one of the two pillars (Jakin and Boaz) that were found at the temple entrance (see 1Ki 7:15–22, 41–42), flanking the temple forecourt, just as the monumental gateways of major ancient Near Eastern cities marked the entrance to their own sacred enclosures.