1 Kings 19:3

19:3 Elijah was afraid, ¹  so he got up and fled for his life to Beer Sheba in Judah. He left his servant there,

1 Kings 20:42

20:42 The prophet ²  then said to him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Because you released a man I had determined should die, you will pay with your life and your people will suffer instead of his people.’” ³ 

1 Kings 19:4

19:4 while he went a day’s journey into the desert. He went and sat down under a shrub ⁴  and asked the Lord to take his life: ⁵  “I’ve had enough! Now, O Lord, take my life. After all, I’m no better than my ancestors.” ⁶ 

1 Kings 20:39

20:39 When the king passed by, he called out to the king, “Your servant went out into the heat ⁷  of the battle, and then a man turned aside and brought me a prisoner. ⁸  He told me, ‘Guard this prisoner. If he ends up missing for any reason, ⁹  you will pay with your life or with a talent ¹⁰  of silver.’ ¹¹ 

¹ tc The MT has “and he saw,” but some medieval Hebrew mss as well as several ancient versions support the reading “he was afraid.” The consonantal text (וַיַּרְא, vayyar’) is ambiguous and can be vocalized וַיַּרְא (from רָאָה, ra’ah, “to see”) or וַיִּרָא (vayyira’, from יָרֵא, yare’, “to fear”).

² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the prophet) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “Because you sent away the man of my destruction [i.e., that I determined should be destroyed] from [my/your?] hand, your life will be in place of his life, and your people in place of his people.”

³ tn Or “broom tree” (also in v. 5).

⁴ tn Heb “and asked with respect to his life to die.”

⁵ tn Heb “fathers.”

⁴ tn Heb “middle.”

⁵ tn Heb “man” (also a second time later in this verse).

⁶ tn Heb “if being missed, he is missed.” The emphatic infinitive absolute before the finite verbal form lends solemnity to the warning.

⁷ tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 75 pounds of silver.

⁸ tn Heb “your life will be in place of his life, or a unit of silver you will pay.”