1 Kings 8:47

8:47 When your people ¹  come to their senses ²  in the land where they are held prisoner, they will repent and beg for your mercy in the land of their imprisonment, admitting, ‘We have sinned and gone astray; ³  we have done evil.’

1 Kings 8:52

8:52 “May you be attentive ⁴  to your servant’s and your people Israel’s requests for help and may you respond to all their prayers to you. ⁵ 

1 Kings 20:5

20:5 The messengers came again and said, “This is what Ben Hadad says, ‘I sent this message to you, “You must give me your silver, gold, wives, and sons.”

1 Kings 21:21

21:21 The Lord says, ⁶  ‘Look, I am ready to bring disaster ⁷  on you. I will destroy you ⁸  and cut off every last male belonging to Ahab in Israel, including even the weak and incapacitated. ⁹ 

1 Kings 22:18

22:18 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you he does not prophesy prosperity for me, but disaster?”

¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (your people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Or “stop and reflect”; Heb “bring back to their heart.”

³ tn Or “done wrong.”

⁴ tn Heb “May your eyes be open.”

⁵ tn Heb “to listen to them in all their calling out to you.”

⁷ tn The introductory formula “the Lord says” is omitted in the Hebrew text, but supplied in the translation for clarification.

⁸ sn Disaster. There is a wordplay in the Hebrew text. The word translated “disaster” (רָעָה, ra’ah) is similar to the word translated “evil” (v. 20, הָרַע, hara’). Ahab’s sins would receive an appropriate punishment.

⁹ tn Heb “I will burn after you.” Some take the verb בָּעַר (ba’ar) to mean here “sweep away.” See the discussion of this verb in the notes at 14:10 and 16:3.

¹⁰ tn Heb “and I will cut off from Ahab those who urinate against a wall, [including both those who are] restrained and let free [or “abandoned”] in Israel.” The precise meaning of the idiomatic phrase עָצוּר וְעָזוּב (’atsur vÿ’azuv, translated here “weak and incapacitated”) is uncertain. For various options see HALOT 871 s.v. עצר and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 107. The two terms are usually taken as polar opposites (“slaves and freemen” or “minors and adults”), but Cogan and Tadmor, on the basis of contextual considerations (note the usage with אֶפֶס (’efes), “nothing but”) in Deut 32:36 and 2 Kgs 14:26, argue convincingly that the terms are synonyms, meaning “restrained and abandoned,” and refer to incapable or incapacitated individuals.