1:11 The king 6 sent another captain and his fifty soldiers to retrieve Elijah. He went up and told him, 7 “Prophet, this is what the king says, ‘Come down at once!’” 8
1:1 After Ahab died, Moab rebelled against Israel. 9
1:10 (2:1) 10 However, 11 in the future the number of the people 12 of Israel will be like the sand of the sea which can be neither measured nor numbered. Although 13 it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it will be said to them, “You are 14 children 15 of the living God!”
2:14 However, in the future I will allure her; 16
I will lead 17 her back into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
1 tn Heb “Some of your sons, who go out from you, whom you father.”
2 tn Heb “the city was breached.”
3 tn The Hebrew text is abrupt here: “And all the men of war by the night.” The translation attempts to capture the sense.
4 sn The king’s garden is mentioned again in Neh 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the city of David. This would have been in the southern part of the city near the Tyropean Valley which agrees with the reference to the “two walls” which were probably the walls on the eastern and western hills.
5 sn Heb “toward the Arabah.” The Arabah was the rift valley north and south of the Dead Sea. Here the intention was undoubtedly to escape across the Jordan to Moab or Ammon. It appears from Jer 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.
6 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tc The MT reads, “he answered and said to him.” The verb “he answered” (וַיַּעַן, vayya’an) is probably a corruption of “he went up” (וַיַּעַל, vayya’al). See v. 9.
8 sn In this second panel of the three-paneled narrative, the king and his captain are more arrogant than before. The captain uses a more official sounding introduction (“this is what the king says”) and the king adds “at once” to the command.
9 sn This statement may fit better with the final paragraph of 1 Kgs 22.
10 sn Beginning with 1:10, the verse numbers through 2:23 in the English Bible differ by two from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 1:10 ET = 2:1 HT, 1:11 ET = 2:2 HT, 2:1 ET = 2:3 HT, etc., through 2:23 ET = 2:25 HT. Beginning with 3:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible are again the same.
11 tn The vav prefixed to וְהָיָה (véhaya) functions in an adversative sense: “however” (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 71, §432).
12 tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); KJV, ASV “the children”; NAB, NIV “the Israelites.”
13 tn Heb “in the place” (בִּמְקוֹם, bimqom). BDB 880 s.v. מָקוֹם 7.b suggests that בִּמְקוֹם (preposition בְּ, bet, + noun מָקוֹם, maqom) is an idiom carrying a concessive sense: “instead of” (e.g., Isa 33:21; Hos 2:1). However, HALOT suggests that it functions in a locative sense: “in the same place” (HALOT 626 s.v. מָקוֹם 2b; e.g., 1 Kgs 21:19; Isa 33:21; Hos 2:1).
14 tn The predicate nominative, “You are…,” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
15 tn Heb “sons” (so KJV, NASB, NIV).
16 tn The participle מְפַתֶּיהָ (méfatteha, Piel participle masculine singular + 3rd feminine singular suffix from פָּתָה, patah, “to allure”) following the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “Now!”) describes an event that will occur in the immediate or near future.
17 tn Following the future-time referent participle (מְפַתֶּיהָ, méfatteha) there is a string of perfects introduced by vav consecutive that refer to future events.
18 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present here.
19 tn Or “desert.”
20 tn The word “God” is supplied based on the previous statements made concerning “the place prepared for the woman” in 12:6.
21 tc The reading “and half a time” (καὶ ἥμισυ καιροῦ, kai {hmisu kairou) is lacking in the important uncial C. Its inclusion, however, is supported by {Ì47 א A and the rest of the ms tradition}. There is apparently no reason for the scribe of C to intentionally omit the phrase, and the fact that the word “time” (καιρὸν καὶ καιρούς, kairon kai kairou") appears twice before may indicate a scribal oversight.