2 Kings 8:10

8:10 Elisha said to him, “Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover,’ ¹  but the Lord has revealed to me that he will surely die.”

2 Kings 8:1

Elisha Again Helps the Shunammite Woman

8:1 Now Elisha advised the woman whose son he had brought back to life, “You and your family should go and live somewhere else for a while, ²  for the Lord has decreed that a famine will overtake the land for seven years.”

2 Kings 19:15

19:15 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord: “Lord God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubs! ³  You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky ⁴  and the earth.

Micah 2:1

Land Robbers Will Lose their Land

2:1 Those who devise sinful plans are as good as dead, ⁵ 

those who dream about doing evil as they lie in bed. ⁶ 

As soon as morning dawns they carry out their plans, ⁷ 

because they have the power to do so.

¹ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) reads, “Go, say, ‘Surely you will not (לֹא, lo’) recover” In this case the vav beginning the next clause should be translated, “for, because.” The marginal reading (Qere) has, “Go, say to him (לוֹ, lo), ‘You will surely recover.” In this case the vav (ו) beginning the next clause should be translated, “although, but.” The Qere has the support of some medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, and is consistent with v. 14, where Hazael tells the king, “You will surely recover.” It is possible that a scribe has changed לוֹ, “to him,” to לֹא, “not,” because he felt that Elisha would not lie to the king. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 90. Another possibility is that a scribe has decided to harmonize Elisha’s message with Hazael’s words in v. 14. But it is possible that Hazael, once he found out he would become the next king, decided to lie to the king to facilitate his assassination plot by making the king feel secure.

² tn Heb “Get up and go, you and your house, and live temporarily where you can live temporarily.”

³ sn This refers to the cherub images that were above the ark of the covenant.

⁴ tn Or “the heavens.”

⁵ tn Heb “Woe to those who plan sin.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe”; “ah”) was a cry used in mourning the dead.

⁶ tn Heb “those who do evil upon their beds.”

⁷ tn Heb “at the light of morning they do it.”