1 Kings 21:27-29

21:27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He slept in sackcloth and walked around dejected. 21:28 The Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, ¹  21:29 “Have you noticed how Ahab shows remorse ²  before me? Because he shows remorse before me, I will not bring disaster on his dynasty during his lifetime, but during the reign of his son.” ³ 

1 Kings 21:2

21:2 Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard so I can make a vegetable garden out of it, for it is adjacent to my palace. I will give you an even better vineyard in its place, or if you prefer, ⁴  I will pay you silver for it.” ⁵ 

1 Kings 6:30

6:30 He plated the floor of the temple with gold, inside and out. ⁶ 

Job 2:8

2:8 Job took a shard of broken pottery to scrape ⁷  himself ⁸  with while he was sitting ⁹  among the ashes. ¹⁰ 

Jonah 3:5-8

3:5 The people ¹¹  of Nineveh believed in God, ¹²  and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. ¹³  3:6 When the news ¹⁴  reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes. 3:7 He issued a proclamation and said, ¹⁵  “In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water. 3:8 Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly ¹⁶  to God, and everyone ¹⁷  must turn from their ¹⁸  evil way of living ¹⁹  and from the violence that they do. ²⁰ 

[21:28]  ¹ tn Heb “the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite.”

[21:29]  ² tn Or “humbles himself.” The expression occurs a second time later in this verse.

[21:29]  ³ tn Heb “I will not bring the disaster during his days, [but] in the days of his son I will bring the disaster on his house.”

[21:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “if it is good in your eyes.”

[21:2]  ⁵ tc The Old Greek translation includes the following words: “And it will be mine as a garden of herbs.”

[6:30]  ⁶ sn Inside and out probably refers to the inner and outer rooms within the building.

[2:8]  ⁷ tn The verb גָּרַד (garad) is a hapax legomenon (only occurring here). Modern Hebrew has retained a meaning “to scrape,” which is what the cognate Syriac and Arabic indicate. In the Hitpael it would mean “scrape himself.”

[2:8]  ⁸ sn The disease required constant attention. The infection and pus had to be scraped away with a piece of broken pottery in order to prevent the spread of the infection. The skin was so disfigured that even his friends did not recognize him (2:12). The book will add that the disease afflicted him inwardly, giving him a foul breath and a loathsome smell (19:17, 20). The sores bred worms; they opened and ran, and closed and tightened (16:8). He was tormented with dreams (7:14). He felt like he was choking (7:14). His bones were racked with burning pain (30:30). And he was not able to rise from his place (19:18). The disease was incurable; but it would last for years, leaving the patient longing for death.

[2:8]  ⁹ tn The construction uses the disjunctive vav (ו) with the independent pronoun with the active participle. The construction connects this clause with what has just been said, making this a circumstantial clause.

[2:8]  ¹⁰ sn Among the ashes. It is likely that the “ashes” refers to the place outside the city where the rubbish was collected and burnt, i.e., the ash-heap (cf. CEV). This is the understanding of the LXX, which reads “dung-hill outside the city.”

[3:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “men.” The term is used generically here for “people” (so KJV, ASV, and many other English versions); cf. NIV “the Ninevites.”

[3:5]  ¹² sn The people of Nineveh believed in God…. Verse 5 provides a summary of the response in Nineveh; the people of all ranks believed and gave evidence of contrition by fasting and wearing sackcloth (2 Sam 12:16, 19-23; 1 Kgs 21:27-29; Neh 9:1-2). Then vv. 6-9 provide specific details, focusing on the king’s reaction. The Ninevites’ response parallels the response of the pagan sailors in 1:6 and 13-16.

[3:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “from the greatest of them to the least of them.”

[3:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “word” or “matter.”

[3:7]  ¹⁵ tn Contrary to many modern English versions, the present translation understands the king’s proclamation to begin after the phrase “and he said” (rather than after “in Nineveh”), as do quotations in 1:14; 2:2, 4; 4:2, 8, 9. In Jonah where the quotation does not begin immediately after “said” (אָמַר, ’amar), it is only the speaker or addressee or both that come between “said” and the start of the quotation (1:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 4:4, 9, 10; cf. 1:1; 3:1).

[3:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “with strength”; KJV, NRSV “mightily”; NAB, NCV “loudly”; NIV “urgently.”

[3:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “let them turn, a man from his evil way.” The alternation between the plural verb וְיָשֻׁבוּ (vÿyashuvu, “and let them turn”) and the singular noun אִישׁ (’ish, “a man, each one”) and the singular suffix on מִדַּרְכּוֹ (middarko, “from his way”) emphasizes that each and every person in the collective unity is called to repent.

[3:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “his.” See the preceding note on “one.”

[3:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “evil way.” For other examples of “way” as “way of living,” see Judg 2:17; Ps 107:17-22; Prov 4:25-27; 5:21.

[3:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “that is in their hands.” By speaking of the harm they did as “in their hands,” the king recognized the Ninevites’ personal awareness and immediate responsibility. The term “hands” is either a synecdoche of instrument (e.g., “Is not the hand of Joab in all this?” 2 Sam 14:19) or a synecdoche of part for the whole. The king's descriptive figure of speech reinforces their guilt.