2 Kings 17:13-14

17:13 The Lord solemnly warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and all the seers, “Turn back from your evil ways; obey my commandments and rules that are recorded in the law. I ordered your ancestors to keep this law and sent my servants the prophets to remind you of its demands.” ¹  17:14 But they did not pay attention and were as stubborn as their ancestors, ²  who had not trusted the Lord their God.

2 Kings 17:2

17:2 He did evil in the sight of ³  the Lord, but not to the same degree as the Israelite kings who preceded him.

2 Kings 1:6-12

1:6 They replied, ⁴  “A man came up to meet us. He told us, “Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: “You must think there is no God in Israel! That explains why you are sending for an oracle from Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. ⁵  Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.”’” 1:7 The king ⁶  asked them, “Describe the appearance ⁷  of this man who came up to meet you and told you these things.” 1:8 They replied, ⁸  “He was a hairy man ⁹  and had a leather belt ¹⁰  tied around his waist.” The king ¹¹  said, “He is Elijah the Tishbite.”

1:9 The king ¹²  sent a captain and his fifty soldiers ¹³  to retrieve Elijah. ¹⁴  The captain ¹⁵  went up to him, while he was sitting on the top of a hill. ¹⁶  He told him, “Prophet, ¹⁷  the king says, ‘Come down!’” 1:10 Elijah replied to the captain, ¹⁸  “If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire then came down ¹⁹  from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.

1:11 The king ²⁰  sent another captain and his fifty soldiers to retrieve Elijah. He went up and told him, ²¹  “Prophet, this is what the king says, ‘Come down at once!’” ²²  1:12 Elijah replied to them, ²³  “If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire from God ²⁴  came down from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.

Hosea 6:1-4

Superficial Repentance Breeds False Assurance of God’s Forgiveness

6:1 “Come on! Let’s return to the Lord!

He himself has torn us to pieces,

but he will heal us!

He has injured ²⁵  us,

but he will bandage our wounds!

6:2 He will restore ²⁶  us in a very short time; ²⁷ 

he will heal us in a little while, ²⁸ 

so that we may live in his presence.

6:3 So let us acknowledge him! ²⁹ 

Let us seek ³⁰  to acknowledge ³¹  the Lord!

He will come to our rescue as certainly as the appearance of the dawn,

as certainly as the winter rain comes,

as certainly as the spring rain that waters the land.”

Transitory Faithfulness and Imminent Judgment

6:4 What am I going to do with you, O Ephraim?

What am I going to do with you, O Judah?

For ³²  your faithfulness is as fleeting as the morning mist; ³³ 

it disappears as quickly as dawn’s dew! ³⁴ 

Hosea 14:1

Prophetic Call to Genuine Repentance

14:1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,

for your sin has been your downfall! ³⁵ 

[17:13]  ¹ tn Heb “obey my commandments and rules according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets.”

[17:14]  ² tn Heb and they stiffened their neck like the neck of their fathers.”

[17:2]  ³ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[1:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “said to him.”

[1:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “Is it because there is no God in Israel [that] you are sending to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?” The translation seeks to bring out the sarcastic tone of the rhetorical question. In v. 3 the messengers are addressed (in the phrase “you are on your way” the second person plural pronoun is used in Hebrew), but here the king is addressed (in the phrase “you are sending” the second person singular pronoun is used).

[1:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “What was the manner…?”

[1:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “said to him.”

[1:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “an owner of hair.” This idiomatic expression indicates that Elijah was very hairy. For other examples where the idiom “owner of” is used to describe a characteristic of someone, see HALOT 143 s.v. בַּעַל. For example, an “owner of dreams” is one who frequently has dreams (Gen 37:19) and an “owner of anger” is a hot-tempered individual (Prov 22:24).

[1:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “belt of skin” (i.e., one made from animal hide).

[1:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “officer of fifty and his fifty.”

[1:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to him.”

[1:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the captain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ¹⁶ sn The prophet Elijah’s position on the top of the hill symbolizes his superiority to the king and his messengers.

[1:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “man of God” (also in vv. 10, 11, 12, 13).

[1:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “answered and said to the officer of fifty.”

[1:10]  ¹⁹ tn Wordplay contributes to the irony here. The king tells Elijah to “come down” (Hebrew יָרַד, yarad), but Elijah calls fire down (יָרַד) on the arrogant king’s officer.

[1:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:11]  ²¹ 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.

[1:11]  ²² 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.

[1:12]  ²³ tc Two medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitta have the singular “to him.”

[1:12]  ²⁴ tn Or “intense fire.” The divine name may be used idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the fire. Whether one translates אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) here as a proper name or idiomatically, this addition to the narrative (the name is omitted in the first panel, v. 10b) emphasizes the severity of the judgment and is appropriate given the more intense command delivered by the king to the prophet in this panel.

[6:1]  ²⁵ tn “has struck”; NRSV “struck down.”

[6:2]  ²⁶ tn The Piel of חָיָה (khayah) may mean: (1) to keep/preserve persons alive from the threat of premature death (1 Kgs 20:31; Ezek 13:18; 18:27); (2) to restore the dead to physical life (Deut 32:39; 1 Sam 2:6; cf. NCV “will put new life in us”); or (3) to restore the dying back to life from the threat of death (Ps 71:20; BDB 311 s.v. חָיָה).

[6:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “after two days” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV). The expression “after two days” is an idiom meaning “after a short time” (see, e.g., Judg 11:4; BDB 399 s.v. יוֹם 5.a).

[6:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “on the third day” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV), which parallels “after two days” and means “in a little while.” The “2-3” sequence is an example of graded numerical parallelism (Prov 30:15-16, 18-19, 21-23, 24-28, 29-31). This expresses the unrepentant overconfidence of Israel that the Lord’s discipline of Israel would be relatively short and that he would restore them quickly.

[6:3]  ²⁹ tn The object (“him”) is omitted in the Hebrew text, but supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “let us pursue in order to know.” The Hebrew term רָדַף (radaf, “to pursue”) is used figuratively: “to aim to secure” (BDB 923 s.v. רָדַף 2). It describes the pursuit of a moral goal: “Do not pervert justice…nor accept a bribe…pursue [רָדַף] justice” (Deut 16:20); “those who pursue [רָדַף] righteousness and who seek [בָּקַשׁ, baqash] the Lord” (Isa 51:1); “He who pursues [רָדַף] righteousness and love finds life, prosperity, and honor” (Prov 21:20); “Seek [בָּקַשׁ] peace and pursue [רָדַף] it” (Ps 34:15); “they slander me when I pursue [רָדַף] good” (Ps 38:21).

[6:3]  ³¹ tn The Hebrew infinitive construct with לְ (lamed) denotes purpose: “to know” (לָדַעַת, lada’at).

[6:4]  ³² tn The vav prefixed to וְחַסְדְּכֶם (vÿkhasdÿkhem, “your faithfulness”) functions in an explanatory sense (“For”).

[6:4]  ³³ tn Heb “your faithfulness [so NCV; NASB “your loyalty”; NIV, NRSV, NLT “your love”] is like a morning cloud” (וְחַסְדְּכֶם כַּעֲנַן־בֹּקֶר, vÿkhasdÿkhem ka’anan-boqer).

[6:4]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the dew departing early” (BDB 1014 s.v. שָׁכַם); cf. NRSV “the dew that goes away early.” The Hiphil participle מַשְׁכִּים (mashkim) means “to depart early” (Gen 19:27; Josh 8:14; Judg 19:9). The idiom means “early morning” (1 Sam 17:16).

[14:1]  ³⁵ tn Heb “For you have stumbled in your iniquity”; NASB, NRSV “because of your iniquity.”