1 Kings 1:51

1:51 Solomon was told, “Look, Adonijah fears you; ¹  see, he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘May King Solomon solemnly promise ²  me today that he will not kill his servant with the sword.’”

1 Kings 11:31

11:31 Then he told Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces, for this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Look, I am about to tear the kingdom from Solomon’s hand and I will give ten tribes to you.

1 Kings 21:21

21:21 The Lord says, ³  ‘Look, I am ready to bring disaster ⁴  on you. I will destroy you ⁵  and cut off every last male belonging to Ahab in Israel, including even the weak and incapacitated. ⁶ 

1 Kings 22:13

22:13 Now the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the prophets are in complete agreement that the king will succeed. ⁷  Your words must agree with theirs; you must predict success.” ⁸ 

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¹ tn Heb “King Solomon.” The name and title have been replaced by the pronoun (“you”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

² tn Or “swear an oath to.”

³ tn The introductory formula “the Lord says” is omitted in the Hebrew text, but supplied in the translation for clarification.

⁴ 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.

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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.

⁷ tn Heb “the words of the prophets are [with] one mouth good for the king.”

⁸ tn Heb “let your words be like the word of each of them and speak good.”