1 Kings 11:13
11:13 But I will not tear away the entire kingdom; I will leave 1 your son one tribe for my servant David’s sake and for the sake of my chosen city Jerusalem.”
1 Kings 11:34-39
11:34 I will not take the whole kingdom from his hand. I will allow him to be ruler for the rest of his life for the sake of my chosen servant David who kept my commandments and rules.
11:35 I will take the kingdom from the hand of his son and give ten tribes to you. 2
11:36 I will leave 3 his son one tribe so my servant David’s dynasty may continue to serve me 4 in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen as my home. 5
11:37 I will select 6 you; you will rule over all you desire to have and you will be king over Israel.
11:38 You must obey 7 all I command you to do, follow my instructions, 8 do what I approve, 9 and keep my rules and commandments, like my servant David did. Then I will be with you and establish for you a lasting dynasty, as I did for David; 10 I will give you Israel.
11:39 I will humiliate David’s descendants because of this, 11 but not forever.” 12
1 tn Heb “give.”
2 tn Heb “and I will give it to you, ten tribes.”
3 tn Heb “give.”
4 tn Heb “so there might be a lamp for David my servant all the days before me in Jerusalem.” The metaphorical “lamp” symbolizes the Davidic dynasty. Because this imagery is unfamiliar to the modern reader, the translation “so my servant David’s dynasty may continue to serve me” has been used.
5 tn Heb “so there might be a lamp for David my servant all the days before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for myself to put my name there.”
6 tn Heb “take.”
7 tn Heb “If you obey.” In the Hebrew text v. 38 is actually one long conditional sentence, which has been broken into two parts in the translation for stylistic purposes.
8 tn Heb “walk in my ways.”
9 tn Heb “do what is right in my eyes.”
10 tn Heb “I will build for you a permanent house, like I built for David.”
11 sn Because of this. Reference is made to the idolatry mentioned earlier.
12 tn Heb “but not all the days.”