1 Kings 14:15

14:15 The Lord will attack Israel, making it like a reed that sways in the water. 1  He will remove Israel from this good land he gave to their ancestors 2  and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, 3  because they angered the Lord by making Asherah poles. 4 

1 Kings 18:13

18:13 Certainly my master is aware of what I did 5  when Jezebel was killing the Lord’s prophets. I hid one hundred of the Lord’s prophets in two caves in two groups of fifty and I brought them food and water.

1 tn The elliptical Hebrew text reads literally “and the Lord will strike Israel as a reed sways in the water.”

2 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 22, 31).

3 tn Heb “the River.” In biblical Hebrew this is a typical reference to the Euphrates River. The name “Euphrates” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

4 tn Heb “because they made their Asherah poles that anger the Lord”; or “their images of Asherah”; ASV, NASB “their Asherim”; NCV “they set up idols to worship Asherah.”

sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

5 tn Heb “Has it not been told to my master what I did…?” The rhetorical question expects an answer, “Of course it has!”