8:31 “When someone is accused of sinning against his neighbor and the latter pronounces a curse on the alleged offender before your altar in this temple, be willing to forgive the accused if the accusation is false. 8
8:33 “The time will come when 9 your people Israel are defeated by an enemy 10 because they sinned against you. If they come back to you, renew their allegiance to you, 11 and pray for your help 12 in this temple,
9:6 “But if you or your sons ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep, 13 and decide to serve and worship other gods, 14
20:10 Ben Hadad sent another message to him, “May the gods judge me severely 26 if there is enough dirt left in Samaria for my soldiers to scoop up in their hands.” 27
1 tc The Lucianic recension of the Old Greek and the Vulgate have here “you” rather than “now.” The two words are homonyms in Hebrew.
2 tn Heb “what you should do to him.”
3 tn Heb “bring his grey hair down in blood [to] Sheol.”
4 tn Heb “walk in.”
5 tn Heb “do.”
6 tn Heb “and keep all my commandments by walking in them.”
7 tn Heb “I will establish my word with you which I spoke to David your father.”
8 tn Heb “and forgive the man who sins against his neighbor when one takes up against him a curse to curse him and the curse comes before your altar in this house.” In the Hebrew text the words “and forgive” conclude v. 30, but the accusative sign at the beginning of v. 31 suggests the verb actually goes with what follows in v. 31. The parallel text in 2 Chr 6:22 begins with “and if,” rather than the accusative sign. In this case “forgive” must be taken with what precedes, and v. 31 must be taken as the protasis (“if” clause) of a conditional sentence, with v. 32 being the apodosis (“then” clause) that completes the sentence.
sn Be willing to forgive the accused if the accusation is false. At first it appears that Solomon is asking God to forgive the guilty party. But in v. 32 Solomon asks the
9 tn Heb “when.” In the Hebrew text vv. 33-34 actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided into two sentences for stylistic reasons.
10 tn Or “are struck down before an enemy.”
11 tn Heb “confess [or perhaps, “praise”] your name.”
12 tn Heb “and they pray and ask for help.”
13 tn Heb “which I placed before you.”
14 tn Heb “and walk and serve other gods and bow down to them.”
15 tn Heb “you must not go into them, and they must not go into you.”
16 tn Heb “Surely they will bend your heart after their gods.” The words “if you do” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
17 tn Heb “Solomon clung to them for love.” The pronominal suffix, translated “them,” is masculine here, even though it appears the foreign women are in view. Perhaps this is due to attraction to the masculine forms used of the nations earlier in the verse.
18 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
19 tn Heb “the heart of these people could return to their master.”
20 tn Heb “house.”
21 tn Heb “eat food and drink water.”
22 tn Heb “and he went and served Baal and bowed down to him.”
sn The Canaanites worshiped Baal as a storm and fertility god.
23 tn Heb “saying.”
24 tn Heb “So may the gods do to me, and so may they add.”
25 tn Heb “I do not make your life like the life of one of them.”
26 tn Heb “So may the gods do to me, and so may they add.”
27 tn Heb “if the dirt of Samaria suffices for the handfuls of all the people who are at my feet.”
28 tn Or “servants.”