25:5 Amaziah assembled the people of Judah 6 and assigned them by families to the commanders of units of a thousand and the commanders of units of a hundred for all Judah and Benjamin. He counted those twenty years old and up and discovered there were 300,000 young men of fighting age 7 equipped with spears and shields. 8
34:3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his ancestor 9 David. In his twelfth year he began ridding 10 Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, Asherah poles, idols, and images.
1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Rehoboam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter upon us.”
3 tn Heb “My little one is thicker than my father’s hips.” The referent of “my little one” is not clear. The traditional view is that it refers to the little finger (so NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). As the following statement makes clear, Rehoboam’s point is that he is more harsh and demanding than his father.
4 tn In the Hebrew text this is phrased as a rhetorical question, “Did you not banish?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you did,” the force of which is reflected in the translation “But you banished.”
5 tn Heb “whoever comes to fill his hand with a bull of a son of cattle, and seven rams, and he is a priest to no-gods.”
6 tn Heb “Judah.” The words “the people of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew text uses the name “Judah” by metonymy here for the people of Judah.
7 tn Heb “young men going out to war.”
8 tn Heb “holding a spear and a shield.”
9 tn Heb “father.”
10 tn Heb “purifying.”