¹ tn Or “kingship.”

² tn Heb “set their face to me to be king.”

³ tn Heb “and the kingdom turned about and became my brother’s, for from the Lord it became his.”

⁴ tn Heb “turned after” (also later in this verse).

⁵ tn Heb “Joab.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁶ sn Grabbed hold of the horns of the altar. The “horns” of the altar were the horn-shaped projections on the four corners of the altar (see Exod 27:2). By going to the holy place and grabbing hold of the horns of the altar, Joab was seeking asylum from Solomon.

⁷ tn Heb “You know all the evil, for your heart knows, which you did to David my father.”

⁸ tn Heb “The Lord will cause your evil to return upon your head.”

⁹ tn Heb “and look, a dream.”

¹⁰ tn Or “tokens of peace”; NIV, TEV “fellowship offerings.”

¹¹ tc The Old Greek translation includes the following words at the beginning of ch. 8: “It so happened that when Solomon finished building the Lord’s temple and his own house, after twenty years.”

¹² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

¹³ tn Heb “Then Solomon convened the elders of Israel, the heads of the tribes, the chiefs of the fathers belonging to the sons of Israel to King Solomon [in] Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the city of David (it is Zion).”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and you, hear [from] heaven and act and judge your servants by declaring the guilty to be guilty, to give his way on his head, and to declare the innocent to be innocent, to give to him according to his innocence.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “When your people go out for battle against their enemies in the way which you send them.”

¹⁶ tn Or perhaps “to you, O Lord.” See 2 Chr 6:34.

¹⁷ tn Heb “your name.” See the note on the word “reputation” in v. 41.

¹⁸ tn Heb “he has given a resting place to his people Israel.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “not one word from his entire good word he spoke by Moses his servant has fallen.”

²⁰ tn Heb “the food on his table.”

²¹ tn Heb “the seating of his servants and the standing of his attendants.”

²² tn Heb “there was no breath still in her.”

²³ tn This Hebrew architectural term occurs only here. The meaning is uncertain; some have suggested “banisters” or “parapets”; cf. TEV, NLT “railings.” The parallel passage in 2 Chr 9:11 has a different word, meaning “tracks,” or perhaps “steps.”

²⁴ tn Two types of stringed instruments are specifically mentioned, the כִּנּוֹר (kinnor, “zither” [?]), and נֶבֶל (nevel, “harp”).

²⁵ tn Heb “there has not come thus, the fine timber, and there has not been seen to this day.”

²⁶ tn Heb “Because this is with you, and you have not kept my covenant and my rules which I commanded you.”

²⁷ tn Heb “because this turn of events was from the Lord.”

²⁸ tn Heb “so that he might bring to pass his word which the Lord spoke.”

²⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

³⁰ tn Heb “the heart of these people could return to their master.”

³¹ tn Heb “and you returned and ate food and drank water in the place about which he said to you, ‘do not eat food and do not drink water.’”

³² tn “Therefore” is added for stylistic reasons. See the note at 1 Kgs 13:21 pertaining to the grammatical structure of vv. 21-22.

³³ tn Heb “will not go to the tomb of your fathers.”

³⁴ sn Tell her so-and-so. Certainly the Lord gave Ahijah a specific message to give to Jeroboam’s wife (see vv. 6-16), but the author of Kings here condenses the Lord’s message with the words “so-and-so.” For dramatic effect he prefers to have us hear the message from Ahijah’s lips as he speaks to the king’s wife.

³⁵ tn Heb “and he went and served Baal and bowed down to him.”

sn The Canaanites worshiped Baal as a storm and fertility god.

³⁶ tn Heb “Has it not been told to my master what I did…?” The rhetorical question expects an answer, “Of course it has!”

³⁷ tn The word “messengers” is supplied in the translation both here and in v. 20 for clarification.

³⁸ tn Heb “who eat at the table of Jezebel.”

³⁹ tn Or “slaughtered.”

⁴⁰ tn The noun translated “small flocks” occurs only here. The common interpretation derives the word from the verbal root חשׂף, “to strip off; to make bare.” In this case the noun refers to something “stripped off” or “made bare.” HALOT 359 s.v. II חשׂף derives the noun from a proposed homonymic verbal root (which occurs only in Ps 29:9) meaning “cause a premature birth.” In this case the derived noun could refer to goats that are undersized because they are born prematurely.

⁴¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the prophet) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴² tn Heb “and Ahab said to Elijah.” The narrative is elliptical and streamlined. The words “when Elijah arrived” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

⁴³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴⁴ tn Heb “you have sold yourself.”

⁴⁵ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

⁴⁶ tn Heb “Should I go against Ramoth Gilead for war or should I refrain?”

⁴⁷ tn Though Jehoshaphat requested an oracle from “the Lord” (יְהוָה, Yahweh), they stop short of actually using this name and substitute the title אֲדֹנָי (’adonai, “lord; master”). This ambiguity may explain in part Jehoshaphat’s hesitancy and caution (vv. 7-8). He seems to doubt that the four hundred are genuine prophets of the Lord.

⁴⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Micaiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵⁰ tn The Hebrew text has two imperfects connected by וְגַם (vÿgam). These verbs could be translated as specific futures, “you will deceive and also you will prevail,” in which case the Lord is assuring the spirit of success on his mission. However, in a commissioning context (note the following imperatives) such as this, it is more likely that the imperfects are injunctive, in which case one could translate, “Deceive, and also overpower.”