Discovery Box1 Kings 20:39 
Context20:39 When the king passed by, he called out to the king, “Your servant went out into the heat 1 of the battle, and then a man turned aside and brought me a prisoner. 2 He told me, ‘Guard this prisoner. If he ends up missing for any reason, 3 you will pay with your life or with a talent 4 of silver.’ 5
1 tn Heb “middle.”
2 tn Heb “man” (also a second time later in this verse).
3 tn Heb “if being missed, he is missed.” The emphatic infinitive absolute before the finite verbal form lends solemnity to the warning.
4 tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 75 pounds of silver.
5 tn Heb “your life will be in place of his life, or a unit of silver you will pay.”
