Discovery Box1 Kings 21:20-21 
Context21:20 When Elijah arrived, Ahab said to him, 1 “So, you have found me, my enemy!” Elijah 2 replied, “I have found you, because you are committed 3 to doing evil in the sight of 4 the Lord. 21:21 The Lord says, 5 ‘Look, I am ready to bring disaster 6 on you. I will destroy you 7 and cut off every last male belonging to Ahab in Israel, including even the weak and incapacitated. 8
1 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.
2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “you have sold yourself.”
4 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
5 tn The introductory formula “the
6 sn Disaster. There is a wordplay in the Hebrew text. The word translated “disaster” (רָעָה, ra’ah) is similar to the word translated “evil” (v. 20, הָרַע, hara’). Ahab’s sins would receive an appropriate punishment.
7 tn Heb “I will burn after you.” Some take the verb בָּעַר (ba’ar) to mean here “sweep away.” See the discussion of this verb in the notes at 14:10 and 16:3.
8 tn Heb “and I will cut off from Ahab those who urinate against a wall, [including both those who are] restrained and let free [or “abandoned”] in Israel.” The precise meaning of the idiomatic phrase עָצוּר וְעָזוּב (’atsur vÿ’azuv, translated here “weak and incapacitated”) is uncertain. For various options see HALOT 871 s.v. עצר and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 107. The two terms are usually taken as polar opposites (“slaves and freemen” or “minors and adults”), but Cogan and Tadmor, on the basis of contextual considerations (note the usage with אֶפֶס (’efes), “nothing but”) in Deut 32:36 and 2 Kgs 14:26, argue convincingly that the terms are synonyms, meaning “restrained and abandoned,” and refer to incapable or incapacitated individuals.
