⁴ tn Grk “inquiring” or “seeking.”

¹ tn Or “inquire of.”

² tn Heb “sought [or “inquired of”] him.”

² tn Heb “Inquire of the Lord through him, saying.”

¹ tn Heb “that we might inquire of the Lord through him?”

² tn Or “As is the guilt of the inquirer, so is the guilt of the prophet.”

¹ tn Heb “those who go to descend to Egypt, but [of] my mouth they do not inquire.”

⁴ tn Heb “and inquire concerning him in my name in regard to peace.”

³ tn Heb “they inquired and searched.” The synonyms are joined to emphasize the care with which they conducted their inquiry.

³ tn Heb “a root from Jesse, which stands for a signal flag of the nations, of him nations will inquire” [or “seek”].

² tn The participle דֹּרֵשׁ (doresh) means “to seek; to inquire; to investigate.” A person generally receives the consequences of the kind of life he seeks.

¹ tn Heb “and when the envoys of the officials of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire concerning the sign which was in the land, [arrived].”

¹ tn Heb “And the advice of Ahithophel which he advised in those days was as when one inquires of the word of God.”

³ sn Asked the Lord. In other passages (e.g., 1 Sam 9:9) this expression refers to inquiring of a prophet, but no details are provided here.

³ tn The verb דָּרַשׁ (darash) means “to seek, inquire,” and “to address someone, be concerned about something” (cf. Deut 11:12; Jer 30:14, 17). Job wants the day to perish from the mind of God.

¹ tn Heb “Is it because there is no God in Israel [that] you are going to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?” The translation seeks to bring out the sarcastic tone of the rhetorical question.

³ tn Heb “Should a nation not inquire of its gods on behalf of the living, (by inquiring) of the dead?” These words appear to be a continuation of the quotation begun in the first part of the verse. אֱלֹהָיו (ʾelohayv) may be translated “its gods” or “its God.” Some take the second half of the verse as the prophet’s (or the Lord’s) rebuke of the people who advise seeking oracles at the ritual pits, but in this case the words “the dead on behalf of the living” are difficult to explain.

² tn Heb “who do not seek the Lord and do not inquire of him.” The present translation assumes the first verb refers to praying for divine help and the second to seeking his revealed will through an oracle. Note the usage of the two verbs in 2 Chr 20:3-4.

⁶ sn According to Jer 52:24 and 2 Kgs 25:18, Zephaniah son of Maaseiah was second in command to the high priest. He was the high ranking priest who was sent, along with a civic official, by Zedekiah to inquire of the Lord’s will from Jeremiah on two separate occasions (Jer 21:1; 37:3).

³ tn Heb “they will inquire of the idols and of the spirits of the dead and of the ritual pits and of the magicians.” Hebrew אוֹב (ʾov, “ritual pit”) refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits. See the note on “incantations” in 8:19.