translation_id: net-engnet

label: NET textual note

text: Some mss of the Old Greek lack vv. 1-20 .


label: NET translator note

text: Heb “Get up, change yourself.”


text: Heb “look, Ahijah the prophet is there, he told me [I would be] king over this nation.”


text: Heb “take in your hand.”


text: Heb “and the wife of Jeroboam did so; she arose and went to Shiloh and entered the house of Ahijah.”


text: Heb “his eyes were set because of his old age.”


text: Heb “I am sent to you [with] a hard [message].”


text: The Hebrew text has “because” at the beginning of the sentence. In the Hebrew text vv. 7-11 are one long sentence comprised of a causal clause giving the reason for divine punishment (vv. 7-9 ) and the main clause announcing the punishment (vv. 10-11 ). The translation divides this lengthy sentence for stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “what was right in my eyes.”


text: Heb “you went and you made for yourself other gods, metal [ones], angering me, and you threw me behind your back.”


text: Heb “house.”


text: Heb “and I will cut off from Jeroboam 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 ) is uncertain. For various options see HALOT 871 s.v. עצר 6 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.


text: The traditional view understands the verb בָּעַר ( ba ’ ar ) to mean “burn.” Manure was sometimes used as fuel (see Ezek 4:12, 15 ). However, an alternate view takes בָּעַר as a homonym meaning “sweep away” ( HALOT 146 s.v. II בער ). In this case one might translate, “I will sweep away the dynasty of Jeroboam, just as one sweeps away manure it is gone” (cf. ASV, NASB, TEV). Either metaphor emphasizes the thorough and destructive nature of the coming judgment.


text: The Hebrew text has “belonging to Jeroboam” here.


text: Heb “This is the day. What also now?” The precise meaning of the second half of the statement is uncertain.


text: The elliptical Hebrew text reads literally “and the Lord will strike Israel as a reed sways in the water.”


text: Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 22, 31 ).


text: Heb “the River.” In biblical Hebrew this is a typical reference to the Euphrates River. The name “Euphrates” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “because they made their Asherah poles that anger the Lord ”; or “their images of Asherah”; ASV, NASB “their Asherim”; NCV “they set up idols to worship Asherah.” sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down ( Deut 12:3; 16:21 ; Judg 6:25, 28, 30 ; 2 Kgs 18:4 ).


text: Heb “and he will give [up] Israel.”


text: Heb “went and entered.”


text: Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jeroboam, how he fought and how he ruled, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel?”


text: Heb “lay down with his fathers.”


text: Heb “Rehoboam.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.


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


text: Heb “the city where the Lord chose to place his name from all the tribes of Israel.”


text: Heb “an Ammonite”; the word “woman” is implied.


text: Heb “in the eyes of.”


text: Heb “and they made him jealous more than all which their fathers had done by their sins which they sinned.”


text: The Old Greek translation has “a conspiracy” rather than “male cultic prostitutes.”


text: Heb “they did according to all the abominable acts of the nations.”


text: Heb “runners.”


text: Heb “As for the rest of the events of Rehoboam, and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”


text: In the Hebrew text the name is spelled “Abijam” here and in 1 Kgs 15:1-8 .