translation_id: net-engnet

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “and they lived three years without war between Aram and Israel.”


text: The word “visit” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “Do you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us, and we hesitate to take it from the hand of the king of Aram?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course, you must know!”


text: Heb “Like me, like you; like my people, like your people; like my horses; like your horses.”


text: Heb “and Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel.”


text: Heb “Should I go against Ramoth Gilead for war or should I refrain?”


text: 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 .


text: Heb “to seek the Lord from him.”


text: Or “hate.”


text: The words “his name is” are supplied for stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “were sitting, a man on his throne.”


text: For location see Map2-B1 ; Map4-D3 ; Map5-E2 ; Map6-A4 ; Map7-C1 .


text: Heb “the words of the prophets are [with] one mouth good for the king.”


text: Heb “let your words be like the word of each of them and speak good.”


text: Or “swear an oath by.”


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


text: Heb “and fall.”


text: Heb “the spirit.” The significance of the article prefixed to רוּחַ ( ruakh ) is uncertain, but it could contain a clue as to this spirit’s identity, especially when interpreted in light of v. 24 . It is certainly possible, and probably even likely, that the article is used in a generic or dramatic sense and should be translated, “a spirit.” In the latter case it would show that this spirit was vivid and definite in the mind of Micaiah the storyteller. However, if one insists that the article indicates a well-known or universally known spirit, the following context provides a likely referent. Verse 24 tells how Zedekiah slapped Micaiah in the face and then asked sarcastically, “Which way did the spirit from the Lord ( רוּחַ־יְהוָה , [ ruakh-Yahweh ], Heb “the spirit of the Lord ”) go when he went from me to speak to you?” When the phrase “the spirit of the Lord ” refers to the divine spirit (rather than the divine breath or mind, Isa 40:7, 13 ) elsewhere, the spirit energizes an individual or group for special tasks or moves one to prophesy. This raises the possibility that the deceiving spirit of vv. 20-23 is the same as the divine spirit mentioned by Zedekiah in v. 24 . This would explain why the article is used on רוּחַ ; he can be called “the spirit” because he is the well-known spirit who energizes the prophets.


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


text: 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.”


text: Heb “the bread of affliction and the water of affliction.”


text: Heb “come in peace.” So also in v. 28 .


text: Heb “Listen.”


text: The Hebrew verbal forms could be imperatives (“Disguise yourself and enter”), but this would make no sense in light of the immediately following context. The forms are better interpreted as infinitives absolute functioning as cohortatives. See IBHS 594 §35.5.2a. Some prefer to emend the forms to imperfects.


text: Heb “small or great.”


text: Heb “now a man drew a bow in his innocence” (i.e., with no specific target in mind, or at least without realizing his target was the king of Israel).


text: Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “camp.”


text: Heb “and the king died and he came to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria.”


text: Heb “now the prostitutes bathed.”


text: Heb “As for the rest of the acts of Ahab and all that he did, and the house of ivory which he built and all the cities which he built, 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: For location see Map5-B1 ; Map6-F3 ; Map7-E2 ; Map8-F2 ; Map10-B3 ; JP1-F4 ; JP2-F4 ; JP3-F4 ; JP4-F4 .


text: Heb “he walked in all the way of Asa his father and did not turn from it, doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord. ”


text: Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jehoshaphat, and his strength that he demonstrated and how he fought, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”


text: Heb “and the rest of the male cultic prostitutes who were left in the days of Asa his father, he burned from the land.” Some understand the verb בִּעֵר ( bi ’ er ) to mean “sweep away” here rather than “burn.” See the note at 1 Kgs 14:10 . sn Despite Asa’s opposition to these male cultic prostitutes (see 1 Kgs 15:12 ) some of them had managed to remain in the land. Jehoshaphat finished what his father had started.


text: Heb “a fleet of Tarshish [ships].” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to the distant western port of Tarshish.


text: Heb “Let my servants go with your servants in the fleet.”


text: Heb “with his fathers in the city of his father.”


text: For location see Map2-B1 ; Map4-D3 ; Map5-E2 ; Map6-A4 ; Map7-C1 .


text: Heb “in the eyes of.”


text: Or “way.”


text: Heb “and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam son of Nebat who made Israel sin.”


text: Heb “he served Baal and bowed down to him.”


text: Heb “according to all which his father had done.”