2tn Heb “Get up, change yourself.”

3tn Heb “look, Ahijah the prophet is there, he told me [I would be] king over this nation.”

4tn Heb “take in your hand.”

5tn Heb “and the wife of Jeroboam did so; she arose and went to Shiloh and entered the house of Ahijah.”

6tn Heb “his eyes were set because of his old age.”

7sn Tell her so-and-so. Certainly the Lord gave Ahijah a specific message to give to Jeroboam’s wife (see vv. 6-16), but the author of Kings here condenses the Lord’s message with the words “so-and-so.” For dramatic effect he prefers to have us hear the message from Ahijah’s lips as he speaks to the king’s wife.

8tn Heb “I am sent to you [with] a hard [message].”

9tn 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.

10tn Heb “what was right in my eyes.”

11tn Heb “you went and you made for yourself other gods, metal [ones], angering me, and you threw me behind your back.”

12sn Disaster. There is a wordplay in the Hebrew text. The word translated “disaster” (רָעָה, ra’ah) is from the same root as the expression “you have sinned” in v. 9 (וַתָּרַע [vattara’], from רָעַע, [ra’a’]). Jeroboam’s sins would receive an appropriate punishment.

13tn Heb “house.”

14tn 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 v˙’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.

15tn 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.

16tn The Hebrew text has “belonging to Jeroboam” here.

17tn Heb “house.”

18tn Heb “house.”

19tn Heb “This is the day. What also now?” The precise meaning of the second half of the statement is uncertain.

20tn The elliptical Hebrew text reads literally “and the Lord will strike Israel as a reed sways in the water.”

21tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 22, 31).

22tn 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.

23tn 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).

24tn Heb “and he will give [up] Israel.”

25tn Heb “went and entered.”

26tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord which he spoke.”

27tn 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?”

28tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”

29tn Heb “Rehoboam.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

30map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

31tn Heb “the city where the Lord chose to place his name from all the tribes of Israel.”

32tn Heb “an Ammonite”; the word “woman” is implied.

33tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

34tn Heb “and they made him jealous more than all which their fathers had done by their sins which they sinned.”

35tc The Old Greek translation has “a conspiracy” rather than “male cultic prostitutes.”

36tn Heb “they did according to all the abominable acts of the nations.”

37tn Heb “runners.”

38tn 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?”

39tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”

40tn In the Hebrew text the name is spelled “Abijam” here and in 1 Kgs 15:1-8.