1 Raja-raja 20:39

20:39 When the king passed by, he called out to the king, “Your servant went out into the heat ¹  of the battle, and then a man turned aside and brought me a prisoner. ²  He told me, ‘Guard this prisoner. If he ends up missing for any reason, ³  you will pay with your life or with a talent ⁴  of silver.’ ⁵ 

1 Raja-raja 20:42

20:42 The prophet ⁶  then said to him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Because you released a man I had determined should die, you will pay with your life and your people will suffer instead of his people.’” ⁷ 

[20:39]  ¹ tn Heb “middle.”

[20:39]  ² tn Heb “man” (also a second time later in this verse).

[20:39]  ³ tn Heb “if being missed, he is missed.” The emphatic infinitive absolute before the finite verbal form lends solemnity to the warning.

[20:39]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 75 pounds of silver.

[20:39]  ⁵ tn Heb “your life will be in place of his life, or a unit of silver you will pay.”

[20:42]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the prophet) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:42]  ⁷ tn Heb “Because you sent away the man of my destruction [i.e., that I determined should be destroyed] from [my/your?] hand, your life will be in place of his life, and your people in place of his people.”