2 Raja-raja 1:16

1:16 Elijah ¹  said to the king, ²  “This is what the Lord says, ‘You sent messengers to seek an oracle from Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. You must think there is no God in Israel from whom you can seek an oracle! ³  Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.’” ⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 7:4

7:4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation, ⁵  and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect ⁶  to the Syrian camp! If they spare us, ⁷  we’ll live; if they kill us – well, we were going to die anyway.” ⁸ 

[1:16]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:16]  ² tn Heb “him”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:16]  ³ tn Heb “Because you sent messengers to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, is there no God in Israel to inquire of his word?”

[1:16]  ⁴ sn For the third time in this chapter we read the Lord’s sarcastic question to king and the accompanying announcement of judgment. The repetition emphasizes one of the chapter’s main themes. Israel’s leaders should seek guidance from their own God, not a pagan deity, for Israel’s sovereign God is the one who controls life and death.

[7:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”

[7:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “fall.”

[7:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “keep us alive.”

[7:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “we will die.” The paraphrastic translation attempts to bring out the logical force of their reasoning.