2 Raja-raja 7:4

7:4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation, ¹  and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect ²  to the Syrian camp! If they spare us, ³  we’ll live; if they kill us – well, we were going to die anyway.” ⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 10:15

10:15 When he left there, he met ⁵  Jehonadab, son of Rekab, who had been looking for him. ⁶  Jehu greeted him and asked, ⁷  “Are you as committed to me as I am to you?” ⁸  Jehonadab answered, “I am!” Jehu replied, “If so, give me your hand.” ⁹  So he offered his hand and Jehu ¹⁰  pulled him up into the chariot.

[7:4]  ¹ tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”

[7:4]  ² tn Heb “fall.”

[7:4]  ³ tn Heb “keep us alive.”

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

[10:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “found.”

[10:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he went from there and found Jehonadab son of Rekab [who was coming] to meet him.”

[10:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he blessed him and said to him.”

[10:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “Is there with your heart [what is] right, as my heart [is] with your heart?”

[10:15]  ⁹ tc Heb “Jehonadab said, ‘There is and there is. Give your hand.’” If the text is allowed to stand, there are two possible ways to understand the syntax of וָיֵשׁ (vayesh), “and there is”: (1) The repetition of יֵשׁ (yesh, “there is and there is”) could be taken as emphatic, “indeed I am.” In this case, the entire statement could be taken as Jehonadab’s words or one could understand the words “give your hand” as Jehu’s. In the latter case the change in speakers is unmarked. (2) וָיֵשׁ begins Jehu’s response and has a conditional force, “if you are.” In this case, the transition in speakers is unmarked. However, it is possible that וַיֹּאמֶר (vayyo’mer), “and he said,” or וַיֹּאמֶר יֵהוּא (vayyo’mer yehu), “and Jehu said,” originally appeared between יֵשׁ and וָיֵשׁ and has accidentally dropped from the text by homoioarcton (note that both the proposed וַיֹּאמֶר and וָיֵשׁ begin with vav, ו). The present translation assumes such a textual reconstruction; it is supported by the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate.

[10:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.