2 Kings 3:14

Bible in Basic English (1941)

Then Elisha said, By the life of the Lord of armies whose servant I am, if it was not for the respect I have for Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would not give a look at you, or see you.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלִישָׁ֗ע חַי־יְהוָ֤ה צְבָאוֹת֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָמַ֣דְתִּי לְפָנָ֔יו כִּ֗י לוּלֵ֛י פְּנֵ֛י יְהוֹשָׁפָ֥ט מֶֽלֶךְ־יְהוּדָ֖ה אֲנִ֣י נֹשֵׂ֑א אִם־אַבִּ֥יט אֵלֶ֖יךָ וְאִם־אֶרְאֶֽךָּ׃

Transliteration

wa-yōʾmer ʾĔlîšāʿ, ḥay-YHWH ṣĕbāʾôt whom I-ʿāmadtî before-him, that if-not pĕnê Yĕhôšāpāṭ king-of-Yĕhûdāh I nōśēʾ, if-I-ʾabbîṭ toward-you and-if-I-ʾerʾekkā.

Grammar Details

• *wa-yōʾmer*: conjunction + qal imperfect, 3rd masculine singular - and he said
• *ʾĔlîšāʿ*: proper name - Elisha
• *ḥay-YHWH*: construct relationship - as YHWH lives
• *ṣĕbāʾôt*: masculine plural noun - hosts/armies
• *ʿāmadtî*: qal perfect, 1st common singular - I have stood
• *lûlê*: conditional particle - if not/were it not for
• *pĕnê*: construct plural noun - face of/presence of
• *Yĕhôšāpāṭ*: proper name - Jehoshaphat
• *Yĕhûdāh*: proper name - Judah
• *nōśēʾ*: qal participle, masculine singular - lifting up/regarding
• *ʾabbîṭ*: hiphil imperfect, 1st common singular - I would look
• *ʾerʾekkā*: qal imperfect, 1st common singular with 2nd masculine singular suffix - I would see you

Word Meanings

• *ḥay-YHWH*: as the LORD lives/by the life of the LORD
• *ṣĕbāʾôt*: of hosts/armies/heavenly forces
• *nōśēʾ*: regard/respect/pay attention to
• *ʾabbîṭ*: look at/pay attention to
• *ʾerʾekkā*: see you/notice you/acknowledge you

Referenced Verses

• 1 Kgs 17:1 : 1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, By the living Lord, the God of Israel, whose servant I am, there will be no dew or rain in these years, but only at my word.
• 2 Kgs 5:16 : 16 But he said, By the life of the Lord whose servant I am, I will take nothing from you. And he did his best to make him take it but he would not.
• 2 Chr 17:3-9 : 3 And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he went in the early ways of his father, not turning to the Baals, 4 But turning to the God of his father and keeping his laws, and not doing as Israel did. 5 So the Lord made his kingdom strong; and all Judah gave offerings to Jehoshaphat, and he had great wealth and honour. 6 His heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord; and he went so far as to take away the high places and the wood pillars out of Judah. 7 In the third year of his rule he sent Benhail and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nethanel and Micaiah, his captains, as teachers into the towns of Judah; 8 And with them, Shemaiah and Nethaniah and Zebadiah and Asahel and Shemiramoth and Jehonathan and Adonijah and Tobijah and Tob-adonijah, the Levites; and Elishama and Jehoram the priests. 9 And they gave teaching in Judah and had the book of the law of the Lord with them; they went through all the towns of Judah teaching the people.
• 2 Chr 19:3-4 : 3 But still there is some good in you, for you have put away the wood pillars out of the land, and have given your heart to the worship of God. 4 And Jehoshaphat was living in Jerusalem; and he went out again among the people, from Beer-sheba to the hill-country of Ephraim, guiding them back to the Lord, the God of their fathers.
• Ps 15:4 : 4 Who gives honour to those who have the fear of the Lord, turning away from him who has not the Lord's approval. He who takes an oath against himself, and makes no change.
• Jer 1:18 : 18 For see, this day have I made you a walled town, and an iron pillar, and walls of brass, against all the land, against the kings of Judah, against its captains, against its priests, and against the people of the land.
• Dan 5:17-23 : 17 Then Daniel made answer and said to the king, Keep your offerings for yourself, and give your rewards to another; but I, after reading the writing to the king, will give him the sense of it. 18 As for you, O King, the Most High God gave to Nebuchadnezzar, your father, the kingdom and great power and glory and honour: 19 And because of the great power he gave him, all peoples and nations and languages were shaking in fear before him: some he put to death and others he kept living, at his pleasure, lifting up some and putting others down as it pleased him. 20 But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became hard with pride, he was put down from his place as king, and they took his glory from him: 21 And he was sent out from among the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts', and he was living with the asses of the fields; he had grass for his food like the oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he was certain that the Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men, and gives power over it to anyone at his pleasure. 22 And you, his son, O Belshazzar, have not kept your heart free from pride, though you had knowledge of all this; 23 But you have been lifting yourself up against the Lord of heaven, and they have put the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your women, have taken wine in them; and you have given praise to gods of silver and gold, of brass and iron and wood and stone, who are without the power of seeing or hearing, and without knowledge: and to the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not given glory;
• Matt 22:16 : 16 And they sent to him their disciples, with the Herodians, saying, Master, we see that you are true, and that you are teaching the true way of God, and have no fear of anyone, because you have no respect for a man's position.
• 1 Kgs 18:15 : 15 And Elijah said, By the life of the Lord of armies, whose servant I am, I will certainly let him see me today.
• 1 Kgs 21:20 : 20 And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you come face to face with me, O my hater? And he said, I have come to you because you have given yourself up to do evil in the eyes of the Lord.
• 1 Sam 15:26-31 : 26 And Samuel said to Saul, I will not go back with you: for you have put away from you the word of the Lord, and the Lord has put you from your place as king over Israel. 27 And when Samuel was turning round to go away, Saul took the skirt of his robe in his hand, and the cloth came away. 28 And Samuel said to him, The Lord has taken away the kingdom of Israel from you this day by force, and has given it to a neighbour of yours who is better than you. 29 And further, the Glory of Israel will not say what is false, and his purpose may not be changed: for he is not a man, whose purpose may be changed. 30 Then he said, Great is my sin: but still, give me honour now before the heads of my people and before Israel, and come back with me so that I may give worship to the Lord your God. 31 So Samuel went back after Saul, and Saul gave worship to the Lord.
• 1 Kgs 14:5-9 : 5 And the Lord had said to Ahijah, The wife of Jeroboam is coming to get news from you about her son, who is ill; give her such and such an answer; for she will make herself seem to be another woman. 6 Then Ahijah, hearing the sound of her footsteps coming in at the door, said, Come in, O wife of Jeroboam; why do you make yourself seem like another? for I am sent to you with bitter news. 7 Go, say to Jeroboam, These are the words of the Lord, the God of Israel: Though I took you from among the people, lifting you up to be a ruler over my people Israel, 8 And took the kingdom away by force from the seed of David and gave it to you, you have not been like my servant David, who kept my orders, and was true to me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes. 9 But you have done evil more than any before you, and have made for yourself other gods, and images of metal, moving me to wrath, and turning your back on me. 10 So I will send evil on the line of Jeroboam, cutting off from his family every male child, those who are shut up and those who go free in Israel; the family of Jeroboam will be brushed away like a man brushing away waste till it is all gone. 11 Those of the family of Jeroboam who come to death in the town, will become food for the dogs; and those on whom death comes in the open country, will be food for the birds of the air; for the Lord has said it. 12 Up, then! go back to your house; and in the hour when your feet go into the town, the death of the child will take place. 13 And all Israel will put his body to rest, weeping over him, because he only of the family of Jeroboam will be put into his resting-place in the earth; for of all the family of Jeroboam, in him only has the Lord, the God of Israel, seen some good. 14 And the Lord will put up a king over Israel who will send destruction on the family of Jeroboam in that day; 15 And even now the hand of the Lord has come down on Israel, shaking it like a river-grass in the water; and, uprooting Israel from this good land, which he gave to their fathers, he will send them this way and that on the other side of the River; because they have made for themselves images, moving the Lord to wrath. 16 And he will give Israel up because of the sins which Jeroboam has done and made Israel do. 17 Then Jeroboam's wife got up and went away and came to Tirzah; and when she came to the doorway of the house, death came to the child. 18 And all Israel put his body to rest, weeping over him, as the Lord had said by his servant Ahijah the prophet.