ESV Rendering of 2 Kings 3:16

Disclaimer: This isn't a theological question - it's a Logos resource question. Please keep your answer focused on what resources you'd recommend to investigate this translation question.

My Problem: The ESV renders God's words in 2 Kings 3:16 as: "I will make this dry streambed full of pools." In this translation there is no indication that the hearers are commanded to do anything. Compare that with essentially all the other translations: "Make this valley full of ditches." (NKJV) The hearers are commanded to act in preparation for God's actions.

Why this is a problem: I recently heard a sermon on the passage which included a discussion about how the Lord would bless the armies with as much water as they had prepared room for by digging ditches - then asking the hearers how much room they'd made for God to act in their lives. Reading from the ESV I was perplexed about how the passage could be read like this.

My Question: What resources would you utilize to work through this interesting translation issue?

Thanks!

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Comments

Niko

Maybe Jouon-Muraoka for seeing what kind of verbal usages does inf abs have.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/541951#Comment_541951

NET notes has a good discussion:

The verb (“making”) is an infinitive absolute, which has to be interpreted in light of the context. The translation above takes it in an imperatival sense. The command need not be understood as literal, but as hyperbolic. Telling them to build cisterns is a dramatic way of leading into the announcement that he would miraculously provide water in the desert. Some prefer to translate the infinitive as an imperfect with the Lord as the understood subject, “I will turn this valley [into] many pools.”

David Wilson

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/541953#Comment_541953

To answer your original question, the best discusion of the two potential ways of translation that you mentioned seems to be found in Burney.
Have not seen anything in my collection that provides a better or broader discussion, although we may find this thread reveals more......

AYBC offers the following:

16. This wadi shall produce pools upon pools. Heb. ʿāśô, an infinitive absolute, as in 4:43 and 5:10, conveys the basic sense of the verb; cf. GKC 113dd. The rendering by an imperative in some versions loses the sense of the miraculous; digging of trenches by the army was not the prophet’s intention. See the pointed remarks of Burney.

gēbîm. Traditionally taken as "trenches," they are rather the natural depressions in the wadi bed which fill up when the torrent flows and remain full after the surrounding area dries up. Cf. also Jer 14:3.

Burney provides the most extensive discussion in my collection:
(Burney, C. F. (1903). Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Kings with an Introduction and Appendix. Oxford: Clarendon Press. which is part of https://www.logos.com/product/19089/classic-commentaries-and-studies-on-kings#003 ) and he quotes H. Ewald Syntax of the Hebrew Language of the OT (translated from the 1881 German edition) and argues against the translation in Lucian's recension of the LXX. So Burney prefers: ‘I will make this torrent-bed nothing but cisterns!’ over ‘Make this torrent-bed full of cisterns!’ Burney also refers us to vv. 22, 23, where the phenomenon described must have been produced by the sun shining upon natural and so irregular and wide-spreading pools of water, and not upon artificial and so (presumably) symmetrically shaped trenches.

Ewald (1891 edition) https://www.logos.com/product/6726/syntax-of-the-hebrew-language-of-the-old-testament

ACCS gives an interesting interpretation by Ephrem the Syrian, but sheds no light on the translation issue.

Many commentaries seem to skip verse 16 (perhaps they could not decide how to interpret the context ?)

David Paul

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/542042#Comment_542042

Scripture contains some examples of YHWH following the advice, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." It more often shows Him invoking the active participation of human agents--and this is most often precisely for the purpose of establishing that humans' activity DOES affect their outcome, even as He is the overall Guide.

In this case, I'm inclined to think this case follows the former option. Even with the double repetition of geibh (cisterns or trenches), it seems unlikely that the anti-Moabite coalition would dig enough cisterns to accomplish YHWH's purpose. Whatever they would have done, it would have likely produced results similar to 2 Kgs. 13:14-19, which occurred just a few chapters earlier. But in this case, it seems that YHWH wanted the job done thoroughly, even though at the end of the Moabite decimation (YHWH really didn't like the Moabites very much), he spanks Israel just on general principle (YHWH really didn't like Jehoram very much either).

In the end, I'm not sure anyone can say for sure, but I also don't think getting this one thing wrong in this case is a major faux pas. He is usually pretty clear when He wants and expects our active input. When He chooses to go solo, it is usually something we can't help or harm anyway...although it is never wise to be moving against Him.

My Question: What resources would you utilize to work through this interesting translation issue?

The Bible.

BKMitchell

...The ESV renders God's words in 2 Kings 3:16 as: "I will make this dry streambed full of pools." In this translation there is no indication that the hearers are commanded to do anything. Compare that with essentially all the other translations...

Here are four translations that render this verse very similar to the translation found in the ESV:

(1) "and he said, “Thus said the Lord: This wadi shall be full of pools."

Jewish Publication Society, Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1985), 2 Ki 3:16.

(2) "and he said, “This is what the Lord says: This dry valley will be filled with pools of water!"

Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (3rd ed.; Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2007), 2 Ki 3:16.

(3) "and he said, “Thus has Yahweh declared, ‘Make this riverbed into deep pools."

T. R. Hobbs, 2 Kings (vol. 13; Word Biblical Commentary; Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 29.

And (4)

עָשֹׂה הַנַּחַל הַזֶּה Qal inf.abs. (עָשָׂה I 793; GK 113bb)-def.art.-n.m.s. (636)-def.art.-demons.adj. m.s. (260) "I will make this stream-bed" John Joseph Owens, Analytical Key to the Old Testament (vol. 2; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1989–), 548.

"The pools (Heb “gevim”) are natural sinkholes and fissures in the limestone floor of the wadis that retain large amounts of water after a runoff (cf. Jer. 14:3)"

Adele Berlin, Marc Zvi Brettler, and Michael Fishbane, eds., The Jewish Study Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 731.

Dave Moser

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/542057#Comment_542057

In the end, I'm not sure anyone can say for sure, but I also don't think getting this one thing wrong in this case is a major faux pas.

Thanks for your thoughts David. What do you think about a preacher making a point along the lines of, "God wants you to make room for him to work," from this text then?

And (4)

עָשֹׂה הַנַּחַל הַזֶּה Qal inf.abs. (עָשָׂה I 793; GK 113bb)-def.art.-n.m.s. (636)-def.art.-demons.adj. m.s. (260) "I will make this stream-bed" John Joseph Owens, Analytical Key to the Old Testament (vol. 2; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1989–), 548.

BK - Thanks for your input. Though that last one is actually a witness against the ESV rendering.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/542076#Comment_542076

So Dave, what happened to your question?

Looks to me the text can support the preacher you heard. Unless one proceeds to a theological argument.

David Paul

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/542076#Comment_542076

In the end, I'm not sure anyone can say for sure, but I also don't think getting this one thing wrong in this case is a major faux pas.

Thanks for your thoughts David. What do you think about a preacher making a point along the lines of, "God wants you to make room for him to work," from this text then?

Well, I think that this particular text isn't really clear enough to make either case. Still, I abide by my previous assessment. That said, I think it is pretty easy to find passages that illustrate and support both Exo. 14:14 (watching Him work) and Josh. 6:2, 3, 4, 5 (precisely fulfilling the work He has given us to do). There are very few places where YHWH can be considered to do everything himself. And in each of these two scenarios, obedience is nearly always involved to a greater or lesser extent. Israel still had to walk through the walls of water--any stragglers would have be decimated.

So, I think the main problem with the preacher's presentation is that he could have picked a much clearer illustration of the point he wanted to make. Pro or con, this Kings passage isn't the right tool for the job. That is what I consider the faux pas...but it isn't a big deal, he just could have done better. If he had picked a better example, of which there are plenty enough, then you wouldn't be questioning his comments.

For instance, 2 Kgs. 4:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, is a much better illustration of what the preacher appears to have wanted to convey. The amount of oil was only limited by the effort put into acquiring the containers.

Dave Moser

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/542083#Comment_542083

So Dave, what happened to your question?

Looks to me the text can support the preacher you heard. Unless one proceeds to a theological argument.

I think that's a mistake. If we aren't sure what it means, I feel very uncomfortable giving imperatives based on it. I would never say, "Thus saith the Lord," unless I was absolutely sure that's what he said.

(However, as David Paul pointed out, the context immediately following in chapter 4 has a similar "make room for God's blessing" motif. This might impact the way we interpret the ambiguity of 3:16.)