According to verse 14, God’s punishment on the family of Jeroboam would happen very soon. Now verse 15 states that additional punishment will come upon all of Israel. The reference here is almost certainly to the fall of the northern kingdom, which is recounted in 2 Kgs 17.1-23, and to its exile into Assyria in 722/721 B.C. Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, in fact, translates Israel as “the inhabitants of the kingdom of Israel,” and such a translation is recommended for other languages also. A few interpreters, however, see this as pointing to the exile of the southern kingdom into Babylonia, but this is most unlikely.
The LORD will smite Israel: Some interpreters correct the Hebrew verb rendered smite to read “shake” on the assumption that “shake” fits the context better. This is the basis for the New Jerusalem Bible rendering “Yahweh will make Israel shake, till it quivers like a reed….” However, this correction seems unnecessary and translators are advised to translate the Masoretic Text as it stands. The meaning is that the LORD will punish the people of Israel.
As a reed is shaken in the water: This is an incomplete simile, which Good News Translation completes. The point of comparison seems to be instability, but it is not made explicit in the simile. Probably these words refer to the unstable political situation in the northern kingdom in the following decades. Since these words are a figurative expression used to describe the way in which God would punish the people of Israel, some translators may find it necessary to convey the meaning using a different image. But if this is done, they should ensure that the new image communicates the same meaning as the biblical one.
Root up Israel out of this good land: This expression has to do with taking the people of Israel out of the land in which they had been firmly installed. In languages where the image of uprooting may not be understood or may be seen as unnatural, translators may speak of the LORD “taking away the land from the people” or “expelling the people from the land.” The expression good land may be too general if translated literally in some languages. It refers to a “fertile land” or “prosperous land” (New Jerusalem Bible).
Their fathers refers, of course, to the ancestors of the people of Israel.
Scatter them beyond the Euphrates: The Euphrates is literally “the river.” See the comments on 1 Kgs 4.21. Some translations attempt to show that a specific river is intended by capitalizing “the River” (so New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, La Bible Pléiade, Osty-Trinquet), but many readers will still not know which river is intended, and people who only hear the text read will, of course, not see the capitalization. Some translations indicate in a footnote that “the River” is the Euphrates (so New International Version), but it is better not to rely on footnotes in order to identity this river. It will be better to identify the river more specifically in the text itself as “the Euphrates River” (so Good News Translation, New Living Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). Many readers today will not know where the Euphrates was located, so Bible en français courant may provide a good model with “He will scatter them on the other side of the Euphrates, the river of Babylon.”
The Hebrew words translated beyond the Euphrates (see the discussion on 4.24) may be understood in two different ways: (1) From the perspective of the Hebrew people, these words may refer to the region east of the Euphrates River, and may be an allusion to the exile of the northern kingdom in Assyria or the southern kingdom in Babylonia. (2) Or these words may be understood as referring to the region west of the Euphrates River. This is the perspective of the Mesopotamian empires when referring to Israel and Syria. In this context the first interpretation is more likely correct.
They have made their Asherim: Regarding Asherim (plural of Asherah), which Good News Translation identifies as “idols of the goddess Asherah,” see the comments on 1 Kgs 11.5. Asherah was a goddess worshiped by different names in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Phoenicia, and Syria. A recently discovered inscription seems to suggest that in popular Israelite religion, Asherah was thought to be Yahweh’s consort, that is, his wife or partner.
In the Old Testament Asherah sometimes refers to the Canaanite goddess (1 Kgs 18.19, 2 Kgs 21.7; 23.4). And sometimes it refers to a wooden pole that served as a symbol of the goddess (so here and verse 23; 1 Kgs 16.33; 2 Kgs 17.10, 16; 21.3, 7).
Both the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate usually render this Hebrew name as “grove [of trees].” This is the basis for the King James Version rendering “because they have made their groves.” Most interpreters today, however, understand “Asherah” and Asherim to be objects made by people and not groves of trees. Asherim is translated “sacred poles” (New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible), “poles of Asherah” (Anchor Bible), and “sacred posts” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). But since most readers will not know what function these “sacred poles” had, it will be better to say something like “sacred poles for worshiping the goddess Asherah” (Contemporary English Version).
Provoking the LORD to anger: See verse 9.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .