Go up now: Elijah had already gone to the top of Mount Carmel (verse 42) and now he tells his servant to go to the part of the mountaintop from which he can view the sea. Perhaps this is an instance where the verb Go up is used without any real sense of a change in elevation (see verse 41). The word now may translate the Hebrew particle of entreaty here (see the comments on 1 Kgs 1.12). God’s Word renders it “Please” and Nouvelle Bible Segond has “I beg you.”

Look toward the sea means that the servant was to look westward toward the Mediterranean Sea from where the west winds were blowing the rain clouds.

Go again seven times: These words may be taken entirely as a direct quotation, as in Revised Standard Version, or they may include the command “Go again,” which is followed by a shorthand indication that this action was repeated seven times (so De Vries). New International Version follows the second interpretation by translating the last sentence as “Seven times Elijah said, ‘Go back.’ ” This interpretation seems much more likely to be the intended meaning of the text. In fact, a number of modern versions avoid a direct quotation altogether at this point. Revised English Bible renders the whole obscure expression indirectly as follows: “Seven times Elijah ordered him back.” Good News Translation has “Seven times in all Elijah told him to go and look,” which seems to suggest that the servant went a total of seven times, but the sense seems to be that he went eight times. The number seven here symbolizes completeness.

At the end of this verse the Septuagint has the words “and the servant went again seven times.” It is possible that these words were accidentally omitted from the Hebrew, and a number of modern versions follow the Septuagint here (so Revised English Bible, Peregrino, La Bible Pléiade). Even if translators follow the shorter text of the Masoretic Text here, they may wish to add the words “and the servant went again seven times” for reasons of translation.

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 .