But now bring me a minstrel: In contrast with the fact that Elisha would have normally ignored Joram completely, he proceeds to make an attempt to help the three disheartened kings. In many languages a contrasting conjunction like But will be required to reveal the change of direction in the story.
The word minstrel is a rather archaic term for “musician” (Good News Translation, New Revised Standard Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, American Bible). Some versions are more precise with “harpist” (New International Version, La Bible du Semeur), “someone who plays the harp” (New Century Version), or “someone who can play the lyre” (New Jerusalem Bible). The Hebrew word for minstrel does, indeed, refer to someone who plays some kind of stringed instrument, but a general expression like “person who makes music” will also be acceptable.
When the minstrel played …: One version of the Old Greek text suggests that this refers to something that happened on this one specific occasion. It adds the words “and they brought to him.” This is the basis for the New English Bible rendering “They fetched a minstrel, and while he was playing….” Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {B} rating to the Masoretic Text and suggests that the second half of this verse does not describe what happened only on this one occasion but rather expresses what happened whenever the musician played. The form of the Hebrew verb rendered played allows this suggestion. According to Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, the meaning is “And it happened whenever the musician played on the lyre that the LORD’s hand came upon him.” Compare also Gray: “for it happened that, when a minstrel played, Yahweh took control of him.” Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament‘s interpretation means that the narrator felt he needed to provide an explanatory comment here that is not part of the narrative chain of events itself. And this, in turn, means that the narrator did not expect his audience would think of prophecy as something that could or should be helped along with a minstrel’s harp! There is a clear contrast here with the alternative, which implies that the procedure, applied here once, was taken for granted or at least condoned by the narrator.
The power of the LORD came upon him is literally “the hand of the LORD was on him.” The wording of Revised Standard Version may give the impression that the power of the LORD came on the musician who was playing rather than on the prophet Elisha. But the meaning of the text is clearly “on Elisha,” and it may be better to replace the pronoun him with the name “Elisha” (Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, New American Bible, Parole de Vie). It was Elisha who received divine power as the musician touched the strings of the instrument. Apparently Elisha fell into some kind of trance when music was played. Bible en français courant says “the power of the Lord seized Elisha.”
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .