1 Raja-raja 18:21

18:21 Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long are you going to be paralyzed by indecision? ¹  If the Lord is the true God, ²  then follow him, but if Baal is, follow him!” But the people did not say a word.

Ezra 4:2

4:2 they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders ³  and said to them, “Let us help you build, ⁴  for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him ⁵  from the time ⁶  of King Esarhaddon ⁷  of Assyria, who brought us here.” ⁸ 

Matius 6:24

6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate ⁹  the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise ¹⁰  the other. You cannot serve God and money. ¹¹ 

[18:21]  ¹ tn Heb “How long are you going to limp around on two crutches?” (see HALOT 762 s.v. סְעִפִּים). In context this idiomatic expression refers to indecision rather than physical disability.

[18:21]  ² tn Heb “the God.”

[4:2]  ³ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.” So also in v. 3.

[4:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “Let us build with you.”

[4:2]  ⁵ tc The translation reads with the Qere, a Qumran MS, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Arabic version וְלוֹ (vÿlo, “and him”) rather than the Kethib of the MT, וְלֹא (vÿlo’, “and not”).

[4:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “days.”

[4:2]  ⁷ sn Esarhaddon was king of Assyria ca. 681-669 b.c.

[4:2]  ⁸ sn The Assyrian policy had been to resettle Samaria with peoples from other areas (cf. 2 Kgs 17:24-34). These immigrants acknowledged Yahweh as well as other deities in some cases. The Jews who returned from the Exile regarded them with suspicion and were not hospitable to their offer of help in rebuilding the temple.

[6:24]  ⁹ sn The contrast between hate and love here is rhetorical. The point is that one will choose the favorite if a choice has to be made.

[6:24]  ¹⁰ tn Or “and treat [the other] with contempt.”

[6:24]  ¹¹ tn Grk “God and mammon.”

[6:24]  sn The term money is used to translate mammon, the Aramaic term for wealth or possessions. The point is not that money is inherently evil, but that it is often misused so that it is a means of evil; see 1 Tim 6:6-10, 17-19. God must be first, not money or possessions.