Core Glossary
Core Glossary: 2 Kings (French)
0. Governing Decision: The Divine Name YHWH
| Term | Hebrew (translit.) | LXX Greek (translit.) | French rendering | Risk | First ref. | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LORD (YHWH, divine name) | יהוה (YHWH) | κύριος (kyrios) | le SEIGNEUR (small capitals) | Critical | 2 Kgs 1:3 (and pervasive) | New term, required before any Phase 2 work. Reuses baseline’s “Seigneur” root (consistent with baseline lord/kyrios entry) but typographically marked with small capitals to distinguish the covenant name YHWH from feudal-resonant “Seigneur” used Christologically in the NT (Romans). Rejected alternatives: “l’Éternel” (Segond-marked, denominationally partisan-sounding to Catholic/secular readers), “Yahvé” (BJ Catholic convention, breaks lexical consistency with baseline’s Romans “Seigneur,” and reads as an unfamiliar name to non-specialist readers). If small caps are unavailable in a given output format, use “le Seigneur (YHWH)” on first occurrence per chapter as fallback. |
1. Terms Reused Exactly from the Romans Baseline
| Term | Baseline French | Risk (baseline) | 2 Kings first ref. | 2 Kings-specific note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | Dieu | Medium | 1:3 | Reuse exactly; distinguish from le SEIGNEUR per §0 above when the Hebrew is specifically YHWH vs. generic Elohim. |
| prophet | prophète | Low | 1:9 | Reuse exactly; do NOT extend “voyant” (see seer below) onto this term. |
| prophecy | prophétie | Low | 17:23 (fulfillment formula) | Reuse exactly. |
| covenant | alliance | Medium/High | 11:4, 17:15 | Reuse exactly; 2 Kings adds “covenant renewal ceremony” nuance (chs. 11, 23) — see below. |
| law / the Law | loi / la Loi | High | 17:13, 22:8 | Reuse exactly; capitalize “la Loi” for the Mosaic Torah, esp. “le livre de la Loi” (ch. 22). |
| sin | péché | Medium | 17:7 | Reuse exactly; 2 Kings’ idolatry catalog requires several sin-adjacent terms beyond baseline’s single entry (see §3). |
| holy | saint | Medium | (implicit — holy vessels, holy city) | Reuse exactly where occurring. |
| glory | gloire | Medium | (implicit, angel of the LORD narratives) | Reuse exactly. |
| father | Père | Medium | 13:23 (“for the sake of…”, covenant with the fathers) | Reuse exactly for God-as-Father contexts; most 2 Kings occurrences of “father(s)” are ancestral, not the divine-Fatherhood sense — use plain “pères/ancêtres” there instead. |
| David | David | Low | 17:21 | Reuse exactly. |
| Israel | Israël | Medium | 17:6 | Reuse exactly; 2 Kings 17 is the primary text requiring the historical (not modern-political) referent clarification the baseline already flags. |
| messiah | Messie | Critical | (typological only — see anoint, below) | Reuse exactly; do NOT apply to royal anointing of Israelite/Judahite kings (Jehu, Joash, etc.) — see new term anoint (royal). |
| election | élection | High | (implicit — God’s continued choice of David’s line, ch. 17:18ff, ch. 25) | Reuse exactly if this doctrine is made explicit in teaching material. |
| lord (Christological) | Seigneur | Critical/High | N/A in 2 Kings narrative (no NT confession) | Not directly invoked by 2 Kings’ narrative content but its baseline rendering is the reason §0’s typographic solution (“le SEIGNEUR” small caps) is required, to avoid collision. |
2. New Terms — Divine Speech, Prophetic Office, and Miraculous Power
| Term | Hebrew (translit.) | LXX (translit.) | Literal meaning | French | Risk | First ref. | Doctrine | Notes / rejected alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| man of God | ish ha-elohim | anthrōpos tou theou | man of the God[head] | homme de Dieu | Medium | 1:9 | Prophetic Ministry | Title, not generic praise; capitalize/treat consistently. |
| word of the LORD | devar YHWH | rhēma/logos kyriou | word of YHWH | parole du SEIGNEUR | High | 1:17 | Inspiration; Prophetic Ministry | Vehicle of prophetic authority; consistency required across all 25 chapters. |
| seer | chozeh | horōn | one who sees [visions] | voyant (always paired with “prophète”) | High | 17:13 | Prophetic Ministry; God’s Patience | Baseline rejected “voyant” for navi/prophet (fortune-teller risk); chozeh is a distinct Hebrew office-word for which “voyant” is the standard French Bible rendering — must never appear unpaired/unglossed to avoid the same fortune-teller drift. |
| inquire of / consult | darash | eperōtan/zētein | to seek, inquire | consulter | Medium | 1:2 | Prophetic Ministry | Legitimacy determined entirely by object (YHWH vs. Baal-zebub vs. mediums); flag context every time. |
| sign / wonder | ot / mofet | sēmeion / teras | sign; wonder/portent | signe / prodige | Medium | 1:10 (fire), 4:x (multiple) | Prophetic Ministry and Miraculous Power | Authenticating, not magical-trick; connect to baseline’s power_of_god/puissance de Dieu concept. |
| chariot of fire / horses of fire | merkevet esh / susei esh | harma pyros / hippoi pyros | chariot of fire / horses of fire | char de feu / chevaux de feu | Medium | 2:11 | Prophetic Ministry and Miraculous Power | Real theophanic event, not legend; pairs with 6:17’s “opened eyes” (unseen angelic army). |
| double portion (of spirit) | pi-shnayim (be-ruchakha) | dipla … en pneumati sou | double share, in your spirit | une double portion de ton esprit | High | 2:9 | Prophetic Ministry and Miraculous Power | ”Esprit” here = prophetic-empowering spirit on a specific office-holder; keep distinct from baseline’s Esprit Saint (Trinity Person) without severing canonical continuity. |
| mantle | adderet | mēlōtē | cloak/robe | manteau | Medium | 2:8 | Prophetic Ministry | Symbol of transferred prophetic office. |
| opened eyes | paqach einayim | diēnoixen tous ophthalmous | opened the eyes | ouvrir les yeux | Medium | 6:17, 6:20 | Prophetic Ministry and Miraculous Power | Idiom for spiritual perception of unseen divine reality, not only literal sight. |
| restore to life | chayah | anezēsen | to live again | revenir à la vie | High | 4:35, 13:21 | Prophetic Ministry and Miraculous Power | Must be kept distinct from baseline’s Critical résurrection (final, bodily resurrection of Christ/the dead) — this is a real but non-eschatological restoration to mortal life. |
| angel of the LORD | mal’akh YHWH | angelos kyriou | messenger of YHWH | l’ange du SEIGNEUR | High | 19:35 | Prophetic Ministry and Miraculous Power | Specific divine agent of judgment/deliverance; avoid conflating with generic French guardian-angel folk piety. |
| trust | batach | pepoithen | to trust, rely, feel secure | se confier en / faire confiance à | Medium | 18:5 | Faith (bridges to baseline foi) | Reliance/security nuance, distinct shade from baseline’s foi (personal trust/belief); Hezekiah’s positive counter-example to Ahaz’s/Israel’s political alliance-seeking. |
3. New Terms — Idolatry, Sin, and Covenant Infidelity
| Term | Hebrew (translit.) | LXX (translit.) | Literal meaning | French | Risk | First ref. | Doctrine | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| did evil/right in the eyes of the LORD (formula) | asah ha-ra/ha-tov be’einei YHWH | epoiēsen to ponēron/agathon enōpion kyriou | did the evil/good in the eyes of YHWH | ”il fit ce qui est mal/bien aux yeux du SEIGNEUR” | High | 3:2 (and pervasive) | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Central evaluative refrain; must be verbatim-consistent every occurrence across all 25 chapters. |
| exile / carry away | galah / higlah | apōkisen | to go/cause to go into exile | exil / exiler, emmener en exil | Critical | 15:29 (first Assyrian deportation); climactic at 17:6, 25:11 | Covenant Judgment and the Exile | Must never soften into neutral “migration/déplacement” — the doctrine’s namesake term; retains forced, judicial, covenant-consequence force throughout. |
| removed from his presence/sight | hesir/heser me’al panav | apestēsen apo prosōpou autou | removed from before his face | écarter/retrancher de devant sa face | Critical | 17:18, 17:20, 23:27 | Covenant Judgment and the Exile | Relational banishment language, not mere geography; parallels Eden expulsion. |
| feared other gods | yare (elohim acherim) | ephobēthēsan theous heterous | feared other gods | craindre (d’autres dieux) | High | 17:7 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Same French verb as legitimate “craindre le SEIGNEUR” — disambiguate by object/context every time. |
| high places | bamah / bamot | hypsē / bōmoi | high place(s) | hauts lieux | High | 12:3 (implicit), 17:9 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Culturally opaque; requires explanatory gloss (open-air idolatrous shrines) on first occurrence. |
| pillars / Asherah(-pole) | matzevah / asherah | stēlai / alsos | standing stone; goddess/cult-pole | stèles; Ashéra (transliterated proper name) | Medium | 17:10 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Transliterate “Ashéra”; no French cultural equivalent. |
| idols (pejorative) | gillulim | eidōla/bdelygmata | ”dung-things” (contemptuous) | idoles | Medium | 17:12 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Standard rendering loses the pejorative force; consider intensifying gloss in teaching contexts. |
| provoke to anger | hikh’is | parōrgisan | to make angry | irriter le SEIGNEUR / provoquer sa colère | Medium | 17:11 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Personal, relational, covenant-lawsuit register, not capricious wrath. |
| despise / reject | ma’as | apedokimasan | to reject with contempt | mépriser / rejeter | High | 17:15, 17:20 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Same root used of Israel rejecting God (v.15) and God rejecting Israel (v.20) — deliberate reciprocity; preserve in both directions. |
| went after emptiness / became empty | halakh acharei hevel / yehbalu | eporeuthēsan opisō tōn mataiōn | walked after vapor; became vain | ”allèrent après ce qui est vain, et devinrent vains” | Medium | 17:15 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Preserve wordplay: worship of emptiness produces emptiness in the worshiper. |
| molten images / calves | massekhah / agalim | chōneuta / damaleis | cast image(s); calves | images de fonte / veaux (d’or) | Medium | 17:16 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Echoes Exodus 32 and 1 Kings 12 (Jeroboam); gloss for low-OT-literacy readers. |
| host of heaven | tzeva ha-shamayim | stratia tou ouranou | army of the heavens | l’armée du ciel (= les astres) | High | 17:16 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Astral worship, NOT angelic hosts; clarify to avoid confusion with legitimate “armées célestes” devotional imagery. |
| Baal | Ba’al | Baal | ”lord/master” (deity name) | Baal (transliterated) | Low/Medium | 1:2, 17:16 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Proper noun; note plural “les Baals” for local cult variants where relevant. |
| made [children] pass through the fire | he’evir ba-esh | diēgagon en pyri | caused to pass through the fire | ”faire passer [ses enfants] par le feu” | Critical | 16:3 (first occurrence); reused 17:17, 21:6, abolished 23:10 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Euphemism for child sacrifice to Molech; MANDATORY gloss on first and every occurrence — never softened to a purification/blessing ritual. |
| divination and omens | qesem / nachesh | emanteuonto / oiōnizonto | divination; omen-reading | divination et pratiques magiques | Medium | 17:17, 21:6 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Occult alternative to the true prophetic word. |
| mediums and necromancers | ov / yidde’oni | engastrimythous / gnōstas | spirit-channeler; “knowing one” | évoquer les morts / spiritisme et divination | High | 21:6 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Contemporary relevance: live cultural phenomenon (voyance, spiritisme) in secular France; frame pastorally. |
| walked in the way of | halakh be-derekh | eporeuthē en hodō | walked in the road/way of | ”marcher dans la voie de…” | Medium | 8:18 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Stock idiom for imitated behavioral/religious pattern, positive or negative; keep consistent. |
| syncretistic fear of the LORD | yare et YHWH + avad elohim acherim | ephobounto ton kyrion + elatreuon theois | feared the LORD and served [other] gods | ”craignaient le SEIGNEUR, et servaient en même temps leurs propres dieux” | High | 17:33, 17:41 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Must read as condemned contradiction, not commendable mixed piety. |
4. New Terms — Covenant, Law, Prophetic Warning, and Reform
| Term | Hebrew (translit.) | LXX (translit.) | Literal meaning | French | Risk | First ref. | Doctrine | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| warned/testified (covenant lawsuit) | he’id | diemartyrato | testified/warned solemnly | avertir solennellement / témoigner | High | 17:13 | God’s Patience through Repeated Prophetic Warning | Root of “testimony” (edut); covenant-lawsuit register. |
| turn (repent) | shuv | apostraphēte | to turn/return | ”se détourner de ses mauvaises voies” / revenir (au SEIGNEUR) | High | 17:13 | God’s Patience through Repeated Prophetic Warning | Avoid “se convertir” as primary rendering — too Catholic-sacramental-process-marked; concrete, behavioral turning, not only inward sentiment. |
| commandments / statutes / the Law (triad) | mitzvot / chuqqot / torah | entolai / dikaiōmata / nomos | commandments; statutes; the Law | commandements / prescriptions (statuts) / la Loi | High | 17:13 | God’s Patience; Josiah’s Reforms | la Loi = baseline reuse; keep triad wording consistent whenever it recurs. |
| would not listen / stiffened the neck | lo shame’u / hiqshu et orpam | ouk ēkousan / esklērynan ton nōton | did not hear/obey; hardened the neck | ”ils ne voulurent pas écouter” / “s’endurcirent, rebelles” | Medium | 17:14 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Idiom of stubborn refusal (ox-yoke image); natural French equivalent acceptable per idiom-handling rule. |
| did not believe | lo he’eminu | ouk episteusan | did not believe/trust | ”ils ne crurent pas” | Medium | 17:14 | Faith (bridges to baseline foi) | Names unbelief as root cause, not only disobedience. |
| as he had spoken by his servants the prophets (fulfillment formula) | ka’asher diber be-yad avadav ha-nevi’im | kathōs elalēsen en cheiri tōn doulōn autou tōn prophētōn | as he had spoken by the hand of his servant-prophets | ”comme il l’avait annoncé par ses serviteurs les prophètes” | High | 17:23 | Fulfillment of Prophecy (cross-references baseline doctrine); God’s Patience | Structural link between prophetic warning and historical fulfillment; consistency required at every recurrence (also ch. 21:10, 24:2). |
| until this day | ad hayom hazeh | heōs tēs hēmeras tautēs | until this day | ”jusqu’à ce jour” | Low | 17:23 | Covenant Judgment and the Exile | Narrator’s-present formula; marks exile as unresolved at time of writing. |
| Book of the Law | sefer ha-torah | to biblion tou nomou | the book/scroll of the Law | le livre de la Loi | High | 22:8 | Josiah’s Reforms and the Rediscovered Law | la Loi baseline reuse; literal, physical, rediscovered scroll — doctrinal center of this named doctrine. |
| humble oneself (heart softened) | kana’ levav | ēleēthē hē kardia sou | heart humbled/softened | s’humilier / avoir le cœur humilié | High | 22:19 | Hope amid Judgment; Josiah’s Reforms | Personal repentance mitigates but does not cancel corporate judgment already set (ch. 23:26-27) — preserve this precise, delicate balance. |
| Passover | Pesach | to pascha | Passover | la Pâque | High | 23:21 | Josiah’s Reforms and the Rediscovered Law | Orthographic trap: use feminine singular “la Pâque” (OT/Jewish feast), never “Pâques” (Christian Easter). Mandatory Phase 2 QA check. |
| covenant renewal (ceremony) | berit + edut | diathēkē + martyrion | covenant + testimony | renouvellement de l’alliance | High | 11:17; climactic 23:3 | Josiah’s Reforms and the Rediscovered Law; Covenant Judgment | alliance baseline reuse; ceremony-concept new. |
| Topheth / Molech | Topheth / Molekh | Tapheth / Moloch | place name; deity name | Topheth / Molek (transliterated) | Medium | 23:10 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Proper nouns for the child-sacrifice site/deity; abolished under Josiah. |
| ”no king like Josiah” vs. judgment not reversed | (superlative formula) vs. lo yashuv chароn af YHWH | — vs. ouk apestrephen kyrios | — | reuse formula; Risk: Critical for the v.25/v.26-27 pairing | 23:25, 23:26-27 | Hope amid Judgment; Josiah’s Reforms | Sharpest textual tension in the book between individual righteousness and corporate consequence; must not be resolved simplistically in teaching material. |
5. New Terms — Kingship, Priesthood, and Sacrifice
| Term | Hebrew (translit.) | LXX (translit.) | Literal meaning | French | Risk | First ref. | Doctrine | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| priest (OT office) | kohen | hiereus | priest | sacrificateur (preferred) / prêtre (with mandatory gloss) | Critical | 11:9 (Jehoiada), 22:8 (Hilkiah) | Josiah’s Reforms; Prophetic Ministry | ”Prêtre” overwhelmingly evokes ordained Catholic sacramental clergy in modern French; historic Protestant Segond convention uses “sacrificateur” for the OT Levitical office precisely to avoid this collision (parallel to baseline’s saints/Église collision handling). Recommend “sacrificateur” as primary term for this curriculum; if “prêtre” is used for register reasons, mandatory clarifying gloss required. |
| anoint (royal) | mashach | echrisen | to anoint (with oil) | oindre (verbe) / onction (nom) | High | 9:6 (Jehu), 11:12 (Joash) | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence (kingship); typologically related to Messianic Promise | MUST NOT be rendered or conflated with baseline’s Critical Messie entry; keep “onction royale” distinct from “le Messie” while permitting a typological teaching note. |
| zeal (for the LORD) | qin’ah | zēlos | zeal, jealousy | zèle | Medium | 10:16 | Prophetic Ministry; Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Jehu’s zeal is textually praised yet later prophetically qualified (Hosea 1:4) — avoid uncomplicated-hero framing. |
| vengeance / avenge | naqam | ekzētein to haima | to seek out blood; avenge | vengeance / venger | Medium | 9:7 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Judicial, God-authorized register, not human vendetta. |
| repair/restore the house of the LORD | chizzeq et beit YHWH | ekrataiōsan ton oikon kyriou | strengthen/restore the house of YHWH | réparer/restaurer la maison du SEIGNEUR | Medium | 12:6 | Josiah’s Reforms and the Rediscovered Law (pattern precedent) | Precedent pattern for Josiah’s larger-scale reform. |
| house of the LORD / Temple | beit YHWH | oikos kyriou | house of YHWH | la maison du SEIGNEUR / le Temple | Medium | 12:6, 25:9 | Josiah’s Reforms; Covenant Judgment and the Exile | Distinguish from baseline’s Église (NT body of Christ) — physical Jerusalem building only; note interesting convergence/confusion risk with French Protestants’ own use of “temple” for their meeting-house (cf. baseline church note) — clarify referent as the ancient Jerusalem Temple specifically. |
| burnt offering | olah | holokautōma | ”that which goes up [in smoke]“ | sacrifice / offrande (holocauste) | Medium | 3:27 (Moabite) | (background sacrificial vocabulary) | Chapter 3 occurrence is a pagan Moabite act, not Mosaic-sanctioned; clarify referent. |
| vessels of the house of the LORD | kelei beit YHWH | skeuē oikou kyriou | vessels/implements of the house of YHWH | les objets/ustensiles de la maison du SEIGNEUR | Medium | 24:13 | Covenant Judgment and the Exile | Physical sign of covenant humiliation, prefiguring ch. 25’s total destruction. |
| the measuring line and plummet | qav u-mishqolet | kanōn kai stathmē | measuring cord and plumb-weight | cordeau et fil à plomb | Low/Medium | 21:13 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Metaphor for exact, impartial standard of judgment. |
| torn (the kingdom) | qara | apespasen | to tear, rend | arracher / déchirer | Medium | 17:21 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Echoes 1 Kings 11:30-31 (Ahijah’s torn garment sign); traces exile’s roots to the founding schism. |
| blot out the name | machah shem | exaleiphai to onoma | to erase/wipe out the name | effacer le nom | High | 14:27 | God’s Patience through Repeated Prophetic Warning; Hope amid Judgment | Explicit statement of restrained mercy amid decline. |
| for the sake of his covenant (mercy formula) | lema’an brito | dia tēn diathēkēn autou | for the sake of his covenant | ”à cause de son alliance” | Medium | 13:23 | Hope amid Judgment | alliance baseline reuse; mercy grounded in covenant faithfulness, not merit. |
| tribe of Judah only remained (remnant note) | lo nish’ar zulati shevet Yehudah | plēn skēptron Iouda monōtaton | none remained except the tribe of Judah | ”il ne resta que la tribu de Juda seule” | High | 17:18 | Hope amid Judgment | Doctrinally load-bearing seed of the book’s closing hope motif; must not be treated as incidental detail. |
| vassal / tribute | eved / minchah | doulos / dōra | servant; gift/tribute | vassal / tribut | Low | 17:3 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence (political backdrop) | Transparent political-economic term. |
| treachery / conspiracy | qesher | athetēsis (concept) | plot, rebellion | conspiration / trahison | Low | 17:4 | Fall of Israel/Judah as Covenant Consequence | Political-level mirror of covenant-level treachery. |
| blasphemy | cheref / gidef | ōneidisen / blasphēmēsai | to reproach/blaspheme | blasphème / outrage | Medium | 18:35 | Prophetic Ministry and Miraculous Power (vindication of God’s honor) | Direct affront to God’s honor, not mere rhetoric. |
| angel of the LORD | (see §2) | — | — | — | — | — | (cross-listed above) | — |
6. Cross-Reference Notes for Phase 2
- Every occurrence of “the LORD” in the source English must be checked against Hebrew: if YHWH → le SEIGNEUR (small caps, §0); if Elohim/generic “God” → Dieu (baseline reuse).
- “Voyant” may only render chozeh (“seer”), paired with “prophète,” never as a substitute for navi (“prophet”) — direct interaction with a baseline forbidden-substitution concern.
- “Exil/exiler” and “faire passer par le feu” are the two highest-stakes new Critical-risk terms in this curriculum and require mandatory human theologian review at every occurrence, per the doctrine risk registry conventions established in the Romans baseline.
- “La Pâque” vs. “Pâques” is a mandatory automated QA check (orthographic, not merely doctrinal).
- “Sacrificateur” vs. “prêtre” for OT kohen should be decided once, at the Phase 1 Step 8/curriculum level, and applied consistently for the whole 2 Kings curriculum to avoid inconsistent Catholic-clergy conflation risk across lessons.
- “Onction/oindre” (royal anointing) must never collapse into baseline’s “Messie” — flag any back-translation returning “Messie” for a 2 Kings royal-anointing segment as an immediate error.
This glossary extends, and must be loaded alongside, the Romans baseline translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json. All new terms above require formal addition to those two files (with version increment) before any Phase 2 segment translation of 2 Kings begins.
Critical Risk Terms
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messie
Transliteration: Messie
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Original: מָשִׁיחַ
Category: Christology
The Anointed One fulfilling OT promise, not one figure among several. (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: this exact word must NEVER be applied to Jehu’s (9:6) or Joash’s (11:12) royal anointing. See the new term anoint_royal for the required, strictly distinct rendering; any back-translation returning ‘Messie’ for a royal-anointing segment is an automatic error.
Lord Yhwh
Approved rendering: le SEIGNEUR
Transliteration: YHWH (read aloud as Adonai)
Doctrine: Covenant Judgment and the Exile
Rejected alternatives: l’Éternel, Yahvé
Original: יהוה
Category: God
The covenant, personal name of God (יהוה), Israel’s exclusive covenant LORD, distinct from generic Elohim (‘Dieu’). Rendered with small capitals ‘le SEIGNEUR’ to preserve lexical continuity with the baseline’s Christological ‘Seigneur’ while typographically distinguishing the covenant name, exactly as English distinguishes LORD from Lord. Rejected ‘l’Éternel’ (Segond-marked, denominationally partisan-sounding) and ‘Yahvé’ (Bible de Jérusalem convention, unfamiliar to non-specialist readers, breaks lexical consistency with the baseline). If small caps are unavailable, use ‘le Seigneur (YHWH)’ on first occurrence per chapter. Must be checked at EVERY occurrence across all 25 chapters, not sampled.
Exile
Approved rendering: exil / exiler, emmener en exil
Transliteration: galah / higlah
Doctrine: Covenant Judgment and the Exile
Rejected alternatives: déplacement, émigration, installation
Original: גָּלָה / הִגְלָה
Category: Judgment and Exile
The forcible, judicial removal of a covenant people from the promised land — the book’s master judgment-word and the curriculum’s namesake doctrine. Must never be softened into neutral migration language. First occurrence 15:29 (Tiglath-pileser’s initial deportation); climactic at 17:6, 17:23, 25:11, 25:21.
Removed From Presence
Approved rendering: écarter/retrancher de devant sa face
Transliteration: hesir / heser me’al panav
Doctrine: Divine Banishment from God’s Presence
Rejected alternatives: il les a punis (generic punishment, loses relational-banishment sense)
Original: הֵסִיר / הֵסַר מֵעַל פָּנָיו
Category: Judgment and Exile
Relational banishment from God’s presence — exile theologized as covenant estrangement, echoing Eden’s expulsion, not merely geographic relocation. Occurs at 17:18, 17:20, 23:27.
Pass Through Fire
Approved rendering: faire passer par le feu
Transliteration: he’evir ba-esh
Doctrine: Child Sacrifice to Molech
Rejected alternatives: purifier par le feu (softens to purification ritual), sacrifier ses enfants (too blunt, loses the text’s own euphemistic register)
Original: הֶעֱבִיר בָּאֵשׁ
Category: Idolatry
The Bible’s standard euphemism for child sacrifice to Molech. First occurrence 16:3 (Ahaz); reused 17:17, 21:6; abolished by Josiah 23:10. Mandatory translator’s gloss required at first occurrence and recommended at every recurrence: ’= sacrifice d’enfants à Molek, non un simple rite de purification.‘
No King Like Josiah Tension
Approved rendering: (reuses did_evil_in_eyes_of_lord formula + removed_from_presence formula)
Transliteration: ve-khamohu lo hayah … / lo shav YHWH me-charon apo
Doctrine: Individual Repentance versus Corporate Judgment
Rejected alternatives: a single resolved statement smoothing the tension (either moralistic or fatalistic)
Original: וְכָמֹהוּ לֹא־הָיָה … / לֹא־שָׁב יהוה מֵחֲרוֹן אַפּוֹ
Category: Hope and Judgment
The book’s sharpest textual juxtaposition: Josiah praised as unmatched (23:25), yet YHWH’s anger against Judah, kindled by Manasseh, explicitly not turned away (23:26-27). Must be flagged as its own Critical-risk translation unit; must resist resolving into either ‘sufficient goodness cancels judgment’ or ‘repentance is pointless’ — both are explicitly foreclosed by the text.
Priest Kohen
Approved rendering: sacrificateur
Transliteration: kohen
Doctrine: Priesthood and Old Testament Worship
Rejected alternatives: prêtre (unglossed)
Original: כֹּהֵן
Category: Kingship and Priesthood
The Levitical priestly office (Jehoiada, ch. 11; Hilkiah, ch. 22). ‘Prêtre’ overwhelmingly evokes ordained Catholic sacramental clergy in modern French; the historic French Protestant Segond tradition uses ‘sacrificateur’ for this reason, paralleling the baseline’s ‘saints’/‘Église’ collision handling. Mandatory clarifying gloss required if ‘prêtre’ is ever used instead.
High Risk Terms
Law
Approved rendering: la Loi
Transliteration: loi (la Loi)
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: תּוֹרָה
Category: Covenant
Capitalize as ‘la Loi’ for Torah/Mosaic law to distinguish from civil ‘loi’. (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: central to Josiah’s Reforms and the Rediscovered Law — see the new compound term book_of_the_law for the physical, rediscovered scroll (2 Kings 22).
Election
Approved rendering: élection
Transliteration: élection
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: chance, destin
Original: בָּחַר
Category: Covenant
HIGH RISK, distinctly French: ‘élection’ is the everyday word for political/democratic elections. (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: implicit throughout the book’s preservation of David’s line (17:18ff, 25:27-30) despite Israel’s and Judah’s unfaithfulness; any teaching material invoking election language here must explicitly contrast divine sovereign choice with democratic election, per baseline convention.
Lord
Approved rendering: Seigneur
Transliteration: Seigneur
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: maître, patron
Romans 10:9 ‘Jésus est Seigneur.’ ‘Seigneur’ carries feudal-historical resonance in French. (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: not directly invoked by 2 Kings’ narrative content (no NT confession occurs in this book), but its baseline rendering is the reason the small-caps ‘le SEIGNEUR’ typographic convention (see lord_yhwh) is mandatory throughout this curriculum — unmarked ‘Seigneur’ must never be used for the covenant name YHWH in 2 Kings.
Word Of The Lord
Approved rendering: parole du SEIGNEUR
Transliteration: devar YHWH
Doctrine: Prophetic Ministry and Miraculous Power
Rejected alternatives: message de Dieu (too generic)
Original: דְּבַר יהוה
Category: Prophetic Ministry
The authoritative message God gives through his prophets, the vehicle of delegated divine authority throughout the book. Must use the small-caps ‘le SEIGNEUR’ convention so readers see this phrase anchored to the covenant name, not a vague inspirational impression. First occurrence 1:17.
Seer
Approved rendering: voyant (toujours accompagné de « prophète »)
Transliteration: chozeh
Doctrine: Prophetic Ministry and Miraculous Power
Rejected alternatives: voyant (unpaired, standalone), prophète (substituted for chozeh, erasing a distinct Hebrew office)
Original: חֹזֶה
Category: Prophetic Ministry
A distinct Hebrew prophetic-office term (‘one who sees [visions]’), lexically separate from navi (‘prophet’). French Bible tradition renders chozeh as ‘voyant’, but the baseline forbids ‘voyant’ for navi/prophet due to its fortune-teller connotation. Permitted ONLY for chozeh, and must always appear paired with ‘prophète’ (e.g. ‘tout prophète et tout voyant,’ 17:13) so context excludes any astrology/fortune-telling reading.
Double Portion Spirit
Approved rendering: une double portion de ton esprit
Transliteration: pi-shnayim be-ruchakha
Doctrine: Transfer of the Prophetic Office
Rejected alternatives: une double portion de ton Esprit Saint (wrongly capitalized/Trinitarian)
Original: פִּי־שְׁנַיִם בְּרוּחֲךָ
Category: Prophetic Ministry
Elisha’s request (2:9) for a firstborn’s double inheritance-share, applied to succession in prophetic empowering rather than property. Keep ‘esprit’ lower-case and distinct from the baseline’s Critical-risk ‘Esprit Saint’ (the personal, divine third Person of the Trinity) to avoid collapsing OT charismatic prophetic succession into Trinitarian theology proper, while a teaching note may still affirm canonical continuity.
Restore To Life
Approved rendering: revenir à la vie
Transliteration: chayah
Doctrine: Authenticating Signs and Miracles
Rejected alternatives: résurrection
Original: חָיָה
Category: Prophetic Ministry
A miraculous, real but temporal restoration to mortal life (4:35; 13:21) — not the final, eschatological resurrection. Never render ‘résurrection’, which the baseline reserves as a Critical-risk term for Christ’s bodily, once-for-all, eschatological resurrection; using it here would wrongly equate a temporary OT revival with that unique NT doctrine.
Angel Of The Lord
Approved rendering: l’ange du SEIGNEUR
Transliteration: mal’akh YHWH
Doctrine: Divine Agency and Angelic Deliverance
Rejected alternatives: ange gardien (folk-devotional category)
Original: מַלְאַךְ יהוה
Category: God
A specific divine agent of judgment or deliverance (striking down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, 19:35), not a generic protective spirit. Popular French Catholic ‘ange gardien’ devotional piety could domesticate this decisive, one-time historical act into vague folk-pious comfort; present as a specific, historical divine intervention.
Did Evil In Eyes Of Lord
Approved rendering: il fit ce qui est mal/bien aux yeux du SEIGNEUR
Transliteration: asah ha-ra/ha-tov be’einei YHWH
Doctrine: Fall of Israel and Judah as Covenant Consequence
Rejected alternatives: il se conduisit mal (paraphrase varying wording across occurrences)
Original: עָשָׂה הָרַע בְּעֵינֵי יהוה
Category: Judgment and Exile
The book’s central evaluative refrain applied to nearly every king. Render verbatim-identically at every occurrence across all 25 chapters (first at 3:2). Comparative clauses (‘mais non comme…’, ‘but not like the kings before him’) must be preserved, since Kings deliberately grades kings on a spectrum rather than a flat binary.
Feared Other Gods
Approved rendering: craindre (d’autres dieux)
Transliteration: yare elohim acherim
Doctrine: Idolatry and Covenant Infidelity
Rejected alternatives: different French verb for legitimate vs. illegitimate fear (would erase the narrator’s deliberate irony)
Original: יָרֵא אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים
Category: Idolatry
Reverencing/serving false gods with the same posture (fear/awe) owed exclusively to YHWH. Render with the SAME French verb ‘craindre’ used also for legitimate ‘craindre le SEIGNEUR’ (17:34, 39) — disambiguate strictly by object and context, never by lexical substitution, or the narrator’s irony is destroyed. First at 17:7.
High Places
Approved rendering: hauts lieux
Transliteration: bamah / bamot
Doctrine: Idolatry and Covenant Infidelity
Rejected alternatives: lieux élevés (purely geographic, loses cultic sense)
Original: בָּמָה / בָּמוֹת
Category: Idolatry
Open-air (often hilltop) shrines for sacrifice, used for idol worship and also for illegitimate YHWH-worship outside Jerusalem. Culturally opaque to a low-biblical-literacy French readership; mandatory explanatory gloss required on first occurrence (12:3 implicit; explicit at 17:9): ‘sanctuaires en plein air, souvent sur des collines, consacrés à des divinités autres que le SEIGNEUR ou à un culte illégitime du SEIGNEUR lui-même.‘
Despise Reject
Approved rendering: mépriser / rejeter
Transliteration: ma’as
Doctrine: Fall of Israel and Judah as Covenant Consequence
Rejected alternatives: different French verbs for the two directions (would erase the lex talionis reciprocity)
Original: מָאַס
Category: Idolatry
Active, contemptuous rejection — used of Israel rejecting YHWH’s statutes and covenant (17:15) AND, in deliberate reciprocity, of YHWH rejecting Israel (17:20). Render ‘mépriser/rejeter’ consistently in BOTH directions with the same verb pair.
Host Of Heaven
Approved rendering: l’armée du ciel
Transliteration: tzeva ha-shamayim
Doctrine: Idolatry and Covenant Infidelity
Rejected alternatives: armées célestes (unglossed; risks confusion with legitimate angelic-host devotional imagery)
Original: צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם
Category: Idolatry
Astral worship (sun, moon, stars as a heavenly army) — explicitly NOT angelic hosts. Mandatory first-occurrence gloss: ’= le culte des astres (soleil, lune, étoiles), non les anges.’ 17:16.
Mediums Necromancers
Approved rendering: évoquer les morts / spiritisme et divination
Transliteration: ov ve-yidde’oni
Doctrine: Occult Practices Condemned
Rejected alternatives: voyant (must never be confused with the legitimate prophetic term reserved for chozeh)
Original: אוֹב וְיִדְּעֹנִי
Category: Idolatry
Occult practices for consulting the dead/spirits, forbidden by the Law (Deut 18:11) and named as Manasseh’s signature sin (21:6). Contemporary relevance: ‘voyance’ and spiritist practices are commercially normalized in secular France; frame as a live pastoral application point.
Syncretistic Fear Of Lord
Approved rendering: ils craignaient le SEIGNEUR, et ils servaient en même temps leurs propres dieux
Transliteration: yare et YHWH va-avad elohim acherim
Doctrine: Religious Syncretism Condemned
Rejected alternatives: ils honoraient à la fois le SEIGNEUR et leurs dieux (risks reading as commendable pluralism)
Original: יָרֵא אֶת־יהוה וְעָבַד אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים
Category: Idolatry
Mixed, compromised worship — ‘fearing’ YHWH while simultaneously serving other gods (17:33, 41). Must read as a condemned contradiction, not commendable mixed piety, given French cultural comfort with religious eclecticism.
Warned Testified
Approved rendering: avertir solennellement / témoigner
Transliteration: he’id
Doctrine: God’s Patience through Repeated Prophetic Warning
Rejected alternatives: prévenir (too weak, loses covenant-lawsuit register)
Original: הֵעִיד
Category: Prophetic Ministry
Solemn covenant-lawsuit warning/testimony delivered repeatedly through every prophet and seer before judgment fell (17:13). Must convey sustained, gracious, repeated warning, not a single perfunctory notice.
Turn Repent
Approved rendering: se détourner de ses mauvaises voies / revenir au SEIGNEUR
Transliteration: shuv
Doctrine: God’s Patience through Repeated Prophetic Warning
Rejected alternatives: se convertir (as primary rendering)
Original: שׁוּב
Category: Idolatry
The OT’s core repentance verb — a concrete, behavioral covenantal return to YHWH, tied to keeping commandments. Avoid ‘se convertir’ as the primary term: in modern French this carries a strong Catholic sacramental-penance-process connotation that would narrow Kings’ behavioral, repeated repentance call into an institutional rite. 17:13.
Covenant Law Triad
Approved rendering: commandements / prescriptions (statuts) / la Loi
Transliteration: mitzvot, chuqqot, torah
Doctrine: Covenant Lawsuit Warning
Original: מִצְוֹת, חֻקּוֹת, תּוֹרָה
Category: Covenant
The triad of covenant-obligation vocabulary defining obedience by an objective, revealed Sinai standard. Keep this exact triad consistent whenever it recurs (17:13, 17:16, 17:19, 22:8-13).
Fulfillment Formula
Approved rendering: comme il l’avait annoncé par ses serviteurs les prophètes
Transliteration: ka’asher diber be-yad avadav ha-nevi’im
Doctrine: God’s Patience through Repeated Prophetic Warning
Original: כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר בְּיַד עֲבָדָיו הַנְּבִיאִים
Category: Prophetic Ministry
A recurring fulfillment-formula tightly linking a prior prophetic word to the historical event that fulfills it. Render identically at every recurrence: 17:23; also 21:10, 24:2.
Book Of The Law
Approved rendering: le livre de la Loi
Transliteration: sefer ha-torah
Doctrine: Rediscovery of the Law
Original: סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה
Category: Covenant
The physical scroll of the Mosaic Law, long neglected, rediscovered during Josiah’s temple repairs (22:8-13) and triggering immediate national repentance. Reuses baseline’s ‘la Loi’; referent consistency (this specific physical scroll) must be maintained.
Humble Oneself
Approved rendering: s’humilier / avoir le cœur humilié
Transliteration: kana’ levav
Doctrine: Individual Repentance versus Corporate Judgment
Original: נִכְנַע (כָּנַע לֵבָב)
Category: Covenant
Josiah’s personal, immediate contrition on hearing the Law read (22:19) — genuinely rewarded (judgment delayed past his lifetime), yet Judah’s corporate judgment is not thereby canceled (23:26-27). This precise, delicate tension must be preserved, not resolved in either direction.
Passover
Approved rendering: la Pâque
Transliteration: Pesach
Doctrine: Passover Restoration
Rejected alternatives: Pâques
Original: פֶּסַח
Category: Kingship and Priesthood
The centerpiece of Josiah’s positive reform (23:21-23). MANDATORY orthographic distinction: feminine singular ‘la Pâque’ (OT/Jewish feast) must never become invariable ‘Pâques’ (Christian Easter) — mandatory automated QA check every occurrence.
Covenant Renewal
Approved rendering: renouvellement de l’alliance
Transliteration: berit (renewal ceremony) + edut
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal Ceremony
Original: בְּרִית (טֶקֶס חִדּוּשׁ) + עֵדוּת
Category: Covenant
A formal ceremony renewing the covenant relationship between king, people, and YHWH (11:17, climactically 23:1-3). Reuses baseline’s ‘alliance’; the ceremony-concept itself is new to this curriculum (absent from the Romans corpus) and must be flagged wherever it recurs.
Anoint Royal
Approved rendering: oindre (verbe) / onction (nom, royale)
Transliteration: mashach
Doctrine: Royal Anointing and Messianic Typology
Rejected alternatives: Messie
Original: מָשַׁח
Category: Kingship and Priesthood
The ritual designation of a king as YHWH’s chosen agent, applied to Jehu (9:6) and Joash (11:12) — a real but limited, this-worldly royal designation. MUST NOT be rendered or associated with ‘Messie’; any back-translation returning ‘Messie’ for a royal-anointing segment is an immediate error, though a teaching note may draw the typological line without merging the referents.
Blot Out Name
Approved rendering: effacer le nom
Transliteration: machah shem
Doctrine: Delayed Judgment and Mercy
Original: מָחָה שֵׁם
Category: Hope and Judgment
An explicit statement that YHWH had ‘not yet spoken to blot out the name of Israel’ (14:27) — restrained, patient mercy amid decline. Load-bearing for God’s Patience and Hope amid Judgment; must not be treated as a throwaway historical aside.
Tribe Of Judah Remnant
Approved rendering: il ne resta que la tribu de Juda seule
Transliteration: lo nish’ar zulati shevet Yehudah bilvado
Doctrine: Hope amid Judgment
Original: לֹא נִשְׁאַר זוּלָתִי שֵׁבֶט יְהוּדָה בִּלְבַדּוֹ
Category: Hope and Judgment
The remnant note that only the tribe of Judah remained after Israel’s fall (17:18), seeding the book’s hope-amid-judgment motif. Doctrinally load-bearing; must not be treated as an incidental historical detail.
Medium Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Dieu
Transliteration: Dieu
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: אֱלֹהִים
Category: God
Secularization risk: ‘Dieu’ is used as a casual interjection (‘Mon Dieu!’) and, in academic/philosophical French, can be treated as an abstract deist concept rather than the personal, triune God of Scripture. (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: must be distinguished at every occurrence from יהוה/‘le SEIGNEUR’ (see lord_yhwh) — the Hebrew text does not treat Elohim and YHWH as interchangeable, and this distinction is structurally important to the book’s covenant-name usage.
Covenant
Approved rendering: alliance
Transliteration: alliance
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: contrat
Original: בְּרִית
Category: Covenant
Relational covenant bond, more than a legal contract; ‘alliance’ also usefully evokes the wedding ring (l’alliance) in French, a helpful relational resonance. (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: the base noun’s risk tier remains Medium; the additional, higher-risk sense of a formal covenant-renewal CEREMONY (chs. 11, 23) is tracked separately as the new term covenant_renewal (High) — do not conflate the two entries.
Sin
Approved rendering: péché
Transliteration: péché
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Original: חָטָא / חַטָּאָה
Category: Sin
Secularization risk: colloquial French uses ‘péché’ loosely for minor indulgence (‘péché mignon’). (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: the book’s idolatry catalog (chs. 17, 21) requires several additional, more specific sin-vocabulary items beyond this single baseline entry — see idols_gillulim, pass_through_fire, divination_omens, mediums_necromancers.
Holy
Approved rendering: saint
Transliteration: saint
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: pur
Original: קָדוֹשׁ / קֹדֶשׁ
Category: Sanctification
Set apart for God and morally pure; ‘pur’ alone loses the set-apart sense. (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: applies chiefly to objects and places (the Temple, its vessels, the holy city) rather than to believers corporately as in Romans; clarify this referent shift in teaching notes.
Glory
Approved rendering: gloire
Transliteration: gloire
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: כָּבוֹד
Category: God
God’s radiant honor and presence; secular ‘gloire’ risks a triumphalist, self-achieved reading. (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: keep unqualified ‘gloire’ reserved for explicitly divine referents; human royal honor in the book’s many royal-conquest narratives should be rendered with contextual qualifiers (‘la gloire du roi’) to avoid blurring with God’s.
Father
Approved rendering: Père
Transliteration: Père
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: אָב / אָבוֹת
Category: Covenant
God as personal Father. (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: reserve ‘Père’ strictly for the rare explicit divine-Fatherhood sense (e.g. mercy formula at 13:23); the overwhelming majority of 2 Kings occurrences of ‘father(s)’ are ancestral (‘he was buried with his fathers’) and must use plain ‘pères/ancêtres’ instead, to avoid wrongly importing Trinitarian/adoption resonance into a genealogical statement.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israël
Transliteration: Israël
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: יִשְׂרָאֵל
Category: Covenant
Contemporary Middle East politics and France’s significant Jewish community make it easy to conflate biblical Israel with the modern nation-state. (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: additionally requires care distinguishing the specific Northern Kingdom (fallen 722 BC, ch. 17) both from Judah and from the whole covenant people; keep the referent historical/theological throughout.
Faith
Approved rendering: foi
Transliteration: foi
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: croyance, religion
Original: אָמַן (הֶאֱמִינוּ)
Category: Faith
In secular French, ‘la foi’ can drift toward generic religiosity. (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: the explicit negation ‘they did not believe’ (17:14) is rendered as a clause using the verb ‘croire’ (see did_not_believe) rather than a noun construction, but belongs to the same doctrinal family; keep verb roots consistent (croire) across both entries.
Man Of God
Approved rendering: homme de Dieu
Transliteration: ish ha-elohim
Doctrine: Prophetic Ministry and Miraculous Power
Rejected alternatives: un homme pieux (generic praise)
Original: אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים
Category: Prophetic Ministry
A recognized title for a prophetic office-holder (Elijah, Elisha, and others), not a generic compliment for a godly person. Render consistently as a title throughout every Elijah/Elisha narrative, first at 1:9.
Inquire Consult
Approved rendering: consulter
Transliteration: darash
Doctrine: Prophetic Ministry and Miraculous Power
Original: דָּרַשׁ
Category: Prophetic Ministry
To seek a divine oracle; legitimate when directed to YHWH through his prophet (2 Kings 3, 22), illegitimate when directed to Baal-zebub (1:2) or mediums (21:6). ‘Consulter’ carries no built-in moral valence in French; context (object consulted) must signal legitimacy or condemnation every time.
Sign Wonder
Approved rendering: signe / prodige
Transliteration: ot / mofet
Doctrine: Authenticating Signs and Miracles
Rejected alternatives: truc magique (trivializing)
Original: אוֹת / מוֹפֵת
Category: Prophetic Ministry
An authenticating miraculous sign validating a prophet’s message and office, not an isolated magic trick. Keep tied conceptually to the baseline’s puissance-de-Dieu concept so miracles read as purposeful divine self-disclosure. First at 1:10 (fire from heaven).
Chariot Of Fire
Approved rendering: char de feu et chevaux de feu
Transliteration: merkevet esh ve-susei esh
Doctrine: Authenticating Signs and Miracles
Original: מֶרְכֶּבֶת אֵשׁ וְסוּסֵי אֵשׁ
Category: Prophetic Ministry
The fiery chariot and horses by which Elijah is bodily taken up to heaven without dying (2:11). Render as a real, historical theophanic event, not legend; pairs thematically with 6:17’s angelic-army vision (opened_eyes).
Mantle
Approved rendering: manteau
Transliteration: adderet
Doctrine: Transfer of the Prophetic Office
Original: אַדֶּרֶת
Category: Prophetic Ministry
Elijah’s cloak, a physical symbol of transferred prophetic office and authority passed to Elisha. Render ‘manteau’ consistently across all mantle references (2:8, 2:13-14).
Opened Eyes
Approved rendering: ouvrir les yeux
Transliteration: paqach einayim
Doctrine: Authenticating Signs and Miracles
Original: פָּקַח עֵינַיִם
Category: Prophetic Ministry
An idiom for both literal sight and spiritual perception of an otherwise unseen divine reality (the angelic army, 6:17). Distinguish physical-sight instances (blinding the Syrian army, 6:18-20) from the spiritual-perception instance even though French uses the identical idiom for both.
Trust
Approved rendering: se confier en / faire confiance à
Transliteration: batach
Doctrine: Trust in God versus Political Alliance
Rejected alternatives: avoir foi en (conflates with foi/pistis-family faith)
Original: בָּטַח
Category: Faith
To rely on and feel secure in YHWH, contrasted throughout chs. 16-20 with seeking security in political/military alliances. Keep this reliance/security nuance distinguishable from ‘foi’ (belief/personal trust); Hezekiah’s positive counter-example (18:5) to Ahaz’s/Israel’s alliance-seeking (16:7-9, 17:3-4).
Pillars Asherah
Approved rendering: stèles; Ashéra
Transliteration: matzevah / asherah
Doctrine: Idolatry and Covenant Infidelity
Rejected alternatives: bosquet sacré (LXX-influenced mistranslation as ‘grove’)
Original: מַצֵּבָה / אֲשֵׁרָה
Category: Idolatry
Standing cultic stones (matzevah) and the Canaanite fertility goddess Asherah / her wooden cult-pole. Transliterate ‘Ashéra’ (capitalized) as a proper name rather than translating it, since no French cultural equivalent exists, paralleling the baseline’s treatment of ‘Abba.’ First at 17:10.
Idols Gillulim
Approved rendering: idoles
Transliteration: gillulim
Doctrine: Fall of Israel and Judah as Covenant Consequence
Original: גִּלּוּלִים
Category: Idolatry
The Bible’s most pejorative standard word for idols, etymologically associated with dung/refuse. Standard French ‘idoles’ loses this contempt entirely; teaching contexts should consider an intensifying adjective (‘idoles abominables’) to recover the narrator’s disgust, without altering the base glossary term. First at 17:12.
Provoke To Anger
Approved rendering: irriter le SEIGNEUR / provoquer sa colère
Transliteration: hikh’is
Doctrine: Fall of Israel and Judah as Covenant Consequence
Rejected alternatives: enfreindre la loi (impersonal-violation register)
Original: הִכְעִיס
Category: Idolatry
A covenant-lawsuit term for the personal, relational offense idolatry causes God — never capricious. First at 17:11.
Went After Emptiness
Approved rendering: ils allèrent après ce qui est vain, et devinrent vains
Transliteration: halakh acharei ha-hevel va-yehbalu
Doctrine: Idolatry and Covenant Infidelity
Rejected alternatives: ils suivirent des idoles (flattens the vanity/vanity wordplay)
Original: הָלַךְ אַחֲרֵי הַהֶבֶל וַיֶּהְבָּלוּ
Category: Idolatry
A wordplay: Israel walked after ‘vapor/emptiness’ (idols) and consequently ‘became empty’ themselves. Preserve the vanity-to-vanity wordplay rather than flattening to a single generic ‘idoles.’ 17:15.
Molten Images Calves
Approved rendering: images de fonte / veaux (d’or)
Transliteration: massekhah, shnei agalim
Doctrine: Idolatry and Covenant Infidelity
Original: מַסֵּכָה, שְׁנֵי עֲגָלִים
Category: Idolatry
Cast/molten images, specifically the two golden calves, echoing Jeroboam’s founding sin (1 Kings 12:28) and the Exodus 32 golden calf. Requires an OT-literacy gloss for low-biblical-literacy French readers. 17:16.
Baal
Approved rendering: Baal
Transliteration: Ba’al
Doctrine: Idolatry and Covenant Infidelity
Rejected alternatives: le seigneur (etymological false-friend, never exploited)
Original: בַּעַל
Category: Idolatry
Proper name of the Canaanite storm-and-fertility god (‘lord/master’), Israel’s and Judah’s most persistent rival cult. Transliterate; note plural ‘les Baals’ for local cult variants (10:19 etc.). First at 1:2.
Divination Omens
Approved rendering: divination et pratiques magiques
Transliteration: qesem / nachesh
Doctrine: Occult Practices Condemned
Original: קֶסֶם / נַחֵשׁ
Category: Idolatry
Occult means (divination, omen-reading) of determining the future or divine will, forbidden to Israel in favor of the true prophetic word (17:13). First at 17:17; reused 21:6.
Walked In Way Of
Approved rendering: marcher dans la voie de…
Transliteration: halakh be-derekh
Doctrine: Generational Apostasy Pattern
Original: הָלַךְ בְּדֶרֶךְ
Category: Idolatry
A stock idiom for adopting another’s behavioral/religious pattern, used positively (‘way of David’) and negatively (‘way of Jeroboam/Ahab’) across many regnal formulas. Render consistently at every recurrence (8:18, 8:27, 16:3, and others).
Would Not Listen Stiffened Neck
Approved rendering: ils ne voulurent pas écouter / ils s’endurcirent, rebelles
Transliteration: lo shame’u, hiqshu et orpam
Doctrine: Covenant Lawsuit Warning
Original: לֹא שָׁמְעוּ, הִקְשׁוּ אֶת־עָרְפָּם
Category: Idolatry
An idiom for willful, generational, stubborn refusal to obey — the image of an ox refusing the yoke. A natural French idiomatic equivalent preserving the stubbornness sense is acceptable per the idiom-handling rule; the yoke/ox background image merits a translator’s note. 17:14.
Did Not Believe
Approved rendering: ils ne crurent pas
Transliteration: lo he’eminu
Doctrine: Covenant Lawsuit Warning
Original: לֹא הֶאֱמִינוּ
Category: Faith
Named as the root cause beneath Israel’s disobedience — unbelief, not merely rule-breaking. Connects directly to the ‘foi’ doctrine; ensure the verb ‘croire’ is used to keep the causal, active-unbelief sense clear. 17:14.
Topheth Molech
Approved rendering: Topheth / Molek
Transliteration: Topheth / Molekh
Doctrine: Child Sacrifice to Molech
Original: תֹּפֶת / מֹלֶךְ
Category: Idolatry
Proper nouns: the child-sacrifice site in the Valley of Hinnom (Topheth) and the deity worshiped there (Molech), abolished by Josiah (23:10). Transliterate both; read alongside pass_through_fire.
Zeal
Approved rendering: zèle
Transliteration: qin’ah
Doctrine: Fall of Israel and Judah as Covenant Consequence
Original: קִנְאָה
Category: Kingship and Priesthood
Ardent devotion for YHWH’s exclusive honor, attributed to Jehu (10:16) yet later prophetically qualified as partial and self-interested (Hosea 1:4). Avoid an uncomplicated-hero framing in teaching material.
Vengeance Avenge
Approved rendering: vengeance / venger
Transliteration: naqam
Doctrine: Fall of Israel and Judah as Covenant Consequence
Original: נָקַם
Category: Kingship and Priesthood
God’s righteous, judicial requital of Ahab’s house for Naboth’s blood and the prophets’ blood (9:7). Keep the judicial, God-authorized register explicit; do not let it read as human vendetta.
Repair Restore House Of Lord
Approved rendering: réparer/restaurer la maison du SEIGNEUR
Transliteration: chizzeq et beit YHWH
Doctrine: The Temple as Covenant Symbol
Original: חִזֵּק אֶת־בֵּית יהוה
Category: Kingship and Priesthood
Physical temple restoration under Joash (ch. 12), a precedent pattern for Josiah’s larger-scale reform (ch. 22). Use the small-caps YHWH convention; keep consistent with house_of_the_lord_temple.
House Of The Lord Temple
Approved rendering: la maison du SEIGNEUR / le Temple
Transliteration: beit YHWH
Doctrine: The Temple as Covenant Symbol
Rejected alternatives: l’Église (NT institutional/body-of-Christ sense), temple (unqualified, French Protestant meeting-house collision)
Original: בֵּית יהוה
Category: Kingship and Priesthood
The Jerusalem Temple, YHWH’s dwelling-place among his people, across the book’s repair-plunder-destruction arc (12:6-16, 24:13, 25:9). Distinguish explicitly from the baseline’s NT ‘Église’ and from French Protestants’ everyday use of ‘temple’ for a contemporary meeting-house; clarify this refers exclusively to the ancient Jerusalem sanctuary.
Burnt Offering
Approved rendering: sacrifice / offrande (holocauste)
Transliteration: olah
Doctrine: Priesthood and Old Testament Worship
Original: עֹלָה
Category: Kingship and Priesthood
A whole sacrificial offering; the 3:27 occurrence is a pagan Moabite act (a king’s own son offered on the city wall), not Mosaic-sanctioned sacrifice — clarify referent to avoid implying Mosaic sanction.
Vessels Of House Of Lord
Approved rendering: les objets/ustensiles de la maison du SEIGNEUR
Transliteration: kelei beit YHWH
Doctrine: The Temple as Covenant Symbol
Original: כְּלֵי בֵית־יהוה
Category: Judgment and Exile
The temple’s sacred implements, removed to Babylon (24:13), a visible sign of covenant humiliation prefiguring total destruction (ch. 25).
Measuring Line Plummet
Approved rendering: cordeau et fil à plomb
Transliteration: qav u-mishqolet
Doctrine: Fall of Israel and Judah as Covenant Consequence
Rejected alternatives: jugement sévère (generic, loses the precision/impartiality metaphor)
Original: קָו וּמִשְׁקֹלֶת
Category: Judgment and Exile
A builder’s-tools metaphor for exact, impartial judgment (21:13): God will judge Judah/Manasseh by the same precise standard by which Ahab’s house was judged.
Torn Kingdom
Approved rendering: arracher / déchirer
Transliteration: qara
Doctrine: Fall of Israel and Judah as Covenant Consequence
Original: קָרַע
Category: Covenant
The same verb used of Ahijah tearing his garment (1 Kings 11:30-31), recalled in 17:21 as the taproot of the exile centuries later; flag the deliberate narrative link between the tenth-century schism and the final exile.
For Sake Of Covenant Mercy
Approved rendering: à cause de son alliance
Transliteration: lema’an brito
Doctrine: Delayed Judgment and Mercy
Original: לְמַעַן בְּרִיתוֹ
Category: Hope and Judgment
God’s continued mercy toward declining Israel grounded explicitly in his own covenant faithfulness to the patriarchs, not Israel’s merit (13:23; supplementary occurrence 8:19). Ensure mercy is grounded in God’s own faithfulness, never residual human merit — the grace-not-merit distinction the baseline flags for Romans applies equally here.
Blasphemy
Approved rendering: blasphème / outrage
Transliteration: cheref / gidef
Doctrine: Prophetic Ministry and Miraculous Power
Rejected alternatives: rhétorique politique (too neutral, loses the affront-to-God’s-honor register)
Original: חֵרֵף / גִּדֵּף
Category: Prophetic Ministry
The Assyrian field commander’s taunts against YHWH (ch. 18), treated as a direct affront to God’s honor requiring divine vindication (ch. 19).
Leprosy
Approved rendering: lèpre
Transliteration: tzara’at
Doctrine: Universal Scope of God’s Power
Original: צָרַעַת
Category: Kingship and Priesthood
A broad Israelite ritual-impurity category of scaly skin/surface conditions, functioning as an exclusion-marker requiring priestly diagnosis — not identical to modern clinical Hansen’s disease. Gloss the distinction for a low-OT-literacy French audience. First at ch. 5 (Naaman); also 15:5 (Uzziah), 5:27 (Gehazi).
Low Risk Terms
Prophet
Approved rendering: prophète
Transliteration: prophète
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: voyant
Original: נָבִיא
Category: Prophetic Ministry
God’s spokesperson; avoid ‘voyant’ (fortune-teller connotation). (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: never extend ‘voyant’ onto this term; ‘voyant’ is reserved exclusively for the distinct Hebrew office-word chozeh (see seer) and must always appear paired with ‘prophète.‘
Prophecy
Approved rendering: prophétie
Transliteration: prophétie
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: נְבוּאָה
Category: Prophetic Ministry
God-inspired declaration, not astrological prediction. (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: directly supports the recurring fulfillment_formula (‘comme il l’avait annoncé par ses serviteurs les prophètes’), 17:23, 21:10, 24:2.
David
Approved rendering: David
Transliteration: David
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Original: דָּוִד
Category: Covenant
Standard proper name form across all French Bible traditions. (Inherited from Romans package.) 2 Kings note: the preservation of David’s royal line (17:18ff, 25:27-30) is the book’s key thread for the Hope amid Judgment and Preservation of the Davidic Line doctrines.
Until This Day
Approved rendering: jusqu’à ce jour
Transliteration: ad hayom hazeh
Doctrine: Covenant Judgment and the Exile
Original: עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה
Category: Judgment and Exile
The narrator’s-present formula marking exile (and other conditions) as an ongoing, unresolved state at the time of writing. Recurs 17:23, 17:34, 17:41 — automated consistency check sufficient, but doctrinally significant, not filler.
Vassal Tribute
Approved rendering: vassal / tribut
Transliteration: eved / minchah
Doctrine: Covenant Judgment and the Exile
Original: עֶבֶד / מִנְחָה
Category: Judgment and Exile
Political subjugation and tribute payment to a foreign suzerain (17:3) — a symptom of seeking security from empire rather than YHWH; contrasts with Hezekiah’s trust (18:5).
Treachery Conspiracy
Approved rendering: conspiration / trahison
Transliteration: qesher
Doctrine: Covenant Judgment and the Exile
Original: קֶשֶׁר
Category: Judgment and Exile
Hoshea’s political rebellion against Assyria (17:4), a political-level mirror of Israel’s deeper covenant treachery.
Prophetess
Approved rendering: prophétesse
Transliteration: nevi’ah
Doctrine: Prophetic Ministry and Miraculous Power
Original: נְבִיאָה
Category: Prophetic Ministry
Huldah, consulted to authenticate the rediscovered Law (22:14) — a model of legitimate prophetic inquiry, contrasting with ch. 1’s Baal-zebub inquiry and ch. 21’s mediums.
King Reign
Approved rendering: roi / régner
Transliteration: melekh / malakh
Doctrine: Kingship Accountability before God
Original: מֶלֶךְ / מָלַךְ
Category: Kingship and Priesthood
The office of monarch, God-ordained but accountable to covenant law (Deut 17:14-20); every regnal formula is theological bookkeeping, not neutral chronology. Consistency across all regnal formulas matters more than novelty.
Referenced passages