The gods of the countries (literally “the gods of the lands” in Hebrew) refers to the same “gods” as mentioned in the previous verse and “the gods of the nations” in verse 33. For this reason Good News Translation speaks of “the gods of all these countries.”

The expression out of my hand means “from my power” (compare verse 29). It is used twice in this verse and once in the previous verse, where Good News Translation leaves it untranslated. Here Good News Translation renders it “from our emperor” since it has only one level of quotation in this verse, whereas the Hebrew has two levels.

This verse should probably be broken down into two questions if the rhetorical-question format is retained. In order to show the relationship between the two parts, the following model may be helpful:

• Among all the objects which people worship as God among these other nations, has any of them saved those nations from my power? Since none of them has been able to save, why do you think that the LORD can save Jerusalem?

Or the following model may be better in those languages where rhetorical questions are unacceptable in this context:

• Among all the objects which people worship as God among these other nations, none of them has ever saved those nations from my power. So there is no way that the LORD can save Jerusalem.

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 .