Translation
Then the king said to him, “How many footfalls mark the strokes
Go to footnote number[when] I have made you swear that you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of YHVH?”
Paraphrase
King Ahab responded, “I hate it when you play this game with me! Stop mocking me and tell me what you really came here to say, even though I know I won’t like it. Tell me what you pretend to be the words of THE ETERNAL AND PERSONAL GOD.”
Footnotes
1: “footfalls mark the strokes”
They expressed the passage of time as the succession of occurrences such as steps (footfalls) or beats or strokes.