The water ran round about the altar: The water is described in Revised Standard Version as running around the altar. But such a literal translation may give a mistaken impression to readers. Even though this is a miraculous story, it is unlikely that the writer intended to imply that the water defied the law of gravity by moving in any direction other than downward. The meaning is almost certainly that it ran down all the sides of the altar and in this way surrounded it, eventually filling the ditch.

Filled the trench also with water is literally “also the trench he filled water.” In Hebrew the noun water is plural and is not the subject of the verb filled. According to Slotki, Elijah filled the trench also after pouring the twelve jars of water on the burnt offering because the twelve jars of water had not been enough to fill the trench.

Other interpreters understand the trench to be the subject here and translate the whole verse as “The water flowed around the altar until even the trench itself was full of water” (New Jerusalem Bible; similarly Revised English Bible), but this translation is hard to defend. A better translation is “And the water ran down around the altar, and even into the trench, he had it filled with water” (Osty-Trinquet).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .