Ahab has agreed to let the Syrian king take his own wives and children, but he refuses to allow the Syrians to come into the city and take whatever they want.

He said; that is, Ahab said. In this context the verb said may be better translated “gave this answer” (New Jerusalem Bible) or “gave the following response” (Bible en français courant).

Tell my lord the king: Nearly all translations take the words my lord the king as words spoken to the messengers of Benhadad about Benhadad. But these words may also be taken as part of Ahab’s message that the envoys are to give to Benhadad. Anchor Bible follows this second interpretation and says “Say: ‘To my lord, the king….’ ” This second interpretation is supported by ancient letters from the ancient Near East in which kings are addressed in this way.

This thing (or, “this matter”) will have to be made clearer in many languages. It is taken by New Century Version to refer to Benhadad’s “second command” (similarly Good News Translation). That is, Ahab could not agree to the threat in verse 6, which included the soldiers of Benhadad taking anything they wanted.

The messengers departed and brought him word again: Him refers to Benhadad. The Hebrew text does not have a word that corresponds to the word again at the end of this verse in Revised Standard Version. But since the time between verses 4 and 5 imply that messengers had earlier taken a message to Benhadad, it is legitimate to say again here.

Good News Translation has restructured this verse in the following two ways: (1) the embedded quotation has been turned into an indirect quotation, and (2) Ahab’s reference to himself in the second person as your servant has been changed to the first person singular.

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 .