The king sent to him a captain of fifty men with his fifty: Translators should make certain that readers understand that the captain was sent to Elijah. In some languages the pronoun him may need to be replaced by the name Elijah.

For a captain of fifty men with his fifty (literally “a captain of fifty and his fifty”), some may prefer to say “a group of fifty men led by an officer” or “an officer accompanied by the fifty men under him.” Contemporary English Version, which says “an army officer and fifty soldiers,” changes the focus a bit since it does not clearly indicate that the fifty soldiers were under the command of the officer; that is, it does not translate his.

He went up to Elijah: The pronoun He refers to the officer who was leading the fifty men and not to the king. This should be made clear to the reader.

Who was sitting on the top of a hill is literally “and behold, sitting on the head [or, top] of the hill.” The Hebrew focusing particle begins this statement (see the discussion on Hebrew focusing particles in “Translating 1–2 Kings,” pages 13-14). The presence of the definite article in Hebrew with the word hill is troublesome since no hill is mentioned previously in this context. The Hebrew noun for hill is often translated “mountain” (so Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Segond, Bible en français courant, Nouvelle Bible Segond), but in this verse it probably refers to a hill and it may be best to translate “… on a certain hill,” since the definite article is often used in Hebrew when the reference is not to a specific thing but only to a certain thing.

Said to him, “O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down.’ ”: At the end of this verse there are two levels of quotation. First, the captain is quoted and he, in turn, quotes the king directly. In many languages it will be necessary to make one of these indirect. In addition to the Good News Translation model, translators may also consider “told the man of God that the king had said ‘Come down!’ ” Or both quotations may be made indirect by saying “informed the man of God that the king ordered him to come down.”

For man of God, see the comments on 1 Kgs 12.22 and 13.1. Here is it is used as a form of direct address as in 1 Kgs 17.18.

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 .