And: This verse begins with the Hebrew verbal transition that is sometimes rendered “And it happened.” Here Jewish Publication Version and King James Version have “And it was so,” but the Hebrew transition is ignored by most modern English versions.
Whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest …; that is, it was not just on one occasion that they saw and gave the money (verse 11). They did this on a regular basis whenever the chest was full of money. The pronoun they may be understood as referring to the priests or it may simply be an indefinite third person plural serving as an equivalent of a passive form. Or it may look forward to the two officials who are named to open the box and count the money. Some translations leave the verb saw (New American Bible “noticed”) implicit; for example, Contemporary English Version says “When the box was full of money….”
Much money is literally “much silver” (see verse 4).
The king’s secretary, who is mentioned again in chapter 22 (verses 3, 8-10, 12), was apparently an important person through whom the king was able to control what happened in the Temple. Since the writing ability of this person is relatively unimportant in this context, it may be acceptable in certain languages to translate “the representative of the king.”
The high priest: Many scholars think that the term high priest came to be used only at a later time in the history of Israel. For this reason some consider the words and the high priest to be a later addition to the text. This explains why the words “and the priest” are enclosed in square brackets in New American Bible and why there is no mention of the high priest in New Jerusalem Bible. But the verbs that follow are probably to be understood as plural, so it is likely that another official in addition to the king’s secretary was included as a part of the subject. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament correctly supports the reading of the Masoretic Text since there is no textual evidence to support the omission. Although the Hebrew words translated high priest occur previously only in Lev 21.10; Num 35.25, 28, 32 and Josh 20.6, the hierarchy of the priesthood is generally assumed to be a late development in the history of Israel. Many scholars believe that the office of High Priest developed only after the Exile. It is, therefore, probably unwise to use capital letters as in Good News Translation since this seems to indicate a more formal title for a fixed office. It might rather be translated “the great priest” (Hobbs), “the leader of the priests,” or something similar. The same expression is found again later in 2 Kgs 22.4, 8 and 23.4. Most likely these words refer to Jehoiada here, as suggested by the note in Traduction œcuménique de la Bible. Some translators might therefore actually substitute the proper name at this point.
The Hebrew verb rendered came up is intended literally since the Temple was located at a high point in the city of Jerusalem. However, several modern translations do not express this elevation, saying instead “would come” (Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible) or “came” (New International Version, New Century Version, Revised English Bible) rather than “would come up” or “came up.”
They counted and tied up in bags is literally “they tied up [from the Hebrew root tsur] and they counted.” Revised Standard Version has reversed the order of the verbs since logically, money would be counted before it would be put into bags and tied up. But some interpreters suggest that the first verb comes from the Hebrew root yatsar, which means “to form” or “to shape.” This is the basis for the Revised English Bible rendering “they melted down … and weighed…” (similarly Good News Translation, New American Bible).
If the first verb does indeed mean “to tie up,” then the sense may be that the money was not in the form of coins but rather in the form of bits of silver which were tied up and then weighed. As noted in verse 4, money in the form of coins did not exist until the fifth century B.C.
Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {B} rating to the Masoretic Text, but argues that the first Hebrew verb means “to put in a bag” and not “to tie up.” The silver was put in sacks of equal weight and then counted. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh expresses this sense with “… put the money … into bags, and they would count it.”
The money that was found is a literal translation of the Hebrew. If the verb “to find” implies in the receptor language that the money had been lost and then found, then a different verb will need to be used here. NET Bible, for example, says “the silver that had been brought.” In some languages it will be necessary to use an active verb; for example, one possible model is “the silver that the people had brought.”
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 .