Then they would give the money that was weighed out …: The common Hebrew conjunction at the beginning of this verse is to be taken as a temporal transition marker. Apparently the pronoun they still refers to the king’s secretary and the high priest from the previous verse. But the translation of this verse could begin with passive forms as follows: “After the silver was weighed out, then it would be given….” As noted in the previous verse, the Hebrew verb translated would give could be translated “gave,” but Revised Standard Version correctly translates this verb according to the context as something that was regularly done. The passive construction the money that was weighed out will need to be rendered actively in some languages. New Century Version provides a good model by beginning this verse with “Next they weighed the money and gave it….”
The workmen who had the oversight of the house of the LORD: This expression seems to refer to those who acted as foremen for the project rather than the people who actually did the work. It is therefore possible to translate it using a word like “supervisors.” Revised English Bible has “those supervising the work in the house of the LORD,” while New Living Translation says simply “the construction supervisors.” Some other possibilities are “the masters of works attached to the Temple of Yahweh” (New Jerusalem Bible) and “the overseers of the work, who were in charge of the House of the LORD” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).
They paid it out to the carpenters and the builders: After the foremen received the money, they passed the funds on to those actually doing the work. Two groups of workers are mentioned here. The first category of workers are the carpenters, which is more literally “the ones working the wood/trees.” This does not render the same Hebrew expression translated in this way in 2 Kgs 22.6 and may possibly focus more in this case on the actual cutting down of trees.
The second category of workers who received the money are called builders. This is a more general term used very frequently in 1 Kings for those involved in the construction of the Temple (see 5.18, for example).
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 .