Because …: Revised Standard Version, following the Hebrew, continues the sentence started at the beginning of verse 11. This verse explains why the city of Samaria fell to the enemy forces. In many cases it will be wise to begin a new sentence restating the main idea from the previous verse; for example, “Samaria was defeated because….” Where passive forms are not available, another possible model is “The Assyrians took Samaria because….”

They did not obey the voice of the LORD is literally “they did not hear the voice….” The subject pronoun they clearly refers to the people of Israel. Their disobedience is further described by the synonymous statement transgressed his covenant and is further reinforced by the final sentence of this verse: they neither listened nor obeyed. The cumulative effect of all these statements is a strong reinforcement of the notion of disobedience, but in some languages translators may not find adequate synonyms to translate them all. For covenant see the comments at 1 Kgs 3.15.

Even all that Moses … commanded: The wording of Good News Translation here gives the mistaken impression that even all that Moses … commanded refers to something different from the covenant. But this is probably not the case. These words stand in apposition to God’s covenant with the people of Israel. Compare New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh: “they transgressed His covenant—all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded” (similarly American Bible, La Bible Pléiade).

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 .