These were the potters and inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah: It is not clear to whom the demonstrative pronoun These refers, but it should probably be seen as referring backward and not forward. It is not clear whether the pronoun includes the people mentioned in both verses 21 and 22 or only verse 22. In some languages there exists a pronoun that refers to “the ones just mentioned previously.” It would be appropriate here. Contemporary English Version begins this verse with “The members of these clans….”
The Hebrew waw translated and may also be rendered “namely.” The sense of this whole clause would then be “These were the potters, namely, the inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah.” The ancient versions and the Targums express this sense by saying “They were the potters who lived in Netaim and Gederah.” But it is also possible to understand the Hebrew to mean that even though all of the people in the previous verse were potters, only some of them were the king’s potters: those who lived in Netaim and Gederah. Revised English Bible, for example, renders this verse as “They were the potters, and those who lived at Netaim and Gederah were there on the king’s service.”
The two names Netaim and Gederah almost certainly refer to towns or villages in spite of the fact that King James Version takes the Hebrew words rendered Netaim and Gederah to mean “plants and hedges.” Jewish Publication Version and Reina-Valera revisada are similar with “plantations and hedges.” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible reads “the plantations and the enclosures” in the text and gives “Netaim and Gederah” as an alternative translation in a footnote. Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente does just the reverse of Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, translating the Hebrew as place names in the text and giving the alternative translation “the plantations and the enclosures” in a footnote. Netaim was probably a town in Judah; and, according to Josh 15.36, Gederah was a town in the foothills of Judah.
They dwelt there with the king for his work may mean that these people worked on land owned by the king as they worked for him. More likely it means that the king provided the financial support for them to make jars and other kinds of pottery for him. This statement does not mean that they lived in the royal palace. The specific work of these people was making pottery, but this was done in the service of the king. Bible de Jérusalem translates this clause as “They remained there with the king, attached to his workshop.” New Living Translation says simply “They all worked for the king.”
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .