The sons of Uzzi: Izrahiah. And the sons of Izrahiah … five, all of them chief men: Uzzi was the oldest son of Tola (see verse 2). Revised Standard Version represents the form of the Hebrew by reading the plural sons at the beginning of the verse. However, since only one son of Uzzi is listed, some interpreters have suggested that the words And the sons of Izrahiah should be omitted. They claim that a scribe probably accidentally added And the sons of Izrahiah by repetition. According to this correction, Izrahiah would be a brother rather than a father to the four other men who are named here. This would also make good sense of the word five, if Izrahiah was the brother of the other four men listed here. But if the Masoretic Text is followed, it may be better to begin with “The son of Uzzi: Izrahiah. The sons of Izrahiah…” (so Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente; similarly Good News Translation). Moffatt has “Uzzi’s son, Izrahiah, was the father of….” Izrahiah was a great grandson of Issachar. Since only four sons of Izrahiah are listed, the number five includes Izrahiah as well as his four sons. One way to express the last half of this verse is “Izrahiah and his four sons … were all heads of families” (Good News Translation). Compare also “Izrahiah and his sons … were all five heads of families” (Bible en français courant) and “The sons of Izrahiah were … These five became the leaders of clans” (New Living Translation).

Chief men may be expressed as “heads of families” (Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente), “heads of clans” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), or “leaders of clans” (New Living Translation).

Contemporary English Version avoids the problems in the verse by translating rather loosely: “Uzzi was the father of Izrahiah and the grandfather of Michael, Obadiah, Joel, and Isshiah, who were also family leaders.”

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 .