The sons of Shime-i: Shelomoth, Hazi-el, and Haran, three. These were the heads of the fathers’ houses of Ladan: As the footnote in several versions states, the relationship of the first half of this verse to the list of Shimei’s sons in verse 10 is not clear (so Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). Moreover, the end of verse 9 seems to suggest that all of the leaders named in verses 8-9a were descendants of Ladan. Various interpretations have been suggested as follows:
• (1) Some scholars suggest that the Shime-i named here is not the same person as the Shimei in verses 7 and 10, but rather he is a descendant of Ladan. Or perhaps this Shime-i, along with Ladan, was a son of Libni, who was the older son of Gershon and the brother of the Shimei mentioned in verses 7 and 10.
• (2) Others suggest that the name Shime-i here is an error and that originally the text contained the name of one of Ladan’s sons, mentioned in the preceding verse. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, for example, states in a footnote that the name Shimei here has probably been confused with another name since the sons of Shimei are first named in verse 10. Einheitsübersetzung goes even further and replaces the name Shime-i with the name “Jehiel” from verse 9 (also Klein, Knoppers). This solution fits the pattern in verses 8, 13, 16, and 21, in which the sons of the first son mentioned in the previous verse are then listed in the next verse. So here, the sons of Jehiel would be listed rather than the sons of Shimei. This solution is attractive, but there is no evidence for it in the ancient manuscripts. (Moffatt solves this difficulty in a different way. He keeps the name Shime-i here in verse 9 but replaces the name Shimei in verse 10 with the name Shelomoth so that verse 10 gives a list of the sons of Shelomoth.)
• (3) Another solution is to consider verse 10 as a list of additional sons of Shimei (so Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, Bible en français courant, La Bible du Semeur, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente).
• (4) Still others suggest that the words The sons of Shime-i: Shelomoth, Hazi-el, and Haran, three are not original, but were added to the text later. New English Bible and Revised English Bible omit this first part of the verse. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gives an {A} rating to the Masoretic Text, but Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament does not even consider this verse since the ancient manuscripts do not reflect a problem here.
Good News Translation has reordered the two parts of the verse so that verse 9b follows logically after verse 8. Rather than reorder the parts of the verse, Braun simply places the first part of the verse within parenthesis, saying “(while the sons of Shimei were also three: Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran). These were the heads of the fathers’ (houses) of Ladan.” Even though Good News Translation has reordered verse 9, the difficulty remains that it lists three sons of Shimei but verse 10 lists four different sons. New Living Translation (similarly Contemporary English Version) eliminates this difficulty by translating verses 8-10 as follows:
8 Three of the descendants of Libni were Jehiel (the family leader), Zetham, and Joel. 9 These were the leaders of the family of Libni.
Three of the descendants of Shimei were Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran. 10 Four other descendants of Shimei were Jahath, Ziza, Jeush, and Beriah.
New Living Translation has moved verse 9b to the beginning of verse 9 and connected it with verse 8. Then verses 9a and 10 are connected as if verse 10 gives additional sons of Shimei. This solution does remove exegetical difficulties, but it ignores the complex history of the written text of 1 Chronicles and is not recommended. Bible en français courant (similarly La Bible du Semeur, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente) translates verses 9-10 as follows:
9 Shimei had three sons: Shelomoth, Haziel and Haran, who were heads of the families descended from Ladan. 10 Shimei had also four more sons: Jahath, Ziza, Jeush and Beriah.
Like New Living Translation, Bible en français courant lists the four sons of Shimei in verse 10 as if they are additional sons to those listed in verse 9. However, Bible en français courant, unlike New Living Translation, connects 9a and 9b by stating that the three sons of Shimei in verse 9a were heads of families descended from Ladan. Although this solution is not followed by most other translations, it is one possible way to understand the Hebrew text.
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 .