And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the LORD: Whoever had is literally “the one with whom it was found.” Some other ways to express this phrase are “Whoever happened to have” (God’s Word) and simply “People who had” (New Century Version). Precious stones is literally “stones” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, An American Translation, Osty-Trinquet). In this context the reference seems to be to gems and not simply to stones used for building, so many versions say “precious stones.” Other possible renderings are “stones of value” and “expensive stones.” Revised Standard Version has supplied the pronoun them after the verb gave as English requires.

In the care of Jehiel the Gershonite is literally “on the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite.” Jehiel was in charge of the Temple treasury. He is referred to in 1 Chr 26.21, but a slightly different form of his name is used there, which is “Jehieli.” The Gershonite may be rendered “a descendant of Gershon” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) or “of the Levite clan of Gershon” (Good News Translation). The original readers would probably have known immediately that Gershon was a Levite; but since modern readers do not know this, it is legitimate to supply this implied information as Good News Translation has done.

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 .