He made chains: Once again, it was probably not Solomon who actually performed this work, but he had the chains made by skilled craftsmen. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version use passive verbs to convey this idea, but in languages where this is not an option, a causative verb form may be used.
Like a necklace: Despite the footnote in Good News Translation, the Hebrew is not unclear. Rather, it is the meaning of the Hebrew that is unclear. The Masoretic Text says that he made chain designs “in the inner room/sanctuary” (An American Translation, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Reina-Valera revisada), that is, in the Most Holy Place. The Hebrew word for “inner room” is debir, which New Jerusalem Bible and Bible de Jérusalem transliterate, saying “in the Debir.” The following solutions have been followed in translating this difficult text:
• (1) King James Version takes the Hebrew word debir not as “inner room” but as “oracle,” saying “as in the oracle,” but this makes no sense.
• (2) Some interpreters think that the Masoretic Text reading here is impossible and that a word must have been miscopied. The Hebrew phrase for “in the inner room” is badebir. But it seems strange that the writer would mention the Most Holy Place in the context of the two bronze columns. Therefore many interpreters accept a correction of the Hebrew to read like a necklace (kerabid). (The shape of the Hebrew letters in the words badebir and kerabid is similar.) Other renderings that follow this correction are “in the form of a collar” (New American Bible) and those that say the chains were “interwoven” (Good News Translation, New International Version) or “encircling” (New Revised Standard Version). This correction makes good sense in the context, but there is no support for it in the Hebrew manuscripts.
• (3) Others think that the words “in the inner room” must have been accidentally added by a scribe, so they delete them (so NET Bible, Bible en français courant).
• (4) Hebrew Old Testament Text Project had claimed that the words “in the inner sanctuary” were a later addition to the text, but Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament does not follow the earlier decision of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament notes that all the ancient manuscripts and versions except the Syriac support the reading of the Masoretic Text here. The parallel text in 1 Kgs 6.21 says that chain designs were made in the Most Holy Place, although the Hebrew word for “chains” in that passage is different from the one used here. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament argues that the intended sense is that Hiram made chain designs both for the Most Holy Place and for the tops of the pillars.
This same understanding of the text seems to be the basis for the La Bible du Semeur translation, which begins this verse with “The tops of these pillars were decorated with garlands like those in the temple.” God’s Word is similar with “He made chains for the inner room and also put them on the capitals.” The word “also” is not in the Hebrew text but has been added in an attempt to make sense of the Hebrew.
And he made a hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains: Pomegranates are a reddish fruit about the size of an orange with a reddish pulp. The seeds of this fruit were a symbol of fertility in the ancient Near East. These pomegranates were not real fruit, but as Good News Translation makes explicit, they were “bronze pomegranates.” According to 2 Chr 4.12-13, there were two chains for each capital and a total of 400 pomegranates, so there must have been 100 pomegranates attached to each chain.
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 .