But Amaziah took courage: But renders the common Hebrew conjunction as a contrastive connector. Even though Amaziah lost the help of the Israelite troops, he still had confidence to attack the Edomites. It is also possible to understand this conjunction as a temporal connector (so New Living Translation with “Then”). The expression took courage renders a reflexive verb in Hebrew that is literally “strengthened himself” (NASB). It may be rendered “acted with renewed confidence” (similarly Knox) or “became very brave” (New Century Version).

And led out his people, and went to the Valley of Salt: As is often true in military contexts in the Old Testament, the Hebrew noun for people may be rendered “army” (Good News Translation, Bible en français courant). The Valley of Salt was a wide valley running south from the Dead Sea. It is also mentioned in 1 Chr 18.12 as the place where Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, killed eighteen thousand Edomites (see the comments there).

And smote ten thousand men of Seir: The archaic verb smote is better rendered “killed” (Good News Translation) in English. This verb is third person singular in Hebrew, so Amaziah is the subject. But the sense is that he led his men in killing the Edomites, not that he himself killed them. The context of this verse implies that the Edomites were killed in battle, not that they were massacred. For this reason Good News Translation makes explicit the fact that “they fought.” Seir was a mountain range that ran the length of the region of Edom, southeast of Judah. Sometimes in the Old Testament Seir is used as a synonym for the name Edom (see the comments on 1 Chr 4.42 and 2 Chr 20.10). Instead of the less well-known name Seir, many modern versions use the name “Edom/Edomite” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Century Version, Bible en français courant). New Living Translation has both names by rendering men of Seir as “Edomite troops from Seir.”

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 .