And all the people of Judah took Uzziah … and made him king …: The common Hebrew conjunction rendered And may be omitted at the beginning of this new section (so Good News Translation). The Hebrew verbs rendered took and made … king may be combined in some languages; for example, New Century Version begins this verse with “Then all the people of Judah made Uzziah king….” The name Uzziah (literally “Uzziyahu”) means “Yahweh is my strength.” Uzziah is usually called “Azariah” (which means “Yahweh helps”) in the parallel text in 2 Kings and in 1 Chr 3.12. Despite the significant dissimilarity of the two names in English, the difference in Hebrew between the two is the presence or absence of a single consonant, so the difference between the two forms of the name is greater in English than in Hebrew. It will be important to inform the reader that the name Uzziah refers to the same person as Azariah in other contexts. Probably the best way to do this is through a footnote at the beginning of this section. The texts provide no reason for the different names, but see the comments on 1 Chr 3.12.

Instead of his father Amaziah may be rendered “to replace Amaziah his father.” The biblical text nowhere clearly states that Uzziah became king only after the death of his father Amaziah, so the translation should not indicate that Amaziah was already dead when Uzziah became king. Biblical scholars debate whether Uzziah became king before or after his father’s death. Some think that Uzziah ruled in Judah for as many as twenty-five years while his father was alive and a prisoner in Samaria.

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 .