14:32a

And if he is unable: In this context the phrase if he is unable means “if the first king decides that he cannot defend himself.” Other ways to translate this are:

If he thinks he won’t be able to defend himself (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
if he realizes that he will not win the battle

14:32b

he will send a delegation: In this context the word delegation refers to a small group of people who represent the king who wants peace. Other ways to translate this clause are:

he will send messengers to meet the other king (Good News Translation)
-or-
he’ll send ambassadors (God’s Word)

while the other king is still far off: The phrase the other king refers to the second king, the one with the larger army. This king is advancing toward the first king and his army but is still some distance away. Another way to translate this is:

long before the enemy approaches (Revised English Bible)

14:32c

to ask for terms of peace: The phrase ask for terms of peace means “ask the king under what conditions he will make peace.” The delegation goes to the enemy king and asks what he wants in order to stop fighting against their king. In some languages, it is better to put this in a direct quote. For example:

they will ask the other king, “What must we(excl) do in order that there may be peace?”

peace: In this context, the word peace means the absence of war or conflict.

See peace, Meaning 2, in the Glossary.

© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.