Then renders the common Hebrew conjunction. Revised English Bible takes it here as a logical connector by saying “So,” but it is best understood as a temporal connector. Contemporary English Version translates “After that.”

All the people departed each to his house, and David went home to bless his household: 2 Sam 6.19-20 gives a more detailed account. But translators should avoid giving details in 1 Chronicles and follow the text as it stands here. According to the Hebrew, followed literally by Revised Standard Version, David returned home to bless his household. This expression has been variously understood by scholars as follows:

• (1) Since the Hebrew word for house is used at the beginning of this verse to refer to a literal home, the same sense may be intended at the end of this verse where the Hebrew word for “house” is translated household by Revised Standard Version. If so, then the meaning may be that David went home to dedicate his palace to God.

• (2) But more likely, the Hebrew noun means household at the end of this verse, as it does also in 1 Chr 13.14 and 17.27. In Old Testament times a blessing was often a kind of greeting, so here the most likely meaning is that David was going to his home to greet members of his family following his absence. The Hebrew verb for bless is translated “greet” in New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh. Translators should probably avoid a literal rendering of this verb except in those languages where blessings are used as greetings.

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 .