This verse is a rather long rhetorical question. Even in languages where rhetorical questions are acceptable, long and complicated ones often have to be transformed into several affirmations. Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy do that here. In this verse it may be possible to keep the basic question (What other nation on earth is like thy people Israel?), but the statements about Israel may have to be presented in the form of affirmative statements.

What other nation on earth is like thy people Israel: This translation is based on the Septuagint and the Vulgate. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament prefers this reading by giving it a {C} rating. The Masoretic Text reads “And who [is] like your people Israel one nation on earth?” It is possible that the words “one nation” should be translated “a unique nation,” and that they refer to Israel. Compare “And who is like Your people Israel, a unique nation on earth” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh; similarly Knoppers). The Hebrew words for other (ʾacher) and “one” (ʾechad) are very similar.

Whom God went to redeem to be his people: David refers to God in the third person here even though he addresses him in the second person in the rest of this question. Since this will be confusing to many readers, everything should probably be shifted to second person; for example, this clause may be rendered “whom you redeemed from slavery in Egypt to be your people” (similarly Good News Translation). To be his people echoes the words of Moses to the people of Israel in Deut 4.34. Another way of saying this is “to belong to him [or, you].” This theme is continued in the following verse.

Making for thyself a name: As in 1 Chr 17.8, the word name has to do with reputation. So it may be better in many languages to say “acquiring a reputation for yourself” or “winning fame for yourself.” Most translations understand this clause to refer to God’s fame. But New Jerusalem Bible corrects this clause to follow the parallel passage in 2 Sam 7.23 by saying “to make them famous” (similarly Bible de Jérusalem). In 2 Sam 7.23 God is said to have made a name for Israel. But the Masoretic Text says here in 1 Chronicles that God has made a name for himself, and the parallel passage in 2 Sam 7.23 may also be understood as referring to God and not to the nation of Israel. Since the Masoretic Text makes sense here in verse 21, translators should follow it rather than correct the Hebrew to agree with the parallel passage in 2 Samuel.

For great and terrible things may be rendered “by using great and wonderful miracles” (Contemporary English Version).

In driving out nations before thy people whom thou didst redeem from Egypt: The parallel text in 2 Sam 7.23 also mentions “its [Egypt’s] gods.” NET Bible harmonizes this last part of the verse here in 1 Chronicles with the parallel in 2 Samuel, reading “when you drove out nations before your people whom you had delivered from the Egyptian empire and its gods.” But since there is no textual support for changing the text here in 1 Chronicles, translators should not harmonize the translation here.

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 .