After this is literally “And it was after this.” It is not clear whether the writer intends for the events in this chapter to follow almost immediately after the events of the previous chapter. Most likely these words are not to be pressed to indicate a strict chronological sequence. The Good News Translation rendering “Some time later” or simply “Later” (New Century Version) probably expresses the correct sense. In this context the demonstrative pronoun this refers to the time of the oracle and prayer in chapter 17. The author elsewhere uses brief transitions that are also chronologically vague (see 1 Chr 19.1; 20.1, 4).

David defeated the Philistines and subdued them: Since this is the beginning of both a new chapter and a new section, Good News Translation again identifies David more fully as “King David.” The verbs defeated and subdued seem to say the same thing. Some interpreters have taken the first verb to refer to defeat in battle and the second one to subsequent humiliation and submission (so Bible en français courant). Both Good News Translation and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh use the verb “attacked” in the first case to translate a Hebrew verb that literally means “strike” or “hit” (King James Version “smote”). By adding the adverb “again,” Good News Translation reminds the reader that this is not the first time that David had gone to war with the Philistines (see, for example, 1 Chr 14.8-17).

And he took Gath and its villages out of the hand of the Philistines: Gath and its villages is literally “Gath and her daughters.” Other translations of this Hebrew idiom include “Gath and its dependencies” (New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh; similarly American Bible) and “Gath and its surrounding villages” (Good News Translation). The sense of the Hebrew is not simply that these villages were surrounding villages; the inhabitants also depended on the city of Gath to provide protection in times of war (see the comments on 1 Chr 2.23). Gath was one of the major Philistine cities, and translators may make it explicit that this was a “city” (Good News Translation). The word hand refers here to the power or control that the Philistines had exercised over the city of Gath and its surrounding villages. This control was taken from them by David and his army. New International Version renders out of the hand of the Philistines as “from the control of the Philistines.”

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 .