And from Tibhath and from Cun, cities of Hadadezer: The city of Tibhath is sometimes called “Tebah” (so here in New International Version) and, perhaps by transposing the consonants, “Betah” (2 Sam 8.8). The relationship between the noun cities and the name Hadadezer should be clearly expressed. This may be done in various ways; for example, Good News Translation says “cities ruled by Hadadezer,” and Bible en français courant has “two cities of Hadadezer’s kingdom.”

David took very much bronze: Since David took items made of gold in the previous verse, the sense of this verse is that he “also” (Good News Translation, Bible en français courant) took bronze. For bronze see the comments on 1 Chr 15.19.

With it Solomon made the bronze sea and the pillars and the vessels of bronze: Because this information is not an essential part of the story of David, it will be appropriate in some languages to enclose it in parentheses or otherwise set it off as an aside. Since Solomon did not immediately make the Temple items listed here, some versions say that he “later” used the bronze to make them (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Bible en français courant, Parole de Vie). They also add that he made them “for the Temple.” The bronze sea was a huge basin made of bronze and supported by twelve statues of bulls (see 1 Kgs 7.23-26; 2 Chr 4.2-5). It was placed in the southeast corner of the Temple courtyard. The priests used water from the bronze tank for ritual washings. For a good description of this tank, see WTH, pages 243-244|fig:WTH.4.3.2.Temple – Sea, tank.243-244.html. A literal translation of the bronze sea will be meaningless in some languages. New Century Version says “the large bronze bowl, which was called the Sea.” Others may prefer to say “the large bronze basin.” The pillars were two bronze columns that stood at the entrance to the Temple (see 1 Kgs 7.15-22; 2 Chr 3.15-17). For a good description of these columns, see WTH, pages 152-156|fig:WTH.column, pillar, capital.152-155.html. The vessels of bronze refers to the bronze instruments used in the Temple (see 1 Kgs 7.45; 2 Chr 4.16).

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 .