Then the LORD commanded the angel is literally “And the LORD said to the angel,” but the context allows for a stronger verb here such as “ordered.” The content of the command is left unstated, but the rest of the verse, which tells what the angel did, indicates indirectly what the LORD had said. Some versions make explicit what the LORD told the angel to do; for example, Good News Translation says “The LORD told the angel to put his sword away” (similarly Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje). Traduction œcuménique de la Bible has “Then the LORD told the angel to put his sword back into the sheath,” leaving unstated the implied information that the angel did so. Contemporary English Version is similar with “Then the LORD commanded the angel to put the sword away.”

And he put his sword back into its sheath: The word translated sheath is a loanword from the Persian language, which indicates that 1 Chronicles was written in the period after the Babylonian Exile. A sheath was a case or bag about the size and shape of a sword, used to cover and to carry the sword. For put his sword back into its sheath, Revised English Bible says “sheathed his sword.” New Century Version avoids the difficult word sheath by saying “put his sword back into its holder.” Others may prefer “put his sword back into its place” or simply “put away his sword.”

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 .