Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written …: Now translates the common Hebrew conjunction, which introduces a new topic here. The acts of King David do not refer to the personal details of David’s life, but rather to the political aspects of his reign. New Century Version says “Everything David did as king.” From first to last may be rendered “from beginning to end” (Good News Translation, New International Version, American Bible; similarly Bible en français courant) or “from the beginning of his reign until he died.” Rather than translate this phrase literally, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente begins the verse with “The complete history of David’s reign is found….” In the Hebrew a focusing particle often translated “behold” or “lo” follows the phrase from first to last. This particle draws attention to what follows but is not translated in Revised Standard Version or Good News Translation. King James Version keeps it by beginning this verse with “Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written….”
The passive expression are written will have to be transformed into an active one in some languages. Translators may do this by beginning the verse with “They [indefinite] have written the record of David’s acts…” or “The three prophets, Samuel, Nathan and Gad, have recorded the history of David….”
In the Chronicles of Samuel the seer, and in the Chronicles of Nathan the prophet, and in the Chronicles of Gad the seer: Regarding the meaning and translation of the terms seer and prophet, see the comments on 1 Chr 9.22. In many languages it will be difficult to find two terms that are basically synonyms here. Some versions use the word prophet for all three people mentioned at the end of this verse (so Good News Translation, La Bible du Semeur). The chronicles is literally “the words.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “the history,” and New Revised Standard Version and New International Version have “the records.” These three writings may refer to the biblical books of 1–2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings, in which case the author of 1 Chronicles attributes the authorship of those books to Samuel (see 1 Sam 16.1-13; 1 Chr 9.22), Nathan (see 2 Sam 7 and 1 Chr 17), and Gad (see 2 Sam 24 and 1 Chr 21), but there is no way to be sure that this is the case. Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente has a footnote on this verse which says, “It is very likely these do not refer to the biblical books of Samuel, but to writings we no longer have.” In any case, the writer of 1 Chronicles intended this as a reference to previous writings. Since these writings are the names of books, Bible en français courant has the names in italics by rendering this verse as “The history of King David, from the beginning to the end, is contained in the books called Acts of the Seer Samuel, Acts of the Prophet Nathan, and Acts of the Prophet Gad.” Bible en français courant also has a footnote stating that the three books mentioned in this verse are lost.
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 .