And Maacah the wife of Machir bore a son, and she called his name Peresh; and the name of his brother was Sheresh: According to one interpretation of verse 15, Maacah was the name of Machir’s sister and not of his wife, as she is clearly called here. Some scholars eliminate the difficulty by correcting the Hebrew of verse 16 to read “Maacah the wife of Gilead” instead of Maacah the wife of Machir. As noted in the comments on the previous verse, Moffatt corrects the Masoretic Text of verse 15 to read that Maacah was the wife of Gilead, so Moffatt here in verse 16 has “Maakah the wife of Gilead.”

In this context the words “two sons” in Good News Translation may be understood in some languages as referring to twins. But this meaning should be avoided since Peresh and Sheresh were probably not twins. Neither the sons listed here nor at the beginning of the next verse are named elsewhere in the Old Testament. Peresh and Sheresh were brothers of Gilead (verse 14). But verse 17 seems to include them among the sons of Gilead.

And his sons were Ulam and Rakem: It is not clear whether the pronoun his refers to Peresh or Sheresh. Either interpretation is possible. Most likely the reference is to Peresh (so clearly Good News Translation, New Living Translation), the first son named, just as verse 17 gives the son of the first son named at the end of verse 16. However, Bible en français courant says “Sheresh was the father of Ulam and Rakem,” and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente has “The sons of Sheresh were Ulam and Rakem” (similarly New Century Version, La Bible Pléiade, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). For the last two clauses of this verse Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “The brother of Peresh was Sheresh, and his sons were Ulam and Rakem.”

In the Masoretic Text the name Rakem is spelled with an a because of the Hebrew accent on the name, which marks that the name occurs at the end of the sentence. In its non-accented form, the name is “Rekem” (so New Revised Standard Version, Contemporary English Version, and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh as well as most French and Spanish versions).

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 .