Verse 13 returns to the story of the queen of Sheba, which was interrupted by the digression in verses 11-12.

All that she desired is understood in the Ethiopian tradition to mean that she wanted to give birth to a son of Solomon. That tradition claims that she gave birth to a son named Menelik, whose father was King Solomon. Apart from the historical questions this raises, translators should not make this expression more precise than it is in Hebrew. God’s Word translates “anything she wanted.”

What was given her by the bounty of King Solomon: The passive verb here may be transformed easily into an active one following the model of Good News Translation. The New Living Translation translation is nearly identical to Good News Translation here. Other possible renderings include “the gifts he would have given any other ruler” (Contemporary English Version) and “what he had given her out of his royal generosity” (God’s Word). Nouvelle Bible Segond also expresses the meaning clearly as “he gave her many other presents, as only King Solomon was able to do.”

By the bounty is literally “by the hand.” Osty-Trinquet renders this “with a royal generosity.”

She turned and went back to her own land, with her servants: The two Hebrew verbs translated turned and went back may be rendered by a single verb, such as “returned” (New Revised Standard Version). But it is also possible to see the first verb as focusing on the initial departure and the second one on the journey. Revised English Bible says “she departed with her retinue and went back to her own land.”

Good News Translation makes explicit that her own land was “the land of Sheba.”

With her servants is literally “she and her servants.” This phrase comes at the very end of the verse. The Hebrew keeps the focus on the queen of Sheba, but for all practical purposes the servants are a part of the subject of the sentence. In many languages it will be more natural to say something like “accompanied by her servants, she went back to her own country.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .