The common Hebrew conjunction at the beginning of this verse is correctly translated but by Revised Standard Version and many other English versions. Good News Translation renders it “Instead.”

Eaten bread and drunk water: See the comments on these words in verse 19.

The place again apparently refers to Bethel as in verses 8 and 16.

Your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers: Body translates a Hebrew noun that refers to the “corpse” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Anchor Bible) of a person or the carcass of an animal. If the receptor language has a distinct word for a “dead body,” that term should be used here.

In many languages the word tomb presents difficulties for translators. The tomb of your fathers refers to a family burial place. At this time in Israelite culture, tombs were cut into rocky hillsides. There were stone shelves on which the bodies were placed until they decomposed, leaving only the bones. Then the bones were placed into a pit beneath the shelves and the tomb was reused. For this phrase Good News Translation says “your family grave” and Contemporary English Version is similar with “your family tomb.” Another possible rendering is “the place where your ancestors were buried.”

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 .