He bought the hill of Samaria: The Hebrew text is literally “he bought the mountain of Samaria,” but Samaria was built on a hill (see the comments at the beginning of this section), and nearly all translations say hill rather than “mountain.” When Omri bought the hill it was not yet named Samaria, as the second half of this verse indicates. New Living Translation, therefore, says “Then Omri bought the hill now known as Samaria.”
From Shemer: Nearly all interpreters understand the name Shemer to be the name of an individual. Good News Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, in fact, make this explicit by saying “a man named Shemer,” which is a good model. There are a few reasons for uncertainty, however: (a) The spelling of the name Shemer in Hebrew may indicate that this is a feminine noun. If it is, then Shemer may be the name of an otherwise unknown clan or tribe. (b) In form, the Hebrew noun translated owner at the end of this verse is plural, so Gray translates the last part as “Shemer, the owner(s) of the hill.” But although the plural form is often plural in meaning, it may also be singular in meaning. In Isa 19.4, for example, an adjective that is singular in form is used to modify this same noun, which is plural in form (where Revised Standard Version has “hard master”).
Two talents of silver: Regarding the “talent,” see the comments on 1 Kgs 9.14. Two talents is the equivalent of “about one hundred fifty pounds” (Contemporary English Version) or “about seventy kilograms” (Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje). Bible en français courant and Good News Translation, which give this as equivalent to “six thousand pieces of silver,” have apparently converted the amount into the approximate number of small pieces of silver that would be required to weigh nearly 70 kilograms or 150 pounds.
He fortified the hill: Since Shemer is mentioned in this verse just before the verb fortified (literally “built”), Good News Translation makes it explicit that Omri is the subject of this verb. In certain languages it may be very difficult to understand and translate the meaning of fortified the hill. This expression is taken by both New Jerusalem Bible and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh to mean that Omri constructed a town on that location. Nouvelle Bible Segond similarly says “he built a city on the mountain.” This makes better sense and is much easier to translate into other languages.
Called the name of the city … Samaria, after the name of Shemer: See the discussion on the city of Samaria at the beginning of this section. In Hebrew the name of this city is Shomron, which is closer in sound to the name Shemer than is the English name Samaria. The name Samaria comes from the Septuagint.
The owner of the hill: Since Shemer had sold the hill to Omri, Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, and Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje refer to him as the “former owner,” rather than the owner.
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 .