Benaiah came to the tent of the LORD: For reasons of English style, Good News Translation uses the pronoun “He” rather than repeat the proper name Benaiah.

Languages vary as to whether they use the verb came (Revised Standard Version) or “went” (Good News Translation) in such a context. Translators should use whichever form is most natural in their language.

The king commands, ‘Come forth.’: This sentence may present problems to translators, in part because it contains an embedded quotation. And in fact the quoted words are probably not exactly what the king said. They are, however, in keeping with the spirit of what the king wanted. Some may prefer to translate “The king wants you to come out” or possibly “In the name of the king, I command you to come out.” Revised English Bible renders the whole quotation as indirect discourse as follows: “ordered Joab in the king’s name to come away.”

But he said: In many languages it will be helpful to render he said as “Joab answered” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version).

No, I will die here: Revised Standard Version does not preserve the word order of the Hebrew in Joab’s response. But compare the literal rendering of Traduction œcuménique de la Bible: “No, it is here that I will die.” The emphasis in Hebrew is on the word here.

Then Benaiah brought the king word again: The use of the word again is significant since it introduces a second remark to the king after Benaiah heard what Joab had said. But this information may be expressed in other ways; for example, Contemporary English Version says “Benaiah went back and told Solomon.”

Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me: The Hebrew does not actually give the exact words that Joab spoke to Benaiah. Rather, the writer has used a form of shorthand, allowing the context to suggest to the reader what Joab actually said. A literal translation such as that found in Revised Standard Version will be meaningless in most languages. Revised English Bible again captures the meaning without using a direct quotation: “Benaiah reported Joab’s answer to the king.” See the comments on “pseudo-quotations” in 1 Kgs 1.5-6.

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 .