And renders the common Hebrew conjunction. It is better translated here as “So” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) since verse 24 states the consequence or result of what happened because of the women’s argument.

In the Hebrew text the king gives an order for someone to bring him a sword, and his words are given as a direct quotation. The verbs Bring and [they] brought are second person plural and third person plural in Hebrew. Good News Translation has restructured and translated the direct quotation as indirect discourse. Some other possible models for this kind of structure in the first half of the verse are “Then the king called for a sword” and “So the king asked his servants to bring him a sword.”

The Hebrew word rendered sword is used of weapons of different sizes and shapes. Here it probably refers to a long, straight sword made of iron.

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 .