Men came: The word men in the Revised Standard Version rendering of this verse is not meant exclusively and, in fact, the Hebrew says simply “they came.” The translation of men should therefore read “People” as in New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, and other recent versions. The intended sense in this context may well be “ambassadors” (New Living Translation).

From all peoples … and from all the kings of the earth: In the Hebrew text the first preposition translated from indicates the origin of those who came; that is, they came from various nations. The second preposition translated from is slightly different in Hebrew and has the sense “sent by.” It has the same meaning in 2 Sam 15.3, where it is rendered “deputed by,” that is, “sent by.”

The two parts of this verse are basically parallel in meaning. The reference is not to one group of people who came and then also to other people sent by kings. For this reason Good News Translation omits the parallelism and says simply “Kings … sent people.” If the parallelism is kept, International Children’s Bible may provide a good model for preserving the sense that only one group of people is being mentioned:

• People from all nations came to listen to King Solomon’s wisdom. The kings of all nations sent them to listen to him. These kings had heard of Solomon’s wisdom.

Compare also New Revised Standard Version:

• People came from all the nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon; they came from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and Osty-Trinquet follow some manuscripts of the Septuagint by adding “he received gifts” before the words from all the kings of the earth. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, however, gives a {B} rating to the Masoretic Text.

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 .