Now therefore is literally “And now,” but there is clearly a logical transition here. Solomon’s request in this verse is based on the statements in the previous three verses.
Command: In some languages it may sound ill-mannered in correspondence between two kings to use this simple imperative without adding some more polite language. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh softens the imperative by beginning this verse with the word “Please.”
Regarding the name Lebanon and cedar trees, see the comments on 1 Kgs 4.33.
Neither Revised Standard Version nor Good News Translation gives a completely literal translation of the first half of this verse. The verb be cut renders a third person plural verb in Hebrew that is more literally translated “they cut.” Revised Standard Version has made this a passive verb, and Good News Translation has made the implicit subject explicit by adding “your men.”
The Hebrew word rendered servants occurs three times in this verse. It is the same word as in verse 1. In this context, however, it refers not to officials or ambassadors but to men who were subjects of the king and who were forced to work for certain fixed periods of time on royal projects. Compare “workers” (Contemporary English Version) and “slaves” (Peregrino). These workers were not permanent slaves, but were freemen who were forced to work for the king when the king gave them orders to do so. Verse 13 makes it clear that these are “forced laborers.”
You know: The pronoun You is more emphatic here in Hebrew than in the English translations. Chouraqui attempts to preserve the emphasis by saying “Yes, you know” (compare verse 3).
There is no one among us: Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “we in Israel have no one.”
The Sidonians are “the people of Sidon” (New Century Version, Parole de Vie). Since Sidon is a Phoenician town, some translations say “the Phoenicians” (Peregrino) or “you Phoenicians” (Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, Bible en français courant). The latter model is most appropriate since Solomon is speaking to Hiram who is a member of the group mentioned. Compare also “you Sidonians” (New Living Translation). Good News Translation simplifies it by translating “yours,” meaning “your servants,” and Contemporary English Version has “your workers.”
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 .