Nearly all translations consider verse 9 to be part of the narrative, which was interrupted by the author’s comment to his readers at the end of verse 8. There is no verb in the Hebrew text at the beginning of verse 9, which is literally “Nothing in the ark….” Walsh, however, regards all of verse 9 as a continuation of the author’s direct comment to his readers, so he translates with a present tense verb as follows: “There is nothing in the ark….” If this interpretation is followed, then the parentheses should close at the end of verse 9 and not at the end of verse 8 as in Good News Translation.
The two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb: Exo 40.20 and Deut 10.5 record that Moses placed these tablets in the Covenant Box. The tables of stone were not tables in the sense that we use the word today. They were simply “flat stones” (Contemporary English Version).
In the Old Testament the names Horeb and Mount Sinai are both used in reference to the same place. Good News Translation substitutes the more familiar name Mount Sinai here. Contemporary English Version and New Living Translation also use the name “Mount Sinai” in the text and state in a footnote that the Hebrew is “Horeb.” Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente reads “Horeb” in the text and indicates in a footnote that this is another name for Mount Sinai. What is important is that readers of the receptor language understand that the two terms refer to the same place.
Where the LORD made a covenant with the people of Israel: Where translates a common Hebrew relative particle. It should probably be rendered “by which,” as Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament suggests; that is, the Hebrew relative particle introduces a clause that tells how the two stone tablets were used—they were used to make the covenant with Israel. According to the rendering in Revised Standard Version, the particle introduces a clause that tells what happened at Horeb. Good News Translation has given a temporal force to this particle by rendering it “when.”
Some interpreters have misread the evidence of the Septuagint and claim that it reads “There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with….” This is the basis for the New Jerusalem Bible translation, which incorrectly states in a footnote that this is the reading of the Septuagint. What the Septuagint does read, in fact, is the following: “There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant, which Moses had placed in it at Horeb, which the Lord made with….” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gives an {A} rating to the Masoretic Text, and since it makes good sense, there is no reason to follow a different text.
Made a covenant is literally “cut [a covenant].” In the ancient Near Eastern world of the Old Testament, animals were sacrificed and cut up as part of the covenant-making ceremony. From this comes the technical phrase “to cut a covenant.” For covenant see the comments on 1 Kgs 3.15.
People of Israel is literally “sons of Israel” (King James Version “children of Israel”). Often in the Old Testament this Hebrew expression refers not to young people, but to the Israelite people as a whole (compare 1 Kgs 6.1). So the Revised Standard Version rendering is preferable to a literal translation.
When they came out of the land of Egypt: The writer has already stated in 1 Kgs 6.1 that this occurred nearly five hundred years earlier. Here the writer does not refer to the role of God in this event, but later in verses 16 and 21 he says that God brought them out of Egypt.
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 .