And he said to them: The verb said may be better translated “asked” (Good News Translation, New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) since it introduces a question.

What do you advise that we answer this people…?: See the comments on 2Chr 10.6. As in verse 6, neither Revised Standard Version nor Good News Translation shows the emphasis that the Hebrew places on the pronoun you in Rehoboam’s question. Compare Traduction œcuménique de la Bible: “And you, what do you advise…?” The use of the first person plural pronoun we in this context may be taken as a “royal we,” referring only to Rehoboam, or it may include the young men he is addressing. The Septuagint has the singular pronoun “I” instead of we. Several modern versions translate in this way (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Revised English Bible, New American Bible), but it is not clear whether they are following the Septuagint or understand the Hebrew as a “royal we.”

Who have said to me is literally “who have said to me saying.”

Lighten the yoke that your father put upon us: See the comments on 2Chr 10.4.

Revised Standard Version follows the form of the Hebrew by including the people’s words of verse 4 as a quotation within Rehoboam’s question. Translators may chose to restructure the text by turning the embedded quotation into an indirect quotation (so Good News Translation, New Living Translation, Revised English Bible). Bible en français courant provides the following helpful model that does this:

• He said to them: “These people are asking me to relieve them a little of the burden which my father imposed on them like a yoke. What response do you advise me to give them?”

Some languages may prefer to render the whole verse as indirect discourse. Moffatt, for example, says “He asked them what answer they would advise him to return to the demand of the people, that Solomon’s rule should be lightened.” Another possible model is:

• Then he asked them what answer they would advise him to give to the people’s request since they had requested that he lighten the burden that his father placed on them.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .