And he said: The common Hebrew conjunction rendered And may be translated as a logical connector such as “So” (New Century Version, God’s Word, NASB) or as a temporal one such as “Then” (New Living Translation, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Complete Jewish Bible). The pronoun he refers to Micaiah. Since Ahab was speaking in the previous verse, it may be better to use the name Micaiah here (so New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation). In the context of this dialogue the verb said may be rendered “answered” (Good News Translation, New International Version, New American Bible).

I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains: Like Revised Standard Version, most other versions use the past tense verb saw (for example, Bible en français courant and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), and such a translation is more likely the sense of the Hebrew here rather than Good News Translation‘s present tense verb “can see.” New Living Translation takes Micaiah’s words to refer to what he had earlier seen in a vision by beginning with “In a vision I saw…,” which certainly expresses the correct sense because Micaiah did not literally see what he describes. In this context all Israel refers to the whole Israelite army, which may be made explicit to avoid giving the impression that this phrase refers to all the people of Israel. Possible models are “Israel’s troops” (God’s Word), “Israelite soldiers” (Contemporary English Version), and “the army of Israel” (Good News Translation, New Century Version).

As sheep that have no shepherd: The image of people being like sheep without a shepherd occurs in various places in the Bible (for example, Num 27.17; Jer 50.6; Matt 9.36; Mark 6.34), and the image of the king as a shepherd is also common (2 Sam 5.2). This is figurative language in which sheep refers to the combined armies of Israel and Judah, and shepherd refers to King Ahab who will be killed.

And the LORD said introduces a quote of Yahweh within the quotation of Micaiah.

These have no master means the king is dead. The Hebrew noun rendered master is plural in form, but the plural form of this particular noun is sometimes used with a singular meaning in the Old Testament, and this seems to be the case here. A good model for this clause is “These men have no leader” (Complete Jewish Bible).

Let each return to his home in peace: The Hebrew word rendered home is literally “house,” and this may be the best way to translate it in a number of languages. Instead of let each return to his home, Good News Translation and Revised English Bible say simply “let them go home,” but the Hebrew emphasizes the individual nature of the return. The Hebrew word rendered in peace probably means more than “tranquilly” (Bible en français courant) or “in safety” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). This word is directly related to the question of whether or not these people should make war. So it may be rendered “and not fight” (Contemporary English Version, New Century Version). Before this clause, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch adds “The war is over,” which may be helpful in other languages.

As noted above, the last half of this verse contains an embedded quotation. In languages where this is a problem, it may be possible to translate it as indirect discourse by saying “The LORD told me that they had no leader and that I should let each of them go home in peace.”

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 .