Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said: The common Hebrew conjunction rendered Then is probably a temporal connector here. However, it is also possible to take it as a logical one by saying “So” (Good News Translation, An American Translation, Moffatt). Good News Translation renders the king of Israel as “King Ahab” (compare the previous verse). The Hebrew noun rendered officer is translated by some versions as “eunuch” (Revised English Bible, An American Translation, La Bible Pléiade, Osty-Trinquet), that is, a castrated male. In a few places in the Old Testament, “eunuch” is clearly the correct rendering (2 Kgs 20.18; Isa 39.7; 56.3-4). However, in many Old Testament passages the purely physical description is secondary; the primary emphasis is on the high social status of the person. For various reasons eunuchs were entrusted with important tasks by rulers. There is some reason to think that the Hebrew noun was sometimes used to refer to a high official who was not actually castrated. Translations such as “court official” (Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible), “officer” (Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), and “official” (New International Version) are preferable here to the rendering “eunuch” (see Péter-Contesse, “Was Potiphar a Eunuch?”).

Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah: Bring quickly is accurately expressed as “Bring … at once” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Dillard). Since Micaiah is identified in the previous verse as the son of Imlah, some English versions omit this second occurrence of the phrase for reasons of style (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Century Version).

In those languages where direct quotations are used sparingly, Good News Translation provides a model for this verse in which the quotation is turned into indirect speech. Moffatt is similar with “So the king of Israel called an officer and told him to bring Micaiah the son of Imlah quickly.”

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 .