Moreover he made high places in the hill country of Judah: The Hebrew particle rendered Moreover may be better translated “even” (Contemporary English Version, La Bible du Semeur) or “also” (New International Version, New American Bible). New Jerusalem Bible translates “What is more.” Revised English Bible has “and because,” which continues the sentence begun in the previous verse. By doing this, Revised English Bible makes this verse more clearly a continuation of the explanation of why Jehoram was unable to put down the rebellion. The pronoun for he is emphatic in Hebrew. Bible de Jérusalem and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible attempt to bring this out in translation, but few other modern versions do so. For high places, see the comments on 1 Chr 16.39 and 2 Chr 1.3.

Instead of the hill country of Judah, a number of Hebrew, Greek and Latin manuscripts have “the cities of Judah,” and this reading is followed by some translations, including Luther and Osty-Trinquet. But most versions follow the Masoretic Text with the hill country of Judah; for example, New American Bible and Anchor Bible say “the mountains of Judah,” and New Jerusalem Bible has “the highlands of Judah.” Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {C} rating to this reading and notes that the expression “cities of Judah” occurs sixteen times in the Old Testament, five times in relation to the location of the high places. So it is more likely that scribes changed the unusual expression hill country of Judah to the more common “cities of Judah.” In Hebrew only the second consonant is different in the spelling of the words for hill country and “cities.”

And led the inhabitants of Jerusalem into unfaithfulness: Led … into unfaithfulness translates a Hebrew verb whose basic meaning is “to commit fornication” (see 1 Chr 5.25, where it is rendered “played the harlot”). Nouvelle Bible Segond translates “delivered … to prostitution.” In this context the verb must be understood metaphorically in terms of the people’s unfaithful relation to God. Good News Translation provides one way of making this clear by saying “led … to sin against the LORD.” Bible en français courant similarly says “encouraging … to be unfaithful to the true God.”

And made Judah go astray is parallel to the previous clause and has essentially the same meaning. Led … into unfaithfulness is equivalent to made … go astray. And Jerusalem is a part of Judah. So it may be better to translate these two clauses as “and led the people of Jerusalem to sin, yes, he led all the people of Judah away from the LORD” or “and led the people of Jerusalem and the rest of Judah to be unfaithful to the LORD.” Good News Translation collapses the parallelism by saying simply “and led the people of Judah and Jerusalem to sin against the LORD.”

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 .