And you yourself will have a severe sickness with a disease of your bowels: You yourself renders an independent personal pronoun in Hebrew. The LORD just spoke of what would happen to others in the kingdom of Jehoram, but now he turns his attention to the king himself and focuses specifically on what will happen to him. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh begins this verse with “As for you, you…” to express the focus. A severe sickness is literally “many sicknesses.” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible speaks of “serious illnesses,” and Bible en français courant says “diverse maladies.” But the meaning may be simply “a chronic disease” (Revised English Bible). The Hebrew word for bowels refers to the intestines, that is, the inner organs of the lower abdomen. The exact nature of the disease is not stated, but perhaps it was cancer.

Until your bowels come out because of the disease: The Hebrew here may also be understood to mean “until your bowels shall waste away…” (An American Translation). But the more likely meaning is that the intestines will “prolapse” (Revised English Bible) or “drop out” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh); see verse 19.

Day by day: Moffatt says “year after year.” According to one way of translating verse 19, this disease occurred two years later. But most versions indicate in one way or another that the king’s disease occurred immediately and became worse “every day” (New Century Version).

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 .