Their father gave them great gifts, of silver, gold, and valuable possessions …: The pronouns Their and them refer to Jehoshaphat’s sons. Bible en français courant and Parole de Vie render Their father as “Jehoshaphat, their father” for clarity. New Century Version begins this verse with “Jehoshaphat gave his sons….” Since silver and gold are valuable, it will be more logical in many languages to render valuable possessions as “other valuable possessions” (Good News Translation; similarly Contemporary English Version, God’s Word).

The Hebrew says only that Jehoshaphat gave fortified cities in Judah to his sons, without indicating how many cities each son was given to control. Good News Translation says that he placed each son in charge of one fortified city, but that is more precise than the Hebrew. For fortified cities, see the comments on 2 Chr 8.5.

But he gave the kingdom to Jehoram, because he was the first-born: The common Hebrew conjunction is rightly translated but since there is a contrast between what Jehoram received (the entire kingdom) and what his brothers got (fortified cities). Jehoshaphat made Jehoram the next king in accordance with the custom of naming the oldest son as the successor. Languages differ on how they refer to the first son born in a family. Some have a special term for the first-born, while other say simply that he is the oldest among other siblings (see the comments on 1 Chr 1.13). The Hebrew term for first-born in this context implies the first male born to Jehoshaphat, so New International Version specifies “firstborn son.”

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 .