And the king and Jehoiada gave it to those who had charge of the work of the house of the LORD: After Joash and Jehoiada received the money through their representatives, they passed it on to the foremen of the Temple repair work. Those who had charge of the work is literally “the doer of the work of the service.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project notes that the singular word for “doer” in Hebrew has a collective sense here, so Revised Standard Version correctly renders it as a plural.

And they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the LORD: The pronoun they refers to those in charge of the Temple repair work. Masons is literally “the ones hewing out” or “the ones digging.” These were people who cut stones out of the ground and shaped them for making buildings. The Hebrew word for masons is rendered “stonecutters” in 1 Chr 22.2 (see the comments there). The Hebrew word for carpenters is literally “craftsmen,” but Revised Standard Version gives it the correct sense in this context. Masons and carpenters may be expressed as “builders with stone and builders with wood.”

And also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the LORD: Workers renders the same Hebrew word as carpenters, but it is qualified here by in iron and bronze. For bronze see the comments on 1 Chr 15.19 and 2 Chr 1.5. In some languages iron and bronze may have to be replaced by a more general term such as “metals,” but this should only be done as a last option. Good News Translation uses the generic term “metalworkers” to render workers in iron and bronze.

The threefold repetition of the phrase the house of the LORD may be unnatural in some languages. If so, the number of references to the Temple may be reduced as in Good News Translation.

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 .