When they had departed from him: The pronoun they refers to the Syrians, and the pronoun him points to Joash. Contemporary English Version and Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje make the referents for both of these pronouns explicit, which others languages may find helpful.
Leaving him severely wounded is literally “for they left him in great diseases” (King James Version) or “for they left him in many sicknesses.” The Hebrew connector ki (“for”) introduces how the Syrians left Joash. The Hebrew word for “diseases/sicknesses” occurs only here in the Old Testament, and the root for this word has a broad range of meanings indicating a state of bodily weakness. Depending on the context, the Hebrew verb from this root and related nouns may refer to sickness or to injuries. The Hebrew noun here refers to the wounds Joash received in the battle against the Syrians. God’s Word and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh reflect the plural of the Hebrew, speaking of “many wounds.” Good News Translation reverses the order of the first two clauses of this verse. New Century Version provides a helpful model that keeps the original order, saying “When the Arameans left, Joash was badly wounded.”
His servants conspired against him …: This verse says only that Joash’s servants plotted against him and killed him, without saying how many servants there were. However, the next verse says there were two, and some translations bring this information forward to verse 25 (so Good News Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje). The Hebrew noun translated servants refers here to “officials” (Good News Translation) as it often does in the Old Testament, and not to menial domestic servants.
Because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest: Blood is an image that may be rendered nonfiguratively as “murder” (Good News Translation, New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, An American Translation) or “death” (Bible en français courant, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje). Instead of the singular word son, the Masoretic Text reads “sons.” However, Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation follow the Septuagint and the Vulgate (so also Revised English Bible, An American Translation, Bible en français courant, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje). Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives an evaluation of {D} for the reading with the singular, suggesting that a scribe accidentally repeated the initial letter in the name Jehoiada, resulting in the reading “sons of Jehoiada” instead of “son of Jehoiada.” However, Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament also suggests that the plural may be original, with the sense of “all male posterity” of Jehoiada, without intending any specific number; that is, by killing his one son, they in fact killed any other descendants (sons) that he might have had through that one son.
And slew him on his bed: New Revised Standard Version replaces the archaic English word slew with “killed.” New Living Translation says “assassinated.”
So he died; and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings: See the comments on 2 Chr 21.20. As in verse 16, the pronoun they is indefinite. They buried him may be translated by a passive expression in those languages where this is more natural; for example, Good News Translation says “He was buried.” Others may say “his people buried him.” Unlike the parallel text of 2 Kgs 12.21, the writer says that Joash was not buried in the tombs of the kings.
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 .