So correctly renders the common Hebrew conjunction as a logical connector since the text that follows describes the fulfillment of the decisions made in the previous verses. Several versions leave it untranslated (so Good News Translation, New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).

Couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes: The Hebrew word rendered couriers is based on the verb meaning “to run” and may be translated “runners” (New Living Translation, La Bible du Semeur) in this context. The messengers who took the letters from the king and the other leaders to the various places in Israel and Judah did so by running. The verb went may also be translated “ran” because of the context.

As the king had commanded is literally “and according to the command of the king.” New Living Translation and New Century Version say “At the king’s command.”

Saying …: The Hebrew presents the text of the king’s invitation as direct discourse and it continues to the end of verse 9. At the end of the discussion on that verse a possible model for indirect discourse is given.

O people of Israel: This vocative expression does not represent a special form in Hebrew that needs to be imitated in the receptor language. The text says more literally “sons of Israel” (NASB), which here means “descendants of Israel.” Although Moffatt has translated “Men of Israel,” the meaning is more inclusive and should be rendered “People of Israel” (New International Version) or “you Israelites” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).

Return to the LORD … that he may turn again to the remnant of you …: The verbs return and turn again render the same Hebrew verb. The first verb is imperative, urging the people of Israel to abandon their wandering and come back to Yahweh, and the second verb indicates that Yahweh will in like manner revisit his people.

In the phrase the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, the name Israel refers to the patriarch Jacob. Good News Translation consistently uses the name “Jacob” in 1-2 Chronicles when the reference is to the individual and not the nation.

The addressees of the message are more specifically defined as the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria, that is, those who escaped from the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom in 721 B.C. In some languages this information may be shifted forward so that it is closer to the initial naming of the addressees. New Living Translation shows more clearly that the king himself is included among the remnant by saying “the few of us who have survived the conquest of the Assyrian 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 .