He prayed to him, and God received his entreaty and heard his supplication: God received his entreaty is literally “he [God] was pleaded with by him [Manasseh].” This clause is parallel in meaning with God … heard his supplication. Good News Translation combines these two clauses, saying “God accepted Manasseh’s prayer.” Good News Translation also adds the implied information that God “answered it.”

And brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom is literally “and caused him to return….” New Jerusalem Bible says simply “and brought him back….” To say that God brought Manasseh back into his kingdom means that Manasseh began to rule again and not just that he returned to Jerusalem. Revised English Bible makes this clear by rendering the whole clause as “he brought him back to Jerusalem and restored him to the throne.”

Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God: Then renders the common Hebrew conjunction. It may be translated as a temporal connector here (so Good News Translation) or as a logical one (so Revised English Bible, which has “Thus”). The verb knew in this context has been rendered in a variety of ways that all have the same basic meaning: “realized” (New Living Translation), “understood” (New American Bible), “learnt” (Revised English Bible), and “recognized” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). The LORD was God is literally “Yahweh he the God.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh expresses well the force of the Hebrew pronoun for “he” by rendering this clause as “the LORD alone was God.” Compare also “the Lord was the only true God” (Bible en français courant).

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 .