Behold: The Hebrew focusing particle here highlights the fact that although the people of Judah will be punished, this will not take place immediately.
The active expression I will gather you to your fathers and the passive expression you shall be gathered to your grave in peace are slightly different ways of referring to the same event: the death of King Josiah. In those languages where the passive form is unacceptable, the idea may be translated only once. A literal rendering is rarely satisfactory. The peacefulness of Josiah’s death is emphasized by the addition of the words in peace. (Actually Josiah died in battle according to 2 Chr 35.22-24.) Translators should look for a comparable euphemistic expression used to refer to death in their own language. If such a euphemism is not available, it will be possible to speak more directly of death. Bible en français courant translates “I will allow you to die in peace.”
Instead of your grave, the Masoretic Text has “your graves” (so La Bible Pléiade), which may be a reference to the royal tombs (see 2 Chr 35.24). Many interpreters suggest a slight change in the spelling of the plural Hebrew noun here in order to change it to the singular grave (see 2 Kgs 23.30, which says that Josiah was buried in his own tomb).
And your eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants: See verse 24. The word evil refers to the “disaster” (Moffatt) that God will bring on the country of Judah and its people. In some languages it will be unnatural to make the eyes the subject of a clause such as this. It will be better to say “and you will not have to look on all the misfortune….” Two other models are “You won’t see all the trouble…” (New Century Version) and “you will not live to see the great disaster…” (New Jerusalem Bible).
And they brought back word to the king: The pronoun they refers to the five men (verse 22) who had gone to consult Yahweh for the king through the prophetess Huldah as an intermediary. If this is unclear, it will be possible to translate “the men whom Josiah had sent” or “the messengers.” Brought back word renders the same Hebrew expression translated “reported” in verse 16. Some may wish to translate it with the same verb here by rendering this clause as “Then they reported all this to the king.”
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 .