When Solomon had ended his prayer: Since this is the beginning of a new section, Good News Translation renders Solomon as “King Solomon.” This may be a helpful model for some other languages. Instead of ended his prayer, it may be more natural to say “stopped praying” or “finished praying” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). In order to indicate how quickly the next event followed Solomon’s prayer, Revised English Bible translates this whole clause as “As Solomon finished this prayer,” and Anchor Bible says “As soon as Solomon had concluded his prayer.”

Fire came down from heaven …: Dazzling light and fire from God similarly appeared after Aaron’s sacrifices at the Tabernacle in Lev 9.23-24. The fire … from heaven showed both God’s power and that God approved of the Temple (compare 1 Chr 21.26). In some Old Testament passages this expression suggests lightning (see Exo 9.23; Job 1.16; Psa 148.8). In fact, The Message translates this clause as “a bolt of lightning out of heaven struck.”

And consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices: The fire from God burned the sacrifices that were offered with the movement of the ark of the covenant (see 2 Chr 5.6). For burnt offering, see the comments on 1 Chr 16.1 and 2 Chr 1.6. Burnt offering has a collective sense here, so it is better rendered in the plural (so New Living Translation). The burnt offering and the sacrifices may be rendered “the burnt offerings and the other sacrifices.”

And the glory of the LORD filled the temple probably reports the same event mentioned in 2 Chr 5.13-14 (see the comments there).

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 .