Concerning him: The pronoun him refers to Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.
She despises you, she scorns you …: This message of the LORD to Sennacherib begins a third level of quotation, but if verse 20 has been made indirect as recommended, then there will be far fewer problems in this verse.
The message of the LORD here begins with a third person singular feminine pronoun (She) that has no antecedent. It becomes clear later in the verse that the subject is the virgin daughter of Zion, who is also called simply the daughter of Jerusalem at the end of the verse. These expressions are both a poetic way to refer to the city of Jerusalem (and its people), and this should somehow be made clear in the translation or in a footnote. The problem of the pronoun She without antecedent may be solved by restructuring the verse so that the references to the city of Jerusalem appear before any pronouns that point to it. The exact sense of the virgin daughter of Zion is not clear. Is it simply a term of endearment? New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “Fair Maiden Zion.” More likely Jerusalem is pictured here as being like a young vulnerable daughter whose virginity is threatened by the Assyrians. For Zion see the comments at 1 Kgs 8.1.
The two verbs, despises and scorns, are near synonyms although the first verb in Hebrew focuses more on a person’s attitude while the second verb centers on a person’s actions. The expression wags [or, shakes] her head behind you is similar in meaning to these two verbs (see Psa 22.7), although it may also include the idea of sorrow. It is also possible to understand the words behind you to mean “while you flee.” If the receptor language lacks adequate synonyms or if the repetition would be considered unnatural, despises, scorns, and wags her head behind you may be reduced to one or two verbs. Otherwise, the emphasis of the original text should be retained. There may be a wide variety of ways for expressing the ideas of mockery and scorn in the receptor language. Translators should seek expressions that are both natural and forceful in this context.
It should be noted that in contrast with Good News Translation, a large majority of modern versions follow Revised Standard Version in setting off verses 21b-28 in poetic format. A number of versions also set off at least parts of verses 29-34 as poetry (for example, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Peregrino, Osty-Trinquet, La Bible du Semeur, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). While setting off verses 29-34 may be more debatable, translators should probably consider at least verses 21b-28 as poetry.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .