And: The common Hebrew conjunction here indicates a transition in the story moving on to the next episode. Naturalness in the receptor language should determine whether an overt transition marker is necessary here.
They came back to him, while he tarried at Jericho: The pronouns, him and he, in this verse refer to Elisha. In some languages it will be prudent to use the proper name in place of the pronoun in one case in order to avoid any ambiguity. The members of the search party came back to him while he was still in Jericho.
This wording of while he tarried at Jericho may be misleading. New Revised Standard Version takes this as a parenthetical statement, translating “he had remained at Jericho.” But most modern versions make it a relative clause in apposition with the name Elisha. Other languages may prefer a separate sentence at the beginning of the verse, such as “Elisha stayed in Jericho.” It would then be possible to continue with a sentence like “When they came back to him, he asked….”
Did I not say to you, Do not go?: This is a rhetorical question that does not expect an answer. Revised Standard Version contains two levels of direct quotation here, which may be problematic for some languages. Elisha quotes the sense of what he has already said in verse 16, but this is done in the form of a direct quotation. It will be much more natural in many languages to make this embedded quotation an indirect one as Good News Translation and other versions have done. But models including two negatives, such as “Didn’t I tell you not to go?” (New International Version), may prove difficult in certain languages. This may be simplified by changing the question into a statement. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, for example, says simply “I told you not to go.” Other languages may add to this “Is this not true?”
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 .