At the beginning of this verse Good News Translation makes explicit information that is implied in the text: “Shaphan delivered the king’s order to Hilkiah.” This may be a helpful model for translators in other languages to follow.

In some languages it will be considered unnecessarily redundant to repeat the titles of Hilkiah and Shaphan. So the words the high priest and the secretary may be left implicit since this information is given in verses 3-4.

I have found the book of the law: The word order of the Hebrew is actually “The book of the law I have found.” This places greater emphasis on the book of the law than the Revised Standard Version rendering does. An American Translation renders this “a book of law.” Although the Hebrew does not have a definite article with the noun book, the Hebrew construction “a book of the law” almost certainly indicates that a definite book is intended. The text, however, gives us no details at this point as to the contents of this document. Most scholars believe that it refers to an early version of the book of Deuteronomy, but translators should not attempt to indicate the contents this precisely. Compare 2 Kgs 14.6, where it is specifically stated that this refers to “the book of the law of Moses.”

The form of the book was probably that of a scroll (so New Living Translation) with writing on animal skin, although papyrus was being used during the time that Josiah ruled.

Some versions attempt to highlight the words the book of the law by capitalizing the words for book and law (New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Contemporary English Version), but this is not recommended since there is nothing in the text that suggests that these words should be treated in a special way; and, in any case, hearers of the Scripture in the receptor language will not know whether the words are capitalized or not.

Good News Translation transforms the direct quotation of the original text into an indirect statement. This may be a good model for certain other languages to follow.

He read it: It should be clear that the pronoun he refers to Shaphan. Revised English Bible translates the last sentence of the verse as “and he gave it to him to read,” but this may be a misleading model since it does not indicate whether or not Shaphan did, in fact, actually read the book. The Hebrew verb does not indicate whether Shaphan read the entire book at this moment, but the sense is probably that he read the entire book and not just parts of it. Although the text does not explicitly say so here, the sense is that he read the text “aloud” (Nouvelle Bible Segond).

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 .