He said, “What is yonder monument that I see?”: The pronoun he refers to Josiah, which Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente makes explicit. The verb said will be more naturally translated “asked” in certain languages since it is followed by a question. In some cases the direct quotation here will be better rendered by an indirect statement like “Then, pointing to that tomb, he asked who was buried there.”

Yonder monument is literally “this monument.” The Hebrew noun here refers either to a heap of stones or a single upright stone used to mark a burial place.

The men of the city probably refers to the inhabitants in general and not exclusively to males. So numerous modern versions are justified to use the word “people” (for example, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible). Since verse 15 indicates that these events occurred in the city of Bethel, Good News Translation inserts the name “Bethel” here also.

It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah: The burial of this prophet from Judah is recorded in 1 Kgs 13.30-32.

As in the previous verse, the Hebrew verb rendered predicted usually means “proclaimed,” but the context requires the meaning found in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

The altar at Bethel: In the Hebrew grammatical construction here, the definite article the is not needed before the word altar since the words at Bethel require that the noun altar not have the definite article written, and that altar be understood as definite. Because the Hebrew does have the definite article, some interpreters consider the words at Bethel to be a later scribal addition to the text. At Bethel is omitted from New Jerusalem Bible for this reason. Good News Translation seems to omit the words at Bethel, but it in essence restates them as “this altar.” The rendering in Good News Translation, however, is based on English style and not on textual considerations.

The answer given by the people of Bethel may also be made an indirect statement instead of a direct quotation. A possible model for this would be:

• And the people who lived in the city of Bethel told him that it was the tomb of the prophet who had come from Judah and predicted the very things which Josiah had just done to the altar in their city.

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 .