All the captains of the forces in the open country and their men: The words in the open country are supplied by Revised Standard Version, but are only implied in the Hebrew text. The supplementary information is, however, found in the parallel passage in Jer 40.7. What is important here is that these captains and their men had not yet submitted themselves to the Babylonians.
Their men is literally “the men.” The second occurrence of the words their men, which come at the end of the verse in the Masoretic Text, shows that the intended meaning of “the men” is their men, in the sense of “their soldiers.”
Mizpah was the town where the governor lived, a short distance (about 13 kilometers or 7.5 miles) north of Jerusalem. The Hebrew name Mizpah means “watchtower,” which was appropriate since this town probably overlooked the plain of Bethel. In times of difficulty it was an important place where troubled Israelites could meet (Jdg 20.1; 1 Sam 7.6). See the comments at 1 Kgs 15.22.
Revised Standard Version translates this verse as a single, very long, sentence and introduces the list of names of the officers who went to the governor using the word namely. In many languages it will be more natural to begin a new sentence at this point as Good News Translation and certain other English versions have done.
Tanhumeth, the father of Seraiah, is described as the Netophathite. This indicates the village or town of origin of Tanhumeth, so it will be better to translate “who came from the town of Netophah.” The exact location of Netophah is uncertain, but some scholars locate it in the hill country of Judah, about five kilometers (three miles) south of Bethlehem.
Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite: Good News Translation has the spelling “Jezaniah” instead of Jaazaniah because this is the form of the name used in the parallel passage in Jer 40.8. Since there are three other Old Testament characters named Jaazaniah (Jer 35.3; Ezek 8.11; 11.1), it is probably wise to use the less frequently occurring form of the name here (so Good News Translation).
The proper name of the father of Jaazaniah is not given. There are at least three interpretations of the word Maacathite.
• (1) The Hebrew expression rendered the son of the Maacathite may be taken to mean either “the son of a man who came from the region of Maacah” or “who came from the region of Maacah.” Both Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version take it to mean that Jezaniah himself was from Maacah. It is, of course, quite possible that both Jezaniah and his father came from Maacah, but translators are advised to include the unnamed father in some way in translation. Maacah, mentioned also in 2 Sam 10.6 and 8, was a Syrian kingdom located northeast of Palestine on the northern border of Israel. The footnote in Traduction œcuménique de la Bible identifies a Maacathite as someone “living under the rule of the region of Maacah, northeast of Palestine.” This first interpretation seems to be the most widely held understanding.
• (2) Some interpreters, however, think that the reference is not to the Syrian kingdom of Maacah but rather to the northern Israelite town of Abel Beth Maacah (1 Kgs 15.20; 2 Kgs 15.29), which was just west of the city of Dan (so the notes in Stuttgarter Erklärungsbibel and Hobbs, who translates “Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite”). This city is also called Beth Maacah. Compare Revised English Bible: “Jaazaniah of Beth-maacah” (similarly New American Bible).
• (3) Other interpreters think it is more likely that Jezaniah was from the Calebite clan of Maacah, who was one of Caleb’s concubines (1 Chr 2.48). According to this interpretation, Maacathite is the name of a clan located in Judah (so Cogan and Tadmor). This interpretation places both Seraiah and Jezaniah as from the territory of Judah.
Some translations say simply “the Maacathite” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Hobbs, Moffatt), as does Revised Standard Version. This leaves ambiguous whether Maacathite refers to a person or to a place. It will be acceptable, though, to choose one of the three interpretations as the basis for translation and perhaps place the alternate interpretations in a footnote, if footnotes are used in the receptor language.
Some translators may prefer to present these names in the form of a list since there are more than three. The following model for the last half of this verse may be considered:
• The officers were as follows:
Ishmael son of Nethaniah,
Johanan son of Kareah,
Seraiah son of Tanhumeth from the town of Netophah,
and Jezaniah son of a man from Maacah.
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 .