One of them; that is, one of the members of the prophetic order or brotherhood. Parole de Vie says more explicitly “one of the prophets.”
This prophet went out into the field to gather herbs, but what he actually accomplished was quite different. The Hebrew word translated herbs occurs only here in the Old Testament. It could refer to a specific plant, but it probably refers to any kind of edible green leafy plant. The Hebrew word rendered field refers to open land located outside of cities and villages. Depending on the context, it may or may not refer specifically to fields that have been cultivated. In this context one African translation is helpful with “went into the bush….”
A wild vine is literally “a vine of the field.” The Hebrew word for vine is the same word that is used for grapevines, so it must have been a generic term for various creeping plants. On the basis of the Greek word used for wild gourds in the Septuagint, botanists believe that what the prophet found was a colocynth plant. This melon-like vine produces round yellow fruit the size of an orange. People in the Middle East today use the pulp inside the fruit for purging, but too much of it can kill a person.
Gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds: The Hebrew word translated lap is actually the same word that is used for “clothes” in 1 Kgs 1.1 and 2 Kgs 2.12. The image is that of a person wearing a long robe using his garment as a container for the wild fruit. Some modern attempts to render this clause are “from which he picked a clothful of wild gourds” (New American Bible), “picked from it wild gourds, as many as his garment would hold” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “He gathered some of its gourds and filled the fold of his cloak” (New International Version), “filled the skirt of his garment with wild gourds” (Revised English Bible), and “he picked fruit from the vine and filled his robe with it” (New Century Version). In most African languages this will be quite easy to translate and understand.
And came: New International Version renders the Hebrew verb here as “returned” while Revised English Bible has “came back.”
Not knowing what they were is literally “for they did not know.” Since the Hebrew does not actually say what was unknown, there are two different interpretations for this clause. Most translations seem to understand it to mean that the persons involved in preparing the stew did not know what kind of thing they were cooking (see Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and many others). However, New American Bible takes the whole clause as meaning “without anybody’s knowing it,” that is, without the knowledge of the other members of the brotherhood of prophets. Whichever interpretation is adopted, it may be better expressed as a separate sentence in some languages. And a footnote may be added to explain the other possibility. The Vulgate and the ancient Syriac read “he did not know what it was,” and this is the basis for some translations in modern languages (so La Bible Pléiade). This reading with the singular pronoun “he” fits the context since the subject of the other verbs in the verse is singular. Good News Translation seems to follow this reading.
The connector “for” at the beginning of this clause in Hebrew may be rendered “although” or “even though.” New International Version makes a good connection by saying “though no one knew what they were.”
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 .