In some languages it will be an unnatural interruption to insert the words And the king asked her at the beginning of this verse since they break up the discourse of the king. The introduction at the beginning of verse 27 may be considered perfectly adequate so that the question What is your trouble? is merely an extension of the remarks begun in the previous verse (so Good News Translation). A natural rendering of the meaning in modern English is “What is the matter?” (New Jerusalem Bible, American Bible) or “What is your complaint?” (New Revised Standard Version). This is the way the king chose to invite the woman to explain her case in greater detail. The same invitation was given to the woman of Tekoa in 2 Sam 14.5.

This woman said to me: The woman who was speaking must have been pointing toward the other woman as she spoke. Other languages will have different ways of making this clear in translation. The distressed woman then goes on to cite what that woman had said to her previously. The story makes it clear that what she describes took place some time before her encounter with the king. This will have to be made explicit in some languages. Good News Translation does so by beginning her statement with “The other day this woman here suggested.”

Give your son …: The embedded quotation of what the second woman had said may have to be made indirect in certain languages (so Good News Translation). Here is a another model: “Not long ago that woman over there convinced me to give up my son so that we might have something to eat, and then she said we would eat her son the next day.” The Good News Translation rendering with “my child” and “her child” is not as specific as the Hebrew, which refers to a male child each time.

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 .