The loaf of bread was a flat cake of bread cooked in an oven (Exo 29.23). The Hebrew specifies that this was a round loaf of bread.

The exact meaning of the Hebrew word translated a portion of meat is not certain. While this word may refer to a piece of roasted meat, this meaning is far from certain. Other possible interpretations are “a cake of dates” (New International Version), “a date-cake” ( NET Bible, Braun), “a package of dates” (Berkeley), and “a cake made in a pan” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). The expression is found only here and in the parallel passage of 2 Sam 6.19. Many modern scholars seem to prefer a rendering containing the idea of meat, perhaps since peace offerings were involved (so Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, American Bible, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente).

A cake of raisins: Contemporary English Version says “a handful of raisins,” but the Hebrew word here refers not to loose raisins but to a mass of raisins (that is, dried grapes) pressed together. The word cake may be misleading and should rather be translated in many languages as “block,” “bar,” or “mass.”

Although Revised Standard Version, following the Hebrew, has a single sentence from the beginning of verse 2 to the end of verse 3, it may be advisable in some languages to make a sentence break at some point in these verses. Parole de Vie, for example, has two sentences in verse 3, saying “Next, he had food distributed to all the Israelite crowd. Each man and each woman received a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of dried raisins.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .