And the LORD spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying: Since this verse begins a new part of the story, it will be appropriate in many languages to translate the common Hebrew conjunction rendered And as a temporal connector such as “Then” (Good News Translation, New Living Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Parole de Vie). In view of what follows in verse 10, the verb spoke may be translated “ordered” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Gad, who is first referred to in 1 Sam 22.5, is also mentioned in 1 Chr 29.29 and 2 Chr 29.25. He is called David’s seer because David had prophets serving full time as official prophets in the royal palace. Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente calls him “the prophet in David’s [royal] court,” and La Bible du Semeur has “the prophet attached to David’s court.” Other versions express this phrase as “the prophet … David’s adviser” (Bible en français courant) and “seer in the service of David” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). Regarding the word seer, see the comments on 1 Chr 9.22. In this context seer is a synonym for “prophet,” and many versions use the more common term “prophet” (Good News Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje).

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 .