David also provided great stores of iron for nails for the doors of the gates and for clamps: The name David may be rendered by the pronoun “He” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Revised English Bible, Bible en français courant) if the repetition of this proper name is considered unnatural or unnecessary in the receptor language. Great stores of iron is literally “iron in abundance.” This “large amount of iron” (New Century Version) is said to be for nails, that is “iron for making nails” (Good News Translation, La Bible du Semeur). The nails are in turn said to be for the doors of the gates and for clamps. In languages that distinguish between words for relatively small nails and larger spikes, the latter should be used here. The Hebrew does not specify that the doors of the gates were made of wood, but that information is known from other Old Testament texts, and Good News Translation makes it explicit here. The word order in Revised Standard Version, following the Hebrew, does not make clear what the clamps were for. Clamps translates a technical architectural term in Hebrew which occurs in the Old Testament only here and in 2 Chr 34.11, where it is refers to something made of wood. On the basis of 2 Chr 34.11, Klein here in verse 3 translates “wooden beams.” If this interpretation is accepted, then the iron nails were used for both the wooden gates and the wooden beams. But the Hebrew noun translated clamps apparently comes from a root meaning “to join” and apparently refers to braces or something that joined two things together, perhaps one board to another. Archaeological excavations have discovered that the gates of Shalmaneser III had strips of bronze on them. The variety of translations shows that the exact meaning of this Hebrew term is uncertain: “tie-bands” (Johnstone), “binding plates” (Berkeley), “clasps” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “fittings” (New International Version), “braces” ( NET Bible), and “hinges” (Nueva Versión Internacional). If the Hebrew refers to braces or clamps, then they were probably made of iron.

As well as bronze in quantities beyond weighing: The Hebrew word translated bronze may also be rendered “copper” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). See the comments on 1 Chr 15.19. This verse does not state how the bronze was to be used, but it was probably used for making the large furnishings such as the large tank and the pillars in front of the Temple, as well as the smaller vessels (1 Chr 18.8) and musical instruments (1 Chr 15.19). Beyond weighing is literally “there was no weight,” but the translation “without weight” (King James Version) may give a wrong impression. The meaning is that the quantity of bronze was so great that it was not measured. Nouvelle version Segond révisée states that the quantity was “such that it was impossible to weigh it.” Some other possible renderings are “too great to weigh” (Complete Jewish Bible) and “more … than they could ever weigh” (New Living Translation).

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 .