Eshton was the father of Bethrapha, Paseah, and Tehinnah: Revised Standard Version follows the Hebrew by starting a new sentence here and repeating the name of Eshton, but Good News Translation begins with a relative clause and continues the sentence begun in the previous verse. Either structure is acceptable, and translators should simply follow whichever is more natural in their own language.

Bethrapha, Paseah, and Tehinnah were clearly male according to the end of this verse, so Good News Translation correctly says “three sons.”

The father of Irnahash: The Hebrew word ʿir at the beginning of the name Irnahash means “town” or “city.” So it is better to translate “the city of Nahash” (Good News Translation) rather than Irnahash, as if this were a person’s name. As in previous verses, father of here means “founder of.” So Contemporary English Version translates “It was Tehinnah who settled the town of Nahash.” New Century Version is similar with “Tehinnah was the father of the people from the town of Nahash.” Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente provides yet another model, saying that Tehinnah was “founder of Ir-Nahash.” Almost all translations transliterate the Hebrew word nahash, but Peregrino translates the meaning of the name in a footnote as “Serpent City.” Since the Hebrew word for “copper/bronze” is related to the word for “snake,” some interpreters think the reference is to a place called “city of copper.” This interpretation is apparently the basis for Peterson’s rendering “who founded Ir Nahash (City of Smiths)” in The Message. He places the words “City of Smiths” within parentheses, but this interpretation is not recommended.

These are the men of Recah: Some scholars have suggested that the Masoretic Text has an error here and that the text originally referred not to a place named Recah, but to a man named “Rechab,” who is mentioned in 1 Chr 2.55. If this identification is accepted, then the reference may be to the Rechabites rather than to a place. In fact, one Septuagint manuscript, followed by Osty-Trinquet and Klein, reads “Rechab” here. But the evidence for this identification is far too weak to justify translating in this way. The meaning of this sentence is almost certainly “The descendants of these men lived in Recah” (Good News Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje; similarly Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

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 .