Verses 17-18 and perhaps verse 19 seem to go together, but the interpretation is very difficult and there are numerous textual problems. Neither Revised Standard Version nor Good News Translation has followed the order of the Masoretic Text here. The Masoretic Text of verses 17 and 18 reads as follows:

17 And the son of Ezrah: Jether and Mered and Epher and Jalon. And she bore Miriam and Shammai and Ishbah the father of Eshtemoa. 18 And his wife Hajehudijah bore Jered the father of Gedor and Heber the father of Soco and Jekuthiel the father of Zanoah. And these are the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered took.

In the phrase “she bore Miriam” in verse 17, the subject of the verb is not stated. Who is the subject of this verb? Some interpreters take the subject to be “Bithiah” from verse 18. This is the solution followed by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible follows the form of the Hebrew by reading “She bore Miriam” in the text, but a footnote in this translation states that the pronoun refers to Bithiah.

In the Masoretic Text it is not clear who is the father of Miriam, Shammai, and Ishbah. Various interpretations and translations have been proposed as follows: (1) According to Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, their father was Mered. (2) As will be noted in the discussion on verse 19, some translations make Jether their father (so New American Bible, Knoppers, Peregrino. (3) Reina-Valera revisada makes Ezrah their father by rendering verse 17 as follows: “The sons of Ezrah: Jether, Mered, Epher and Jalon; he also begat Miriam, Shammai and Ishbah, the father of Eshtemoa.”

At the beginning of verse 18 in the Masoretic Text the antecedent of the pronoun “his” in the phrase “his wife” is ambiguous, but most take it to refer to Mered. It may be that “Hajehudijah” was the name of Mered’s wife, although no known translation renders it as a proper name. More likely, the Hebrew phrase for “his wife Hajehudijah” should be taken to mean “his Jewish wife” (so Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible) or “his Judean wife” (so New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Nouvelle Bible Segond). That is, in addition to an Egyptian wife named Bithiah, Mered also had a Jewish wife, whose name is not given here.

To whom do the following words refer at the end of verse 18 in the Masoretic Text: “And these are the sons of Bithiah”? They cannot refer to Jered, Heber and Jekuthiel, since their mother was not Bithiah but rather Mered’s Jewish wife. Therefore “the sons of Bithiah” must refer to the persons named near the end of verse 17: Miriam, Shammai, and Ishbah. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation restructure by placing the last part of verse 18 in verse 17 in order to make it clear that Bithiah was the mother of Miriam, Shammai, and Ishbah. Many other modern versions adopt this solution of combining verses 17 and 18 (so Contemporary English Version, New Century Version, Revised English Bible, Complete Jewish Bible, Bible en français courant, La Bible du Semeur, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). La Bible Pléiade keeps the verse numbering separate, but transposes the words from the end of verse 18 to a point just before the second half of verse 17, placing them in square brackets. Osty-Trinquet makes the same kind of change but numbers the verses 17a, 18b, 17b and 18a. Moffatt is similar. It is clear that a wide variety of translations find it necessary to do this kind of restructuring regardless of the way in which the verse numbering is handled.

Pharaoh: This term occurs very frequently in Genesis and Exodus but only here and 2 Chr 8.11 in the two books of Chronicles. Readers should understand that this is not a proper name but a title for the ruler of Egypt. For this reason it may be rendered “the king of Egypt” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Century Version, Bible en français courant). In languages where there are definite articles, some translators prefer to speak of “the Pharaoh” (Moffatt and most French versions). This has the advantage of at least making it clear that this term is not a proper name. But in some languages it will be clearer to say “the king of Egypt.”

Whom Mered married: The Hebrew verb rendered married is literally “took,” but this was a common way of referring to taking a wife in marriage and is more naturally rendered “married” in English. For this whole clause Nouvelle Bible Segond says “whom Mered took for [his] wife.” The target language may have still other ways of expressing this idea.

Jered the father of Gedor, Heber the father of Soco, and Jekuthiel the father of Zanoah: Gedor, Soco, and Zanoah are place names, so father is better rendered “founder” (Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, Bible en français courant). Verse 4 names Penuel as the founder of Gedor, but verse 18 names Jered as the founder. Either 1 Chronicles preserves two different traditions about who founded Gedor, or the Gedor named in verse 4 is different from the Gedor mentioned here in verse 18. There are two towns with the name Zanoah in the Old Testament. One was located in the northern lowlands of Judah (Josh 15.34), and one was in the southern hill country of Judah. The location of the Zanoah here is often thought to be about 10 kilometers (6 miles) southwest of Hebron, but since this places the town far to the west of the other towns in the same district, the location is uncertain.

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 .