Verse 19 in Hebrew is unclear, as the footnotes in Good News Translation and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente indicate. Existing translations show a bewildering variety of renderings, and some correct the Hebrew text in different ways with the use of the Septuagint. The Masoretic Text reads “And the sons of the wife of Hodiah the sister of Naham the father of Keilah the Garmite and Eshtemoa the Maacathite.” The various ways of handling this verse include the following:

• (1) The Hebrew seems to say that Hodiah was a man and that his unnamed wife had a sister named Naham. This understanding is found in both Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version, which says “The sons of the wife of Hodiah, the sister of Naham, were the fathers of Keilah the Garmite and Eshtemoa the Maacathite.” Contemporary English Version is similar, although the verse has been restructured for the sake of clarity as follows: “A man named Hodiah was married to the sister of Naham. Hodiah’s descendants included Keilah of the Garmite clan and Eshtemoa of the Maacathite clan” (similarly New International Version, New Living Translation).

• (2) Some interpreters correct the Masoretic Text and also make additions on the basis of the Septuagint. Revised English Bible, for example, adds the pronoun “his” before wife of Hodiah and understands Hodiah to be the wife’s name rather than the husband’s. Revised English Bible also adds the name “Daliah” from the Septuagint. Its rendering for this verse is “The sons of his wife Hodiah sister of Naham were Daliah father of Keilah the Garmite, and Eshtemoa the Maacathite.”

• (3) New American Bible takes the name Hodiah as the Hebrew word meaning “Jewish” (so Biblia Hebraica edited by Kittel) and corrects the Hebrew text of verses 17-19 to a considerable extent. According to New American Bible, verse 19 refers to the Jewish wife of Mered, just as verse 18 referred to his Egyptian wife. Naham becomes the father of Keilah in New American Bible. And in verse 17 Jether is inserted as the father of Miriam, Shammai, and Ishbah. Verses 17-19 read as follows in New American Bible:

17 The sons of Ezrah were Jether, Mered, Epher, and Jalon. Jether became the father of Miriam, Shammai, and Ishbah, the father of Eshtemoa. 18 [… …] His (Mered’s) Egyptian wife bore Jared, the father of Gedor, Heber, the father of Soco, and Jekuthiel, the father of Zanoah. These were the sons of Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered married. 19 The sons of his Jewish wife, the sister of Naham, the father of Keilah, were Shimon the Garmite and Ishi the Maacathite.

• (4) New Jerusalem Bible places an ellipsis at the end of the verse, indicating that the end of the verse is lost as follows: “The sons of Hodiah’s wife, sister of Naham father of Keilah the Garmite and of Eshtemoa the Maacathite…” (similarly American Bible).

• (5) Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente considers the name Hodiah to be a man’s name (unlike Revised English Bible above) but adds the name Daliah (like Revised English Bible) and reads “Hodiah married the sister of Naham and had with her Daliah, father of Keilah, the Garmite, and Eshtemoa, the Maacathite.”

• (6) Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch omits the words the Maacathite and translates “Hodiah married a sister of Naham. Their descendants were Hagarmi, the ancestor of Keilah, and Eshtemoa.”

• (7) Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament suggests that some words were accidentally omitted in the Masoretic Text and therefore gives a {D} rating to the Septuagint. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament suggests the following text: “and the sons of the wife of Hodiah the sister of Naham were Daliah the father of Keilah and Shimon the father of Joman and the sons of Naham the father of Keilah the Garmite and Eshtemoa the Maacathite.” This suggested text makes both Daliah and Naham the father of Keilah. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, however, notes that Keilah is a city, and elsewhere the author mentions two or more founders (fathers) of a single city.

As the above discussion of verses 17-19 clearly shows, the Masoretic Text most likely contains one or more errors. But interpreters do not agree on what the original text most likely said, and the writers of this Handbook can only guess at how the text should be corrected and translated. For this reason we recommend that translators follow the interpretation found in Good News Translation (also Bible en français courant, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje) and indicate in a footnote that the meaning and translation of verses 17-19 are 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 .