And now: This transition is omitted by Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, and others. It serves only to make the discourse flow. Receptor-language usage should determine how or whether this transition is expressed overtly in translation.

The Hebrew text has two pronouns in this verse that together indicate a stronger contrast than is evident in either Revised Standard Version or Good News Translation. Compare Bible en français courant, which better captures this contrast: “Yes, Lord God, it is you who has made me king to succeed my father David. But I, I am still…” (similarly Parole de Vie).

O LORD my God: In the Hebrew text Solomon calls God by his name “Yahweh,” and adds that Yahweh is my God. Good News Translation omits the pronoun my, but this element indicates Solomon’s complete allegiance to his God and his personal relationship with God. So it should not be omitted in translation.

Solomon refers to himself in the third person as thy servant. But Good News Translation renders this more naturally in English with the pronoun “me.” However, in order to retain both naturalness and the politeness shown in such an indirect self-reference, many translators prefer to begin this verse by saying something like “O LORD my God, I am your servant. You have let me replace my father….”

I am but a little child: Solomon further states, as does Jeremiah (Jer 1.6), that he is a little child, but this must not be understood literally. Rather, with these words Solomon expresses his humility before God. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus said that Solomon reigned eighty years and lived for ninety-four years, making him fourteen when he became king (k Jewish Antiquitiesk* 8.211). Rabbinic tradition says that he was only twelve. According to the text of 1 Kings itself, Solomon ruled “forty years” (11.42), and his son Rehoboam was already forty-one years old when he succeeded Solomon (14.21). The sense here is that Solomon is still young and inexperienced. New Century Version uses a comparison: “I am like a little child.”

I do not know how to go out or come in: This kind of expression occurs in various contexts in the Old Testament. It is not surprising, therefore, that these words are rendered in various ways in this verse. Sometimes they have a general meaning of not knowing how to do things in general (Deut 28.6). In other contexts they have a clear military meaning (Num 27.17; 1 Sam 29.6), and the verbs to go out and come in are technical military terms, meaning “to go forth to battle and to return from battle.” If that is the meaning here, then Solomon is stating that he is not ready to assume the military leadership expected of a ruler. Here in verse 7, the context seems to favor a political sense, that is, to refer more generally to a lack of experience in governing a nation. Translations that reflect this understanding are “I have no experience to lead” (Anchor Bible), “unskilled in leadership” (Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible), “with no experience in leadership” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “not knowing at all how to act” (New American Bible), “I don’t know how to rule” (Good News Translation, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Nouvelle version Segond révisée), and “I do not have the wisdom I need to do what I must do” (International Children’s Bible).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .