Ahimaaz was in charge of the eighth administrative district, which corresponded roughly to the territory that had been assigned to the tribe of Naphtali.

He had taken Basemath the daughter of Solomon as his wife: Since one of Solomon’s daughters has already been mentioned in verse 11, Good News Translation and New Living Translation add the qualifier “another” here for reasons of English style (also New American Bible). For the same reason Revised English Bible says “he also had married a daughter of Solomon…” (similarly New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Bible en français courant, Parole de Vie). The Hebrew expression rendered he had taken … as his wife (meaning “to marry”) is not the same as the one in verse 11, where the text says simply that Taphath “was the wife” of Ben-abinadab. But the meaning is not significantly different and translators need not worry if they do not find synonymous expressions in their own language. Apart from her marriage to Ahimaaz, nothing else is known about Basemath.

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 .