He adorned the house with settings of precious stones: The Hebrew verb for adorned is the same one translated “overlaid” in verses 4 and 10. But the context here is different and this will justify a different verb in translation in some languages. In English the verb “to stud” will correctly express the meaning (so New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Good News Translation and La Bible du Semeur render the house as “the Temple,” but the reference is probably to the nave mentioned in verse 5 rather than to the whole Temple, and then verse 8 begins the description of the last room, the Most Holy Place. In fact, El libro del Pueblo de Dios says “the nave” here in verse 6.

Settings of precious stones is literally “stone precious for beauty.” The word settings is added by Revised Standard Version and retained in New Revised Standard Version, but does not reflect anything in the Hebrew. The adjective qualifying the word stones may also be understood to mean “rare” or “splendid” (Nouvelle Bible Segond). But because they were rare, they had great value. Osty-Trinquet speaks of “choice stones.” Most likely the precious stones were used to make mosaics in the floor, not that the walls were completely covered or overlaid with precious stones. For this whole clause La Bible du Semeur says “For decorating the Temple, they inserted precious stones.” But compare “He covered the building with gems to beautify it” (God’s Word), which seems to suggest that the walls were covered with gems. In fact, New Living Translation says “The walls of the Temple were decorated with beautiful jewels.”

The gold was gold of Parvaim is not to be understood as gold belonging to a person named Parvaim, but rather from a region famous for its production of the precious metal. Scholars have suggested that this region may have been either in southern Arabia (at modern Farwa in Yemen) or northern Arabia (at el-Farwein), but neither of these can be verified with any degree of certainty as being particularly famous for the mining of gold. Parvaim is referred to in one of the Dead Sea Scrolls of the book of Genesis as being the home of Enoch. But what is important for the translator in this context is to identify Parvaim as a geographical region. Compare “the land of Parvaim” (Good News Translation, New Living Translation). Some interpreters think that Parvaim is a variant spelling for Ophir, a place famous for its high-quality gold and mentioned several times in the Old Testament (see the comments on 1 Chr 29.4). However, since this is only speculation, translators should not substitute Ophir for Parvaim. Less likely, Parvaim may be a Hebrew word referring to a high-quality gold (so Vulgate). In any case, by saying that the gold was gold of Parvaim, the implication is clearly that this was “gold of best quality” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy).

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 .