He died: The referent of the pronoun he must be made clear to the reader. There should be no doubt that it was Ahaziah who died.

According to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken may be translated “just as the LORD had said that he would by speaking through Elijah.” See verse 4.

Jehoram: This king of Israel, who was the brother of Ahaziah and son of Ahab, is sometimes called Joram (2 Kgs 8.16). Jehoram is also the name of one of the kings of Judah, the son and successor of Jehoshaphat. This other Jehoram is also mentioned in 2 Kgs 8.16 and in this verse. In order to avoid confusion between these two kings, Good News Translation consistently uses the spelling “Joram” for the king of Israel (brother of Ahaziah) and “Jehoram” for the king of Judah. The same practice should probably be followed in other languages. See the general comments in Appendix B, “Who’s Who among the Kings?”

His brother: As indicated in the footnotes of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, the Hebrew text does not include these words. But the words his brother are found in three ancient versions and they may have dropped out of the Hebrew text because of a scribal error. This information is implied in the Hebrew text of 2 Kgs 3.1. Most modern versions include these words here since, in addition to the evidence from the ancient versions, logic requires something like this in view of the statement that Ahaziah had no son. Even though Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {B} rating to the Hebrew text, translators may wish to include the information here that Ahaziah and Jehoram were brothers.

Became king in his stead: See the comments on 1 Kgs 1.35.

In the second year of Jehoram: According to 2 Kgs 3.1, Joram became king in the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, who ruled for twenty-five years (1 Kgs 22.42). 2 Kgs 8.16 states that Joram had already ruled for five years in Israel when Jehoram became king of Judah. The difference of a couple of years in these accounts may perhaps be explained in part by considering that Jehoram ruled for several years along with his father Jehoshaphat. A note in Osty-Trinquet states that the “difficult chronology cannot be explained,” and fortunately it is not the translator’s job to do so.

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