You shall not slay them …: The immediate answer of the prophet is a restatement of what the king had said but with the addition of the negative particle. This is a rather emphatic ‘No.’ But it is also followed by a question to the king. The question, Would you slay those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? is long and awkward. It is not asked in order to find an answer; the answer is clearly understood to be “No.” Because of the complexity of the question and the fact that its purpose is undoubtedly to make a strong negation, it will be better in many languages to translate it as a negative statement (so Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, Parole de Vie). Further, the expression with your sword and with your bow is simply a means of talking about warfare in general. For this reason it may be better to translate it as “in a battle” or “during a war.” One simplified model translation of this part of the verse might read as follows: “You would not kill people that your soldiers had captured in battle, so you must not kill these men.”

It is, however, possible to understand the question differently. Revised English Bible, An American Translation, Moffatt, and Gray follow a version of the ancient Greek in reading “Would you kill those whom you have not taken captive…?” Revised English Bible reads “Would you destroy those whom you have not taken prisoner with your own sword and bow?” That is, according to Revised English Bible, it is acceptable practice to kill prisoners whom one has captured but not to kill those captured by someone else. This makes better sense than the renderings in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, but the textual support for this correction is weak.

Following the prophet’s strong negation, he goes on to insist on some positive steps that should be taken on behalf of the captive Syrian army. First, the king of Israel was told to Set bread and water before them. This expression is not to be understood as providing only minimum rations for the prisoners. The following verse shows, in fact, that “a great feast” was prepared for the enemy soldiers. So this might be rendered “Prepare food and drink for them.” The word bread is correctly translated as “food” in several modern versions (New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). For bread and water, see the comments on 1 Kgs 13.8 and 18.4.

After the captive soldiers had eaten and drunk, the king of Israel was told to let them go to their master; that is, he should let them go back to their own king. In some languages it may be important to use a verb meaning “go back” or “return” since they had certainly been in the presence of their king previously.

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 .