The Hebrew that is transliterated as “Absalom” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the signs depicting “hair + caught” referring to 2 Samuel 18:9. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
Then: the conjunction here may have both temporal and logical components. What Joab did happened immediately after the events described in the preceding verse and was a direct result of those events.
Arose and went: see the comments on this kind of expression in verse 23 above and in the other references given there. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh here translates the two verbs together as “came at once.”
Said to him: in view of the fact that a question follows, this may be translated “asked him.” Good News Translation‘s “demanded” (also Revised English Bible) implies that Joab was angry.
The direct quotation may be more naturally translated in some languages as indirect speech. The whole verse will then read something like “Then Joab went to Absalom’s house and asked him why his [Absalom’s] servants had set fire to his [Joab’s] field.”
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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