Now these are …: This rendering gives the impression that a list of names will follow. Since this is not the case, an alternative rendering may be required. Most likely, as the footnote in Traduction œcuménique de la Bible states, a list of names originally followed here but the list has not been preserved. Einheitsübersetzung puts three dots at the end of this verse and states in a footnote that the expected names are missing here. Scholars find it difficult to determine to whom the demonstrative pronoun these might refer. Some go back to verses 14-16. Others connect it with 1 Chr 6.31-48, where a list of singers is given. But neither of these possibilities is grammatically reasonable. For this reason some modern versions omit the demonstrative pronoun altogether (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, New Century Version, Bible en français courant, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). Others translate the Hebrew pronoun in the name of faithfulness to the Masoretic Text, but the resulting translation is often quite unnatural since the pronoun has no obvious antecedent.

Regarding the singers, see chapter 25.

Heads of fathers’ houses: See the comments on 1 Chr 5.24.

Dwelling in the chambers of the temple free from other service: Free from other service is literally “set free.” This phrase renders a Hebrew participle that comes from a word whose basic meaning is “to split.” Most versions take the Hebrew participle as referring to the singers, who are free from other service. But Revised English Bible takes the participle with the word chambers, that is, the chambers were for the singers’ use: “who were lodged in rooms set apart for them.”

For they were on duty day and night: This clause gives the reason why these musicians were not given other responsibilities. It is perhaps better to say that they were “on call” (Good News Translation), that is, they were required to perform at any time, rather than to say they were on duty twenty-four hours a day. A good model for this clause is “because they were liable for duty by day and by night” (similarly Revised English Bible).

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 .