He fought with the king of the Ammonites: King Jotham and the Ammonite king were not the only ones who fought, but their two countries were at war, so it may be better to say “Jotham and his army fought with the king of the Ammonites and his army.” For Ammonites see the comments on 1 Chr 18.11.

And prevailed against them is literally “and he was stronger than them.” The Hebrew here may be rendered simply “defeated” (Good News Translation). The pronoun them refers to the Ammonite king and his soldiers.

And the Ammonites gave him that year a hundred talents of silver …: For talents see the comments on 1 Chr 19.6. A hundred talents was about “7,500 pounds” (New Living Translation, God’s Word) or “3,400 kilogrammes” (GNT British edition).

Ten thousand cors of wheat and ten thousand of barley: For cors see the comments on 2 Chr 2.10. According to Good News Translation, the equivalent for ten thousand cors in bushels is “fifty thousand.” Others calculate the amount to be between 65,000 and 140,000 bushels. Moffatt, for example, says “a hundred thousand bushels.” Bible en français courant has “three thousand tons,” but this is in metric tons. For wheat see 1 Chr 21.20; for barley see 1 Chr 11.13.

The Ammonites paid him the same amount in the second and the third years: NET Bible says “The Ammonites also paid this same amount of annual tribute the next two years.” Good News Translation combines this sentence with the previous one, saying “Then he forced the Ammonites to pay him the following tribute each year for three years…” (similarly Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente).

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 .