Translation commentary on 1 Chronicles 26:22

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The sons of Jehieli, Zetham and Joel his brother …: Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation are contradictory in this verse. Revised Standard Version has Zetham and Joel as sons of Jehieli, but Good News Translation has them as brothers of Jehieli. Revised Standard Version follows the Masoretic Text, which apparently says Zetham and Joel were sons of Jehieli. The difficulty with this statement is that 1 Chr 23.8 says Jehiel, Zetham, and Joel were brothers and all three were the sons of Ladan. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament acknowledges that the Masoretic Text here conflicts with 23.8, but since the textual evidence here in verse 22 strongly favors the reading in the Masoretic Text, Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {B} rating to the Masoretic Text and recommends that translators follow it. But it may be helpful to add a footnote dealing with the contradiction.

Some interpreters are convinced that the Hebrew has an error here, so they change the text to agree with 23.8. Good News Translation and Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, for example, have corrected the text to agree with 23.8 by making Zetham and Joel sons of Ladan rather than sons of Jehieli. In a similar way Revised English Bible corrects the Hebrew at the end of verse 21 and the beginning of verse 22 to read “Jehiel 22 and his brothers Zetham and Joel.” In an effort to harmonize this verse with 23.8, others have suggested that the Hebrew should be read as “The sons of Jehieli [together with] Zetham and Joel his [Jehieli’s] brother,” but such a translation is not the most natural reading of the Hebrew.

Another possible interpretation of the Masoretic Text is that an unnamed brother of Jehieli was in charge of the Temple treasuries. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, for example, renders the whole verse as “The sons of Jehieli: Zetham and Joel; his brother was over the treasuries of the House of the LORD.” According to New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Zetham and Joel were sons of Jehieli, but an unnamed brother of Jehieli was in charge of the treasuries. According to this interpretation his brother means Jehieli’s unnamed brother. In Revised Standard Version his brother means Zetham’s brother Joel.

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 .

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