Baasha … of the house of Issachar: Baasha was introduced earlier in verse 16. He was from the tribe of Issachar. Good News Translation makes this identification explicit by translating house of as “tribe of.” Nadab was from the tribe of Ephraim, which may indicate that the members of the ten northern tribes fought for control of this kingdom.

Conspired against him: The Hebrew verb rendered conspired against indicates scheming against or planning to do harm to another person. The pronoun him refers to Nadab and this may have to be made clear by using the proper name in translation as Good News Translation has done.

Struck him down: Since this expression is ambiguous at best, it will be better to translate the meaning clearly as “murdered him” (New Jerusalem Bible) or “killed Nadab” (New Century Version).

Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines: Gibbethon is most likely to be identified with Tell Malat. This town was located about twenty kilometers (12.5 miles) east of the Mediterranean Sea on the western edge of the Judean hills. It had been given to the tribe of Dan at the time of the conquest (Josh 19.44), before the tribe of Dan moved further north, but it was now under control of the Philistines (see 1 Kgs 4.21).

For Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon: For renders the common Hebrew conjunction. In this context it is better to say “as” (Good News Translation) or “while” (New International Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) since it introduces simultaneous action here.

In 1 Kgs 16.16 the expressions “the troops” (literally “the people”) and “all Israel” occur as synonyms referring to the armed forces. The words all Israel here are therefore correctly translated as “his army” (Good News Translation) and “all his forces” (Revised English Bible). In this context all Israel does not refer to the general population of the country.

Laying siege: See the comments on the related Hebrew verb rendered “besieges” at 1 Kgs 8.37. This verb refers to the armed forces surrounding the town for the purpose of taking complete control of it and destroying the enemy.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .