And as soon as Ahab heard: At the beginning of this verse, once again the Hebrew has the verbal transition meaning “And it happened.” It is followed by the same expression as in the preceding verse, but the proper name here is Ahab rather than Jezebel. The same words in Hebrew here are repeated at the beginning of verse 27, where Revised Standard Version translates “And when Ahab heard.” Just as Ahab immediately goes to take possession of the vineyard here when he hears that Naboth is dead, he immediately puts on mourning clothes in verse 27 when he hears the judgment upon him.

Good News Translation leaves implicit that Ahab heard that Naboth was dead since this information is clearly stated in verse 15. For reasons of English style, Good News Translation also abbreviates the reference to the vineyard by omitting the words of Naboth the Jezreelite.

Ahab arose to go down: See the comments on the verb “Arise” in the previous verse. The meaning of the Hebrew is correctly translated as “Ahab set out to go down” (New Revised Standard Version, Anchor Bible) and “Ahab started off on his way down” (New American Bible). Samaria was in the hill country of Manasseh, and Jezreel was at a lower altitude in the Jezreel Valley, so Ahab literally “went down” although this detail is of little importance to the story and is not made explicit in modern versions such as Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Contemporary English Version, New Century Version, and Good News Translation.

Take possession of it: The verb used here is translated in other contexts as “inherit.” In this case it involves taking control of the property that had belonged to Naboth. New Century Version translates “take it for his own,” while New Living Translation has “claim it.”

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 .