What you say is good is literally “The word [or, matter] is good.” With these words Shimei declares that he agrees with the conditions that the king has established. New Jerusalem Bible says “That is a fair demand” and New Living Translation states “Your sentence is fair.”

Shimei refers to Solomon as my lord the king and to himself as your servant. In order to make it clear that Shimei is referring to himself, Good News Translation renders the first expression with the pronoun “you” and the second one with the pronoun “I.” This will probably be much more natural in a number of other languages. But if possible, translators should find other ways of expressing the politeness that these indirect references represent in the original text. Good News Translation attempts to do this by including the words “Your Majesty.”

In languages that prefer indirect discourse, the meaning of the quotation here may be expressed as follows:

• And Shimei agreed with what the king had said and politely said that he would stay in the city.

Many days is a literal translation of the Hebrew words. As the next verse shows, Shimei lived in Jerusalem for at least three years. Anchor Bible, therefore, translates this “for a number of years.”

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 .