They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty: The pronoun They refers to King Solomon’s agents mentioned in the previous verse. Bible en français courant makes this clear by rendering the pronoun as “These merchants.” Imported is literally “brought up and brought out.” Jewish Publication Version translates “fetched up, and brought out” (similarly King James Version), but Revised Standard Version‘s simple rendering expresses the meaning correctly. A chariot and a horse obviously do not mean that they imported only one chariot and one horse. Rather, the singular is used to indicate the price per item. In some languages it will be more natural to say “each chariot” and “each horse” or simply “chariots” and “horses.” Naturalness in the receptor language will be the determining factor in deciding which forms are used.

The word shekels is not in the Hebrew text, but this is what is clearly implied. 1 Chr 21.25 refers of “shekels of gold” (see the comments there), but the text here says shekels of silver. The shekel was the standard unit of weight in the Old Testament. The name comes from the Hebrew root meaning “to weigh.” The modern equivalent of a shekel is 11.4 grams (.4 ounces). Here the expression six hundred shekels of silver refers to an amount of money, so Good News Translation and Bible en français courant say “600 pieces of silver.” Contemporary English Version expresses this amount in terms of weight, saying “about fifteen pounds of silver.” This would be a little less than seven kilograms in the metric system. Contemporary English Version translates a hundred and fifty as “almost four pounds,” which would be nearly two kilograms. Translators should not use the names of modern currency since their values change from time to time and place to place. Berkeley, for example, says “400 dollars in silver” and “100 [dollars],” and Peregrino has “six hundred pesos” and “a hundred and fifty pesos.”

Likewise through them these were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria: Likewise renders the common Hebrew conjunction and the adverb meaning “in like manner.” Revised English Bible translates “in the same way,” and La Bible du Semeur has “under the same conditions.” New International Version says simply “also.” Through them these were exported is literally “by their hands they brought out.” The passive expression in Revised Standard Version may be rendered actively by saying “they [the king’s traders] exported them [horses and chariots].” The Hittites had a kingdom that was located between the Orontes and Euphrates rivers, in what is now modern Turkey. But some small groups of Hittites settled in Israel. At the time of Solomon their empire was at the height of its power although it was eventually overcome by the Assyrians. Syria is literally “Aram” (New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible; see the comments on 1 Chr 18.5). Aram consisted of several city-states and kingdoms, such as Aram-naharaim, Aram-zobah, Aram-maacah, and Damascus. Some versions render kings of Syria as “kings of the Arameans” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “Aramean kings” (New American Bible), but it will probably be best to use the modern name Syria (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) since Aram corresponds to that same area. The meaning of this last half of the verse is expressed clearly in New Jerusalem Bible as “They [King Solomon’s dealers] also supplied the Hittite and Aramaean kings, who all used them as middlemen.” New Living Translation also clearly expresses the meaning with “Many of these were then resold to the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.”

The Hebrew of this verse allows for several rather different interpretations, including the following:

• (1) According to one interpretation, the Israelite traders paid 600 silver shekels of silver for each chariot and 150 silver shekels for each horse that they imported, but the amount paid by the Hittite and Syrian kings is not stated (so Revised Standard Version).

• (2) Others understand the Hebrew to mean that Solomon’s traders paid the same price for horses and chariots that were imported and kept in Israel by the king and for the horses and chariots that were imported and then sold to the Hittite and Syrian kings. Probably they sold the horses and chariots to the Hittites and the Syrians for a profit. God’s Word, for example, translates the end of this verse as “For the same price they obtained horses to export to all the Hittite and Aramean kings.”

• (3) However, according to Good News Translation, the amounts listed in this verse are not the price that Solomon’s traders paid for the horses and chariots but rather the prices at which they sold chariots and horses to the Hittite and Syrian kings. New American Bible also expresses this sense by rendering verses 16-17 as “16 Solomon also imported horses from Egypt and Cilicia. The king’s agents would acquire them by purchase from Cilicia, 17 and would then bring up chariots from Egypt and export them at six hundred silver shekels, with the horses going for a hundred and fifty shekels. At these rates they served as middlemen for all the Hittite and Aramean kings.”

• (4) Yet other interpreters understand the Hebrew to mean that Solomon’s agents charged the Hittite and Syrian kings the same amount that they paid, so that the agents were not making a profit on the horses and chariots sold to the Hittites and Syrians. Anchor Bible, for example, says “They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse [from Cilicia] for one hundred and fifty shekels and thus [at that price] they conveyed them through their agents to the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram” (similarly BTI).

In most English versions verse 17 is the final verse of chapter 1. In other translations (such as New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, and most French versions, which follow the verse numbering in Hebrew), chapter 1 continues through verse 18, which is the first verse of chapter 2 in Revised Standard Version. Therefore there is a difference of one verse throughout chapter 2 between the different versions. This Handbook follows the commonly used system of the majority of English versions. Beginning in chapter 3, the verse numbers in English and the Masoretic Text are the same again.

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 .