The king also made a great ivory throne: As in the two previous verses, the verb made is to be understood in the sense of having something made or commissioning the making of an object. The Hebrew here is most naturally understood to mean that the throne was made of ivory, but archaeological discoveries make it more likely that the throne was a wooden chair covered in part with ivory (so Good News Translation), “decorated with ivory” (Bible en français courant), or “inlaid with ivory” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible footnote). Similarly, the reference to an ivory house in 1 Kgs 22.39 must be understood to mean “decorated with ivory” and not made entirely from ivory. The Hebrew word for ivory is the same as “tooth”; in this context ivory is the “tooth” of an elephant. If a word for ivory does not exist in the receptor language, this may perhaps be rendered “elephants’ teeth.”

And overlaid it with pure gold: See the comments on 1 Chr 28.17 and 2 Chr 3.4. It is not likely that the expensive ivory would have been covered with gold so that the ivory did not show, so Good News Translation makes this clear by saying “Part of it was covered with ivory and the rest of it was covered with pure gold.”

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 .