And renders the Hebrew verbal transition marker that is sometimes translated “And it happened.” The beginning of a new paragraph is an adequate representation of this transition marker here.
The ninth year of his reign: Since this is the beginning of a new chapter and a new section, some implied information from the background may have to be supplied. When the text speaks of his reign, it is referring to the reign of Zedekiah and not of Nebuchadnezzar. So this may be made explicit in translation. New American Bible, like Good News Translation, has “the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign.”
Good News Translation also includes from the end of 2 Kgs 24.20 in the Masoretic Text the statement that “Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia.” In many languages this information will also have to be provided in the translation of this verse. It was because of Zedekiah’s attempt to reject the authority of Babylonia that Nebuchadnezzar found it necessary to attack Jerusalem with his army.
For Babylon as Babylonia, see the comments at 2 Kgs 20.12 and 24.1.
In the tenth month: If translated literally into certain languages, the tenth month is likely to be misunderstood as meaning October (see the comments at 1 Kgs 6.1). Often translators are required to resort to a footnote or a special explanation in the glossary to explain the months of the year in the Bible. See Appendix A, “The Hebrew Calendar.” Here the reference is to January 588 B.C. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesied regarding Zedekiah and Jerusalem on the day that Nebuchadnezzar attacked the city (Jer 21.1-10; 34.1-5; Ezek 24.2).
The two verb phrases, laid siege to it and built siegeworks against it round about, both concern the same activity on the part of the Babylonian army (compare the comments on “laying siege” at 1 Kgs 15.27, where a different Hebrew verb is used). The verb laid siege is third person singular in Hebrew, but the verb in the parallel passage in Jer 52.4 is plural, and the plural is followed in some modern translations (Moffatt, La Bible Pléiade). The focus here in 2 Kings, however, is on Nebuchadnezzar. Many modern versions include the idea of the enemy army camping in the area around the city under siege since this is clearly implied in the verb and preposition translated laid siege (so Good News Translation). So in view of the context (with all his army), in those languages where it is unnatural to translate the verb laid siege with a singular subject, it is perfectly acceptable to use the plural subject “they” here. Laying siege involved two stages: surrounding the city with semipermanent camps of soldiers and constructing ramps made of earth to enable these soldiers to go up over the city walls. In 1 Kgs 16.15 the same verb is translated “encamped against.”
Built siegeworks may be rendered “piled dirt against the city walls to attack it” (New Century Version), and this is the recommended translation. Some scholars understand the Hebrew noun translated siegeworks to refer to a mobile tower or platform on which archers stood in order to shoot over the walls of the city, and for this reason some versions state that material other than earth was used; for example, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “built towers against it all around” and Revised English Bible has “erected siege-towers against it on every side.”
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .