From the city … in the city … in the city: Since this is the first mention of the city of Jerusalem in this section that began at verse 18, it may be helpful to make the name of the city explicit as in Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente: “From Jerusalem … in the city … in Jerusalem.” Bible en français courant provides a different model by omitting the words from the city and in the city in the first half of the verse and then ending the verse with the words “in Jerusalem.”
An officer who had been in command of the men of war: The Hebrew word translated officer is literally “eunuch” (Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Osty-Trinquet, La Bible Pléiade, em>Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente), but it may be distracting from the main sense to try to translate the literal meaning of this term in other languages. See the comments at 1 Kgs 22.9 and 2 Kgs 8.6. An officer is literally “one officer.” In the books of 1-2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings, however, use of the word “one” with a noun often signifies indefiniteness, and should be translated in English with the indefinite article as in Revised Standard Version rather than with the definite article “the” as in Good News Translation.
The expression men of war may be legitimately translated “soldiers” (New Revised Standard Version) or “fighting men” (New International Version).
Five men of the king’s council is literally “five men seeing the king’s face.” The expression designates people who were especially close to the king as his most intimate advisers. Some other ways of stating this are “five of the kings’s personal friends” (New Jerusalem Bible), “five of those with right of access to the king” (Revised English Bible), and “five people who advised the king” (New Century Version). Other languages may have quite different ways of referring to a chief’s closest personal counselors. In some cases they speak of “those who have the ear of the chief” or “those who can eat with the chief.” According to Jer 52.25, there were seven men from the king’s council who were found in Jerusalem. In any case, the Hebrew here in 2 Kings is most naturally understood as meaning “five from [or, of] the king’s council” and not that there were only five men who served in this function.
The words who were found in the city, which occur twice in this verse, are passive in form in Revised Standard Version, which reflects the Hebrew. This expression may be made active by saying “whom the Babylonians found in the city” or simply “who were in the city.”
The secretary of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land: Interpreters disagree on whether this expression in Hebrew refers to two different people or to only one person. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation treat the Hebrew as referring to two different people. New Jerusalem Bible is similar with “the secretary to the army commander, responsible for military conscription.” According to this understanding of the Hebrew, it was the duty of the commander to see to it that the men were ready for battle, and his secretary was responsible for writing down their names. The Septuagint text for this verse, as well as the Masoretic Text for Jer 52.25, clearly indicate that the secretary and the commander were two different people. More likely, however, here in this verse the phrase the commander of the army is in apposition to the phrase the secretary since the Hebrew has no conjunction between these two expressions. Following this interpretation, Contemporary English Version says “the officer in charge of gathering the troops for battle” and makes no mention of a secretary. New Revised Standard Version also follows this second interpretation with “the secretary who was the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land.” Compare also “an official army secretary who drafted citizens for military service” (NET Bible) and “the head scribe of the army who was responsible for enrolling the people of the country” (Nouvelle Bible Segond).
Sixty men of the people of the land: Here and in the previous phrase, the expression the people of the land almost certainly refers to the elite leadership of Judah (see the comments at 2 Kgs 11.14). But whether they were exclusively military leaders or also civilians is unclear. These were probably provincial nobles or leaders of clans.
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 .