Now renders the Hebrew verbal transition that is sometimes translated “And it happened.” Here it is used merely to continue the flow of the story. It may not be necessary to translate it in many languages. Good News Translation carries on with the story but shows the transition by beginning a new paragraph at this point.

The king of Israel was passing by upon the wall: The king was no doubt surveying the situation on the outside of the wall (the surrounding enemy army) and on the inside (his own suffering people). See the comments at 2 Kgs 3.27 regarding the fact that people carried on various activities on top of the city wall. Possibly a footnote will be required here for certain languages. The identity of the king of Israel is difficult to determine since it is uncertain which king of Syria is in view in this story. If these events took place in the early ninth century B.C., the Israelite king may have been Joram. If they took place late in the ninth century, the king may have been Jehoash.

A woman cried out to him, saying: The woman shouted to the king since he would have been some distance from her and since she would have been feeling desperate. For cried out, see the comments at 2 Kgs 2.12. The use of both cried out and saying will be unnatural in many languages. The two verbs may be rendered as one verb; for example, Contemporary English Version has “shouted.”

Help: The Hebrew verb used here is the same one that is translated “save” in other contexts. And, of course, that meaning is not out of the question in this story. It may in fact be a more natural meaning to translate in certain languages. If an object is required, translators may say “Save me/us” or “Help me/us.”

My lord, O king: See the comments at verse 12.

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 .