The sons of Hebron: Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second …: Revised Standard Version follows 1 Chr 23.19 here. The Masoretic Text does not have the words of Hebron and the chief. The Masoretic Text reads “And Benai, Jeriah, Amariah the second…” (so Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Nouvelle Bible Segond). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh follows the Masoretic Text by rendering verses 22b-23 as follows: “The sons of Shelomoth: Jahath 23 and Benai, Jeriah; the second, Amariah; the third, Jahaziel; the fourth, Jekameam.” In this translation the Hebrew word benai is transliterated as “Benai,” a man’s name, rather than translated as “my sons.” While this preserves the form of the Hebrew, the meaning in New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh is certainly not clear.

Although the Masoretic Text vocalizes benai as a person’s name, Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament recommends that translators follow the Septuagint in reading this Hebrew word as “his sons.” Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {C} rating to the vocalization of the word benai as “sons of” (meaning “descendants”). Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament also acknowledges that this verse in the Masoretic Text is not in the original form but claims that any correction is based on conjecture. Following the recommendation of Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, the resulting translation is “and the sons of Jeriah, Amariah the second….” The difficulty with this rendering is that according to 1 Chr 23.19, Jeriah (literally “Jeriyahu”) was a brother to Amariah (literally “Amaryahu”), Jahaziel and Jekameam, and not their father. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament suggests that the Masoretic Text changed “his sons” to the name “Benai” to avoid saying that Amariah, Jahaziel and Jekameam were sons of Jeriah.

In agreement with the recommendation of Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente renders this whole verse as “Sons of Jeriah: second Amariah, third Jahaziel, fourth Jekameam.” But this translation does not make sense either, and a footnote in Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente states that the Hebrew text seems incomplete.

Despite the recommendation of Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, the writers of this Handbook consider it better to follow Revised Standard Version and correct the text in light of 1 Chr 23.19 by adding the name Hebron and the words the chief (with one part of the Septuagint manuscripts) and by translating benai as “sons of.” Many modern versions have corrected the text in this way (so New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Bible en français courant, La Bible du Semeur, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, El libro del Pueblo de Dios, Nueva Versión Internacional, Osty-Trinquet). Good News Translation has also followed this correction but has restructured the verse. Instead of the numerals second, third and fourth, Good News Translation conveys the same meaning by adding “in order of age” at the end of the verse. Contemporary English Version offers a similar solution but provides this information at the beginning of the verse, saying “Hebron had four sons, in the following order….”

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 .