He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign: Neither Revised Standard Version nor Good News Translation follows the Masoretic Text here, which reads “He began to build in the second month on the second in the fourth year of his reign.” Many versions follow the Masoretic Text and take the words “on the second” as referring to “on the second day of the second month” (New Revised Standard Version, Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, An American Translation, Anchor Bible, Moffatt, La Bible du Semeur, Nueva Versión Internacional, Reina-Valera revisada). Some Hebrew manuscripts and some of the ancient versions do not have “on the second [day],” and the parallel text in 1 Kgs 6.1 does not have this phrase either. Therefore many interpreters think that a scribe mistakenly repeated the word second, and quite a few translations do not follow the Masoretic Text here, including Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, which usually does. In addition to the evidence of the versions and the parallel text in 1 Kgs 6.1, Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament notes that when the author of 2 Chronicles gives a day and month, he always names the day before the month. Therefore Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {C} rating to the text followed by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

Depending on the restructuring of verses 1 and 2, it will be important to ensure that the pronoun He clearly refers to Solomon and not to his father David. Of course, Solomon himself did not do the construction work, so some languages will need to render began to build as “caused the building to begin.”

The second month was named Ziv. This Jewish month began around mid-April. New Living Translation says “midspring.” In some languages where the months of the year are counted rather than named, the second month may be misunderstood as referring to February. Translators should avoid this misunderstanding by including a footnote or a glossary entry clarifying the situation (see Ellington’s article on the Jewish calendar in The Bible Translator).

The fourth year of Solomon’s reign cannot be precisely dated, but most scholars think he began to reign sometime between 970–960 B.C.

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 .