They carried off their livestock …: The Israelites captured the belongings of the Hagrites. Since both groups are referred to by pronouns (They and their), it may be necessary in certain languages to change one of the pronouns to a noun or noun clause. Good News Translation, for example, refers to the Hagrites as “the enemy.” The verb carried off should not to be understood in its literal sense, so New Revised Standard Version uses the verb “captured.” Most other modern versions also translate the idea of taking captive. The Hebrew word translated livestock alludes generally to possessions and can refer to fields as well as to animals (see the comments on 1 Chr 5.9, where it is rendered “cattle.” But the immediate context shows that prisoners of war are also included. So it is probably better not to use a word that refers only to animals. Some may prefer to use a word like “possessions” since slaves and prisoners of war were considered possessions. Another way to avoid the problem of listing people as livestock is to follow the model of New American Bible, which restructures the verse to say “Along with one hundred thousand men they also captured their livestock: fifty thousand camels, two hundred fifty thousand sheep, and two thousand asses.”

Instead of fifty thousand of their camels, the Septuagint reads “five thousand camels.” But this reading is adopted by few modern versions and is not recommended. In some languages camels are completely unknown. One suggestion is to say “hump-backed horse.” Another possibility is transliterate the Hebrew word gamal for camel or the word used in a major language. It can be explained more fully in the glossary. For a better understanding of this animal, translators should consult FFB, pages 13-14|fig:ffb_camel.htm, and ACGS, pages 27-30|fig:ACGS.Camel.27-30.html.

Two thousand asses: Ass is not common language in American English. Good News Translation consistently uses the more common word “donkey” (also New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible). In addition, the word ass in English is more often used today in a crude way to refer to a part of a person’s body (the buttocks). For that reason also, “donkey” is preferable. Translators in other languages will not have the same problem here that English has, but they need to be aware constantly of how words will sound when they are read. For a good discussion on “donkey,” see ACGS, pages 19-22|fig:ACGS.Ass,donkey.19-22.html.

And a hundred thousand men alive: The Hebrew word translated men refers to human beings and not just males. The Hebrew word for alive emphasizes that they were living, breathing human beings. Some other renderings for men alive are “prisoners” (Moffatt), “prisoners of war” (Good News Translation), “men as slaves” (Menge), and “captives” (New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible). Since the prisoners of war very likely included women and children also, other acceptable translations are “people” (New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “persons” (Nouvelle Bible Segond, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). In some languages it may be more appropriate to speak of the human captives first, as in New American Bible quoted above, instead of mentioning them after the animals, as in Hebrew.

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 .