And cedar timbers without number: For cedar see the comments on 1 Chr 14.1. Cedar timbers may be rendered “cedar wood” or “cedar logs” (Good News Translation, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Without number (literally “there was no number”) is a way of saying “a great number.” This expression is parallel to beyond weighing in the previous verse. In some languages it may be appropriate to render the beginning of this verse as “it was impossible to count the cedar logs” or “so many cedar logs that the logs couldn’t be counted” (God’s Word).

For the Sidonians and Tyrians brought great quantities of cedar to David: The connecting word for introduces a detailed explanation of the extremely large number of cedar logs that were made available to David for the Temple. The Sidonians and Tyrians were the inhabitants of the Phoenician cities of Sidon and Tyre on the Mediterranean coast, north of Palestine. Tyre was actually built on an island about 700 meters (765 yards) from the mainland (see 1 Chr 14.1). The Hebrew verb rendered brought should probably be translated “had brought” (New International Version, New Living Translation, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, La Bible Pléiade, El libro del Pueblo de Dios, Nueva Versión Internacional), since the people of Sidon and Tyre had already brought the cedar logs. The text is not entirely clear whether these people were paid for the cedar wood or whether they donated the lumber and their labor. Probably the sense is that they donated the lumber because even these non-Israelites recognized the importance of this temple project. Great quantities is literally “in abundance.”

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 .