And translates the conjunction and verb traditionally rendered “And it came to pass.”

When the wine had gone out of Nabal: many languages will have an idiom to express the meaning of these words. Compare the following in English: “when the wine had worn off” (Revised English Bible) and “when Nabal had become sober” (New American Bible). Or one may simply say “In the morning he was not drunk” (New Century Version). There may be a play on words in the Hebrew, since the consonants in the name Nabal are the same as those in the word “skin [of wine].” The wording may have conjured up images of wine dripping out of a wineskin. But such wordplay is notoriously difficult to capture in another language.

These things refers to the events that had taken place the day before with regard to David. This presumably included Abigail’s preparation of gifts for David and her encounter with him, followed by his gracious acceptance of the gifts and of her request. All this may be summed up as “everything that had happened” (Contemporary English Version), or possibly “all about her meeting with David.”

His heart died within him, and he became as a stone: this does not mean that Nabal died, for verse 38 says that he lived for ten more days. This was more like having a stroke or the sudden beginning of some other serious illness (Contemporary English Version “had a heart attack”) that eventually leads to death. Good News Translation expresses the sense clearly. Revised English Bible provides a dynamic translation that is rather different from that in Good News Translation, though the meaning is the same: “he had a seizure and lay there like a log.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

Smote: see the comments at 4.8 and 7.11. Nabal’s death is seen as a direct result of the intervention of Yahweh. The meaning of this verb may be rendered more dynamically as “took his life” (Contemporary English Version).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

Blessed be the LORD: see the comments at verse 32.

The insult I received at the hand of Nabal: see verses 10-11. It is quite clear that the word hand is being used figuratively here. A literal rendering will therefore be inappropriate in many languages. The words avenged the insult I received are literally “pleaded the case [or, lawsuit] of my disgrace,” that is, “the disgrace done to me.”

David refers to himself as his (Yahweh’s) servant, but in most languages this will be better translated by a pronoun (“me”) or by an expression that includes this pronoun, as in Good News Translation. Otherwise readers may think David is talking about someone other than himself.

Upon his own head: the word head, like the word hand earlier in this verse, is not to be understood literally. This expression means simply “on him.”

Wooed Abigail: literally “spoke for Abigail.” Wooed renders the Hebrew verb commonly translated “to speak” or “to talk.” In the context of a marriage proposal, Revised Standard Version uses the technical term “to woo [someone].” The verb sent does not have a direct object, but the next verse makes clear that David sent some of his servants. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translates this last sentence as “David sent messengers to propose marriage to Abigail, to take her as his wife.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

Carmel: regarding the town of Carmel, see the comments on verse 2.

They said to her: literally “And they said to her, saying.”

If the direct discourse of this verse is not natural in the receptor language, translators may say “They told her that David had sent them to take her back to become his wife.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

On the use of the verb rose in conjunction with other verbs, see the comments on page 20 as well as on verse 1 of this chapter.

Using the indirect reference your handmaid, Abigail again shows her respect for messengers sent by David. But since she is speaking about herself, in many cases the best translation will be the first person singular pronoun, “I.” The Hebrew pronoun translated as your in Revised Standard Version is singular. Apparently Abigail is talking to the servants as if she were addressing David himself. So some common language translations make this clear by saying “I am his servant” (Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), “I am David’s servant” (Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje), “I am ready to be David’s servant” (Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente), and “I will become the slave of his Majesty” (Bible en français courant).

The words handmaid, servant, and servants represent three different words in Hebrew. The distinction between the first two Hebrew nouns, rendered handmaid and servant, is not clear. Perhaps the first noun refers to a female slave in the service of another woman, while servant refers to a female slave who was a concubine or the wife of a slave. In any case, the third term, rendered servants, refers to people who are not slaves. The distinction is unfortunately not made in Good News Translation. Compare Revised English Bible (“I am his slave to command; I would wash the feet of my lord’s servants”) and New Jerusalem Bible (“Consider your servant a slave … to wash the feet of my lord’s servants”).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

For the fourth time the writer says that Abigail made haste (see verses 18, 23, and 34). The verbal expression may again be translated as an adverb such as “immediately.”

Rose: see verse 1.

Attended her: literally “walking at her feet.” In other words, the five servant girls walked behind Abigail, who was riding on the donkey.

Went after: perhaps better, “went with” (Knox) or “followed” (New Jerusalem Bible).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

In this context the verb took means “took as his wife” and may therefore be translated “married” (Good News Translation). The form of the verb seems to indicate that this marriage had taken place before David met Abigail. For this reason a number of modern versions translate using the pluperfect verb form “had [also] married” (so Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). But the Hebrew may be understood either way.

Ahino-am is probably not to be identified with the woman of the same name who was Saul’s wife (14.50). Jezreel was a village in the territory of Judah, near Maon and Carmel (see verse 2 and also Josh 15.55-56).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

The Hebrew text of this verse begins with the common conjunction, and it is translated in a variety of ways in different versions: “for” (Moffatt, Fox); “but” (New American Bible, Anchor Bible, Klein); “meanwhile” (Revised English Bible, Good News Translation). New Jerusalem Bible and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh leave it untranslated. It is not clear how the writer intended verse 44 to be connected to the previous verse. Perhaps the writer simply wanted to remind the reader that David and Saul were still enemies. Those translations that begin with the word “for” suggest that this verse gives the reason for David’s action in verse 43. If indeed Ahinoam was Saul’s wife, then this verse explains why David took Saul’s wife—because Saul had taken away David’s wife Michal.

Once again the verb at the beginning of this verse in Hebrew is perfect in form, so it also seems to represent something that had happened prior to the events just mentioned.

The text does not state why Saul took his daughter Michal from David and gave her to another man; and translators should not, of course, include such information. Probably Saul did not want David to claim that, since he was Saul’s son-in-law, he had the right to become the next king. Later, in 2 Sam 3.13-16, David takes back Michal as his wife.

Palti the son of Laish is mentioned only here in the Old Testament and again in 2 Sam 3.15, where he is called “Paltiel.” These two forms of the name may be harmonized, since they clearly refer to the same person. Laish, which means “lion,” almost certainly is the father of Palti, and not his mother.

Gallim is probably the town north of Jerusalem mentioned in Isa 10.30. The classifier “town” should be added in the receptor language, if that is the normal way to identify the place.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .