Overtook: this translates an intensive form of the verb meaning “cling to” or “keep close to.” It is sometimes rendered “pursued” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New American Bible) or “closely pursued” (Revised English Bible), but New Jerusalem Bible and New International Version attempt to show the intensive nature of the verb form with “bore down on” and “pressed hard after.”

His sons: Revised Standard Version gives the impression that all Saul’s sons are in view, but this is not the case. Information elsewhere in 1 Samuel indicates that Saul had at least one other son (see 14.49; also 2 Sam 2.8; 1 Chr 8.33). If a literal translation of this verse will incorrectly suggest that these were Saul’s only sons, it may be preferable to restructure and add the implicit information, as in Good News Translation.

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 common Hebrew conjunction at the beginning of this verse is left untranslated by Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and most other versions. But Bible en français courant and La Bible du Semeur make explicit what seems to be implied: “From that point on….” Once the sons of Saul were eliminated, the Philistines were able to turn their full attention to Saul himself.

The battle pressed hard upon Saul: in certain languages it may be unnatural to make the battle the subject of such a verb. Either the verb should be changed (“the battle grew fiercer round Saul” [New Jerusalem Bible]) or the whole sentence should be restructured to make Saul the subject: “Saul became the center of more violent fighting.” Or the subject of the sentence can be changed: “the enemies fought even harder against Saul.”

Instead of saying simply the archers, the Hebrew text adds “men with the bow.” Since this is redundant, only the most literal translations retain these words.

The archers found him may mean either that the men with bows and arrows discovered where Saul was hiding, or that their arrows found their target and hit him. Anchor Bible translates “the archers found him with their bows,” implying the latter understanding, which seems more likely. The meaning of this expression is linked to the understanding of the following verb in Hebrew.

Wounded: the Hebrew verb means “to tremble” or “to writhe in pain.” Most English translations render this verb here as “wounded” (New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible; also Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch,Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, Nueva Biblia Española), probably on the assumption that one who writhes in pain must have been badly wounded. The passive was … wounded will have to be translated actively in certain languages. The most logical and simplest model for this may be something like “the archers wounded him” (Knox).

Other interpretations are also possible. French and Spanish translations often understand the primary sense here to be “tremble in fear.” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible translates “At the sight of the archers, he [Saul] had a shiver of fear.” Nouvelle version Segond révisée, La Bible du Semeur, and Bible en français courant likewise say “he was terrified of them” (also Reina-Valera revisada, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). But this is not recommended.

Other translations follow the Septuagint, which says that Saul was “wounded by a heavy blow in the abdomen” (so Osty-Trinquet, New American Bible, “pierced through the abdomen”).

The best solution is probably to choose between the first two interpretations and place the alternative translation in a note, as Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch have done.

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 .

Armor-bearer: see the comments on 16.21.

And thrust me through: some think that the Hebrew word translated and thrust me through was added to the Hebrew text to agree with the parallel text in 1 Chr 10.4. New American Bible and New Jerusalem Bible omit these words here, but Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament recommends that the Masoretic Text be followed, since there is no textual support for the omission.

As in 14.6 (see the comment there), the Philistines are called these uncircumcised, which is intended as a very negative term. Compare Revised English Bible (“these uncircumcised brutes”) and Moffatt (“these uncircumcised creatures”). In Saul’s view, to be uncircumcised was to be without God, and this was certainly in his mind when he used this expression. It is for this reason that Good News Translation speaks of “those godless Philistines.”

Make sport of me: that is, “make fun of me” (New Jerusalem Bible, Contemporary English Version). This verb is also used in 6.6 and in Exo 10.2. In Judges 19.25 Revised Standard Version translates the same verb “abused.”

In languages where indirect discourse is preferred in this context, translators may consider the following model for what Saul said to his armor-bearer:

• He told the young man who carried his weapons to pull out his sword and kill him, because he did not want the godless Philistines to be able to make fun of him as they killed him.

But his armor-bearer would not; for he feared greatly: in some cases it will be more natural to restructure this part of the verse to say “But the young man was so frightened that he refused to do what Saul asked.”

That Saul fell upon his own sword does not mean that he accidentally fell on it. The context clearly shows that Saul intended to kill himself. Translations should therefore make it clear that what Saul did was an intentional act on his part.

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 .

His sword: the pronoun his is ambiguous in Hebrew, meaning either Saul’s sword or the young man’s own sword (Good News Translation, New Century Version, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje). The latter seems more likely.

Fell upon his sword: as in the case of Saul in the previous verse, this was an intentional act of suicide, so the translation should leave no doubt about this.

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 .

Verse 6 is linked to the preceding verses with the conjunction waw. In this context the conjunction has a summarizing function and may be translated in various ways such as “So,” Thus, “In this way.” With the death of Saul and his sons, the words of Samuel spoken in 28.19 are fulfilled.

His three sons: in view of the comments made on verse 1, it may be better to translate here “three of his sons.”

Armor-bearer: Good News Translation renders this “the young man,” perhaps avoiding the repetition of the somewhat awkward term armor-bearer, which appears four times in the Hebrew text of verses 4-6.

And all his men: these words are lacking in the Septuagint, which is followed by New American Bible and New Jerusalem Bible. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, however, gives a {C} rating to the Masoretic Text and suggests that all his men refers only to a handful of men who were fighting around Saul, since others fled (see verse 7).

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 .

Though the writer does not indicate when these Israelite towns were occupied, it probably happened several days later. All of this verse is an interruption of the flow of action and time between the preceding verses and those that follow. Moffatt correctly places all of verse 7 within parentheses in order to mark this break in the chronological sequence.

The other side of the valley (see 28.4; 29.1) refers to the north side of the Jezreel Valley (so Good News Translation, New Century Version, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje), which was also called the Plain of Jezreel (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). The name of the valley may be made explicit, as well as the fact that the Jordan was a river. Some translate the word other side according to the specific context of a valley. New American Bible, for example, says “on the slope of the valley.”

Beyond the Jordan almost certainly refers to the east side of the Jordan River (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje). However, the word rendered beyond may also be translated here as “in the region of.” Such an understanding may limit the cities to the western side of the Jordan River. Revised English Bible, for example, says “in the neighborhood of the valley and of the Jordan.” See also New American Bible, “those along the Jordan.”

The text says literally that these others saw what happened to their fellow Israelites. It is, however, unlikely that this is meant to be taken in its literal sense of witnessing the events themselves. The idea is rather that they became aware of what had occurred. Therefore some possible translations of the verb are “heard” (Good News Translation) and “learned” (Bible en français courant and Contemporary English Version).

Dwelt: the Hebrew verb is the common verb for “living” or “dwelling.” In this context a more specific verb for the settling of invading foreign troops may be used, such as “occupied” in English (New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, 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 .

On the morrow: in the preceding verse the action is interrupted to state that the Philistine soldiers occupied various Israelite towns. The time indicated by the noun morrow is the day after the battle described in verses 1-6.

To strip the slain: the slain is literally “the pierced” (see verse 1). Some languages will have specific words for dead bodies, such as “corpses” (see also verses 10 and 12). New Century Version may be a helpful model: “to take all the valuable things from the dead soldiers.”

Instead of fallen it may be clearer in certain languages to say “lying dead” (Contemporary English Version). Good News Translation and Bible en français courant speak of the dead “bodies” of Saul and his sons.

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 .

Cut off his head: compare 17.51, where David “cut off” Goliath’s head. Since Saul is the person in focus, the pronoun his clearly refers to Saul, even though other dead people are mentioned. If there is any doubt about the reference of the pronoun in the receptor language translation, the name should be used in place of the pronoun.

Stripped off his armor: several modern non-English versions speak of “arms” (Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Bible en français courant, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy) rather than armor. Klein also speaks of “weapons.” The Hebrew term is a rather general one that is translated “utensils,” “instruments,” or “equipment” in other contexts. Since both weapons and armor are utensils of war, either interpretation is possible. Perhaps the term was intended to refer to both.

Sent messengers: literally “they sent.” Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have both added the word messengers according to the sense of the Hebrew and the requirements of good English style.

Throughout translates a single preposition in Hebrew. Languages may have idiomatic expressions as in English, “through the length and breadth of their land” (Revised English Bible).

A textual problem exists regarding the words their idols, which is a translation of the Septuagint (followed by Revised English Bible, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible). The reading in the Septuagint agrees with the Hebrew text of 1 Chr 10.9. The Masoretic Text says “to the house of their idols and to the people” (so New Revised Standard Version, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). New International Version says “to the temple of their idols…” (so also Contemporary English Version and La Bible du Semeur). Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {B} rating to the Masoretic Text, which makes specific mention of the house.

The people clearly refers to the Philistine people. Good News Translation makes this clear by saying “their people.”

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 .