Servants: see verse 7.

She put it before Saul: the Hebrew text leaves a great deal to the imagination of the reader. Presumably the pronoun it in Revised Standard Version refers to both the bread that was baked and the meat. There is, in fact, no pronoun in the Hebrew. New Revised Standard Version says more logically “she put them before Saul.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh uses the demonstrative pronoun “this.” Other versions supply “the meal” (New American Bible) or “the food” (Revised English Bible and New Century Version as well as Good News Translation). Also, the text says nothing about the meat of the fatted calf having been cooked, but it is very unlikely that raw meat was offered to Saul and his companions.

On the verb rose used in series with another verb, see the comments on the word “arise” at 9.3 and in “Translating the Books of Samuel,” page 20 and following.

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 .