This verse is difficult to understand in Hebrew, as the Revised Standard Version note suggests. Osty-Trinquet states in a footnote that the text of verses 14-16 is in very bad condition. Many translations follow the Septuagint or simply reconstruct the probable sense of the text.

The loyal love of the LORD: loyal love translates a single Hebrew word that expresses the ideas of faithfulness, steadfast love, or kindness. Revised English Bible says “faithful friendship,” and New American Bible says “kindness.” Of the LORD may be understood to mean that David is to show the same kind of steadfast love that God shows, or it may be understood to mean “as the LORD requires” (Revised English Bible). These words are the basis for the Good News Translation rendering, “sacred promise.” It is also possible to understand of the LORD as a superlative, that is, “outstanding loyal love.” The Septuagint reads “deal mercifully” instead of the loyal love of the LORD, and this is the basis for the Anchor Bible rendering “If I remain alive, deal loyally with me” (and similarly New Jerusalem Bible and Klein).

The Masoretic Text contains negatives in the first part of this verse. A literal translation of the Hebrew reads “And not if I still alive, and [or, then] you will not show me the loyal love of the LORD, and I not die.” It is difficult to know whether the words that I may not die express the purpose of the first part of the verse, as in Revised Standard Version (also New International Version, Fox), or whether these words begin a new conditional sentence that continues into verse 15, as in Good News Translation (also New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New American Bible, and New Jerusalem Bible). A literal translation of Traduction œcuménique de la Bible—attempting to retain the negatives—says “Isn’t it [true]? If I remain alive, you must act toward me with the faithfulness which the LORD requires. And if I die, isn’t it [true]?” But the translation in Traduction œcuménique de la Bible makes little sense and is not recommended as a model. Good News Translation probably expresses the intended relationship between verses 14 and 15.

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 .