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 .