Took hold of his clothes, and rent them: as in verse 2, this action was designed to show the grief of the person performing such an action. For this reason Good News Translation adds the implied information “in sorrow.” Note that in this case the text clearly indicates that this was something that David did to himself.

In some languages it may be more natural to use a different structure, combining the two sentences and saying something like “Then David and all those who were with him tore their clothes to show that they were sad about the news they had heard.”

The men who were with David were the soldiers who accompanied him in 1 Sam 29–30. Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje says “and all his soldiers did the same.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .