In some languages it will be necessary to repeat “my enemies” as the subject in verse 42 and as the object of “crush” and “trample” in verse 43.
The Masoretic Text has They looked instead of “They cried for help,” which is found at this point in the Psa 18 parallel and in some manuscripts of 2 Samuel. A number of modern versions follow those other manuscripts. These include New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, Revised English Bible, and New Century Version. But Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament recommends the reading followed by Revised Standard Version as well as New Revised Standard Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, and Bible de Jérusalem, giving an {A} evaluation to the Masoretic Text. If translators accept They looked as the text to be translated, many languages will require a clear statement of what David’s enemies looked for. It is quite obvious that they sought some kind of help (aid, relief) or someone to save them. So They looked will have to be rendered something like “They looked for help” or “They looked for someone to save them.”
In line b of verse 42 there is no verb in Hebrew for they cried; the verb in line a carries over into line b. If the first verb is taken as being looked, then it will be appropriate to translate here “they looked to the LORD.” The parallelism of verses 42-43 is that of intensification of images in the second line. Line b of 42 may be heightened by translating “they even looked to the LORD…” or “they went so far as to look to the LORD….”
I beat them fine as the dust of the earth is more literally “I beat them as dust of the earth,” a picture of complete defeat. This is an attempt to express the act of defeating an enemy using the image of reducing something to dust. Many languages will be able to use other specific verbs and retain the simile; for example, “I will stamp on them and grind them like dust blown by the wind.” In some languages the simile may require explanation; for example, “I defeat them and make them as weak as dust blown by the wind” or “… dust that the wind blows away.”
Revised Standard Version translates the Hebrew text, I crushed them and stamped them down, which has two verbs, as opposed to the parallel in Psa 18.42b, which has only “I cast them out.” Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament suggests that the Masoretic Text has combined what were originally two separate renderings, one tradition saying “crushed them” and another saying “stamped them down.” Therefore Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends that the text be corrected to read “I crushed them” by omitting the second verb. This correction is found in a number of modern translations (for example, Revised English Bible, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente).
The figure of mire of the streets must in some languages be rendered “mud in the footpaths” or “mud where people walk.”
Intensification in line b of verse 43 may be brought out more forcefully by saying, for example, “Not only did I turn them to dust, but I threw them out like mud in the streets and walked on them” or “I smashed them to dust like the wind blows away; more than that, I trampled on them like mud on the path.”
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 .