For modern readers Good News Translation again supplies geographical information (“went south”) that was understood by people who knew the relative locations of towns and regions in the area. This may also be helpful to readers in other languages.

The fortress of Tyre: since this is a reference to a city that happened to be fortified and not to a mere military fortification, it will be better to follow the Good News Translation model here and make it clear that Tyre was in fact a city.

The Hivites and Canaanites may be identified as people groups who were not Israelites. The Hivites were the original inhabitants of the towns of Shechem and Gibeon. The other various inhabitants of the land called Canaan were naturally called Canaanites. But there were Israelites living in their cities, so David’s census takers had to visit them as well.

Since Beer-sheba was the end of the tour, Good News Translation makes this explicit by adding the word “finally.” Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente provides another way of indicating that this was the end of the census taking: “The tour ended at Beersheba….”

The Negeb of Judah: The term Negeb refers to the southern part of the territory of Judah, which was dry and desertlike. Translators are advised to translate this meaning rather than perpetuating the transliteration of this term. Contemporary English Version goes a step further than Good News Translation by making it clear that the region was a desert: “the Southern Desert of Judah.”

Beer-sheba: see 3.10 and 17.11 as well as verse 2 above.

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 .