One of the people: that is, “one of the soldiers” (New Revised Standard Version). Similarly the words charged the people will be better translated “charged the troops” (New Revised Standard Version).

Your father strictly charged the people with an oath, saying: Revised Standard Version inserts the word strictly because the Hebrew construction is emphatic (so also New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible). Fox attempts to express this aspect of the Hebrew by saying “Your father made the people swear, yes, swear, saying.”

Before translating this verse, one must decide whether the words And the people were faint are (1) part of the quotation or (2) whether they are the writer’s comment to the reader. Revised Standard Version follows the second interpretation. Good News Translation and most other versions (including New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New Revised Standard Version, and Revised English Bible) follow the first interpretation. Good News Translation places these words at the beginning of the quotation and uses the first person plural, “We are all weak from hunger.”

Some consider these words And the people were faint to be a later scribal comment, taken from verse 31b. On this basis New Jerusalem Bible and Anchor Bible omit these words in translation.

Were faint: this unusual verb form means “to be weak” or “to be tired.” Since the context clearly indicates the reason that they are tired, Good News Translation adds the words “from hunger.” See also verse 31.

It will be desirable in some languages to avoid direct speech altogether. If this is the case, the following model may be helpful:

• But one of the soldiers told Jonathan about the oath that Saul had imposed on the troops, and how he had put them under a curse if they ate any food that day.

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 .