The first question, Who am I, is the first of a series of rhetorical questions, all of which have the meaning of emphatic statements such as “I am a very unimportant person, and my family also….”

Who are my kinsfolk, my father’s family: Good News Translation combines my kinsfolk and my father’s family into one, “my family.” Who are my kinsfolk in the Masoretic Text is literally “what is my life?” (so New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and La Bible Pléiade). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project stated that the Masoretic Text is surely corrupt; but since no alternative reading exists in the ancient versions, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gave it an {A} rating. For purposes of translation, however, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommended that translators accept the conjecture that changes the vowels of the Hebrew to read “who are my kin?” instead of “what is my life?” Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament goes beyond Hebrew Old Testament Text Project in recognizing that, with a change of vowels, the Hebrew word chyy may mean “my clan,” and that a scribe later added the words “my fathers’s family” to clarify the meaning when this Hebrew word chyy was no longer widely understood.

The words my father’s family are in apposition to my kinsfolk. The term family in Hebrew refers to the extended family, a group of families descended from the same ancestor, and may therefore be translated as “my father’s clan” (New American Bible, Fox, and Chouraqui). See the comments on 2.28 and 10.20-21.

Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente changes David’s rhetorical questions into a statement, “I am not worthy to become the son-in-law of the king, because my family is not important in Israel.” However, a more emphatic wording may be a better translation of the Hebrew.

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 .