Saul thought: see the comments on verse 11. If it is more natural to make the thoughts of Saul into indirect discourse, translators may wish to say something like the following: “Saul decided to give Michal to David so that he could use her to trick him and somehow get the Philistines to kill him.”

The hand of the Philistines: for the metaphorical use of hand as “power,” see 4.8.

A snare: the root meaning of the word so translated is “bait” used to lure a bird into a trap. The word is found frequently in the Old Testament (Exo 10.7; Deut 7.16; Josh 23.13; Judges 2.3). Revised English Bible may provide a good model for the whole clause: “the bait that lures him to his death at the hand of the Philistines.”

The last sentence in this verse is lacking in one important manuscript of the Septuagint. Some think that these words were added later to the Hebrew text. For this reason New American Bible places this sentence within square brackets, and Anchor Bible and Klein omit it.

A second time translates a Hebrew word meaning “by two.” Though Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and most other translations understand this to mean a second time (see verse 17 for the first time), other interpretations are possible. Chouraqui says “on two conditions.” Different yet is New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, “You can become my son-in-law even now through the second one,” that is, by marrying Michal, the second daughter.

There is no record of Saul saying these exact words earlier in the story. And even here the direct quotation may not be the most natural way to express the meaning. The idea is most probably that “Saul promised David a second time that he would be asked to marry one of his daughters.”

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 .