Servants: as in verse 22.

These words, that is, that Saul wanted no bride price except a hundred foreskins.

The expression it pleased David well will have to be restructured in many languages to make David the subject of the sentence: “David was well pleased” or, perhaps more naturally, “David was very happy.” The Hebrew is literally “the matter was right in David’s eyes” (so Fox, Chouraqui).

To be the king’s son-in-law: as in verses 22 and 23.

Before the time had expired: literally “and the days were not full.” This Hebrew idiom is found also in Gen 25.24; Lev 8.33; Jer 25.12, and elsewhere. These words are lacking in the Septuagint and are therefore placed in brackets in New American Bible. The text has not earlier stated that King Saul had set a time limit during which David was to kill the one hundred Philistines, but this seems to be the sense of these words (so Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Revised English Bible says “before the appointed time.” New Jerusalem Bible expresses a slightly different understanding: “And no time was lost.” Either way, the text indicates that David went about the task quickly. The Good News Translation rendering “Before the day set for the wedding” is an attempt to express the same idea, but it seems too explicit by suggesting that the king had actually planned a wedding and had set a wedding date.

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 .