The Hebrew word translated youth is different from the word translated lad in verse 21, but the two words may be treated as synonyms in translation, since they certainly refer to the same person.

Look: see verse 21.

If the embedded quotation is a problem here, as suggested in the previous verse, the following model will show how it may be avoided:

• But if I tell him to go look for them some distance farther away, then you must escape. That will show that the LORD wants to send you farther away.

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 .