It may be better to avoid the word men at the beginning of this verse, since Abigail certainly had people in general in mind. Most modern versions say something like “anyone” or “any person.” But it is possible to speak more specifically of “your enemies” (Contemporary English Version) in this context.

The verb rise up is the same as “arise” in 9.3 and is not to be understood or translated literally.

Seek your life: that is, attempt to take away your life. See the comments at 23.15.

The bundle of the living: the word bundle may refer to a pouch or bag as in Job 14.17. Compare New Jerusalem Bible, “your life will be kept close in the wallet of life with Yahweh your God.” To not be bundled up in the bundle of the living means simply that one will die. On the other hand, some understand the Hebrew word to refer to a written document that has been tied up, as in Isa 8.16. If this second interpretation is accepted, the sense is similar to the idea of a book of the living (Psa 69.28). Anchor Bible says “tied up in the Document of the Living.”

Since the precise meaning of this phrase is uncertain, it may be possible to use a more general express such as in Good News Translation. See also Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, “But your life is jealously taken care of [or, watched over] in the hand of the LORD your God.”

The lives of your enemies he shall sling out: that is, out of the bundle of the living just mentioned. But the comparison here is with a sling from which rocks are thrown. The same imagery is found in Jer 10.18. Here La Bible du Semeur translates “he will throw the lives of your enemies far away as with a sling.” And Contemporary English Version has “he will snatch away their lives quicker than you can throw a rock from a sling.”

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 .