David said: it may be more natural in some languages to say that David “answered” or “replied.”

Your servant is a third person reference to David himself and should probably be translated by a first person singular pronoun. But adjustments should be made to ensure that proper regard for the position of Achish is shown in David’s response. Good News Translation does so by adding the term of respect, “sir.”

My lord the king: the Hebrew is ambiguous, and perhaps intentionally so; though Achish believed that David was referring to Achish, David may have been referring to Saul, in which case the enemies of my lord the king would be Achish and the Philistines. It seems unlikely, however, that David’s words referred to Saul, and it may be wise to state explicitly, as in Good News Translation (also New Century Version, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente), that my lord the king refers to Achish. This is indirect address and is the normal polite way of speaking to a king. And Achish certainly understood David’s words as referring to him. See also comments on verse 10 below. If translators decide to retain the ambiguity of the text, it will probably be a good idea to add a footnote explaining that my lord the king could refer either to Achish or to Saul.

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 .