Those who found an Egyptian were the four hundred men who continued traveling with David, not the two hundred who stayed behind. This should be made clear in translation, since the pronoun They at the beginning of this verse may be misunderstood.

An Egyptian: the Hebrew text does not state here that this Egyptian was a young man. That information is not given until verse 13. Good News Translation, however, has moved this information forward to verse 11.

Bread is often used to refer to food in general. This is very likely the intended meaning here (so Revised English Bible, New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, and others).

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 .