Will you take me down…? is literally “Will you cause me to go down…?” Some other possible renderings are “Will you guide me…?” (New Jerusalem Bible) and “Can you show me where to find…?”

This band: that is, the group referred to in verse 8. New Century Version says “Will you lead me to the people who took our families?” Contemporary English Version says even more directly “Will you take me to those Amalekites?”

And he said: the subject pronoun refers to the young Egyptian. In languages where most people will hear the text read, it may be best to say “And the young man said” or “The Egyptian replied” (La Bible du Semeur).

The response of the Egyptian is positive but conditional. In some languages it may be more natural to shift the last part of the response to the beginning by saying “I am willing to lead you to them if…” or “Yes, I will take you to the raiders. But first you must….” In other cases it may be quite natural to specify the conditions first, as Revised Standard Version does.

Into the hands of: see the comments on 4.8.

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 .