The city, that is, Ziklag.

Burned with fire: see the comments at verse 1.

Sons and daughters: in some languages it will be more natural to say simply “children.”

Both burned and taken captive represent passive forms in Hebrew, but in those languages where the two passive forms present problems, translators may wish to restructure along the following lines:

• When David and his men got back to the city, they saw that the enemies had burned it down and had captured and taken away their wives and children.

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 .