Samuel lay is a literal translation. “Stayed in bed” (Good News Translation) is idiomatic English. The Septuagint says “Samuel lay in bed until morning and got up early in the morning.” Some scholars think it is more likely that a scribe accidentally omitted the words “and got up early in the morning” from the Hebrew rather than thinking that the Greek translator added them. Anchor Bible, New American Bible, and La Bible Pléiade follow the Septuagint. But the absence of any comment on this matter by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project suggests that the traditional Hebrew text should be followed here. However, it is possible that the idea of “getting up” may be supplied for translation reasons, since it is clearly implied.

The house of the LORD: see the comments on this phrase in 1.7.

And: some languages may require a contrasting conjunction such as “but” (Revised English Bible) in this context, since it might be expected that Samuel would tell Eli about the vision. Receptor language usage will determine which kind of conjunction is used here. And in some cases there will be no conjunction at all.

Samuel was afraid: in English the repetition of the name Samuel, as in the Hebrew, is considered poor style; Good News Translation accordingly substitutes the pronoun “he” for the second occurrence of Samuel’s name in this verse.

The vision: the Hebrew word translated as vision in this verse is different from the Hebrew word translated by the same English word in verse 1. But no distinction in meaning is evident, and translators may use the same word or expression to translate these two different Hebrew terms.

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 .