All the words of the people: this may have included considerable discussion, but the end result was that they had determined that they still wanted a king. Revised English Bible says “what the people had decided.”

Repeated: in some cases this idea is expressed as “spoke over again.”

In the ears of the LORD: such a literal translation may be inadvisable in many languages. The same expression is elsewhere translated by Revised Standard Version as “in the hearing of the LORD” (Num 11.1, 18). This wording seems to emphasize the fact that the information is repeated with a certain precision: “told the LORD exactly what they had said” (Contemporary English Version).

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 .