Then: the common conjunction is here treated as a temporal transition word indicating what happened next in the story. But many modern versions omit it altogether.

Saul said to his servant is a literal translation. Good News Translation omits to his servant as redundant. Since the verb said is followed by a question, it may be better translated as “asked.”

But if we go: literally “Behold [if] we go.” Regarding the translation of the word “Behold,” see page 18 and following. In this context the word may even be translated “Wait a minute!” or “Hold on!” Fox attempts to express the sense of the Hebrew by saying “But here, (if) we go, what can we bring for the man?”

The bread in our sacks is gone should not be understood to mean that it had somehow disappeared or been stolen. Rather the idea is that it had been “used up” (Anchor Bible). It will also be recalled that the word bread is often used in Scripture to refer to food in general. It is taken in this way by New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Revised English Bible, and New Jerusalem Bible, as well as Good News Translation. So some may prefer to say “we have eaten all the food that was in our sacks.”

Present: the noun so translated is not found elsewhere in the Old Testament, but it is related to a verb related to travel and so refers perhaps to any gift offered by a traveler. 1 Kgs 14.3 and 2 Kgs 4.42 seem to suggest that it was common to take a gift to a prophet. Perhaps it was expected that people would pay the prophet a fee for an interview. At least one scholar has suggested that this Hebrew word means “interview fee,” but nearly all translations say simply “a gift” or “a present.” In most languages a general term for “gift” will be adequate.

The man of God: see the comments on verse 6.

The final question of Saul, What have we? seems to mean “Do we have anything at all [to give the man of God]?” And the implication is that they had “nothing at all” (Revised English Bible). Some may translate “We don’t have anything else, do we?”

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 .