When it was told David: this passive construction may be easily transformed to an active one by saying something like “When David heard it” or “When someone told David.” As indicated in Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, some manuscripts state what David was told. The ancient Greek version and one manuscript from Qumran as well as the parallel in 1 Chr 19.5 add “about the men.” Although Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {B} rating to the Masoretic Text, it will be necessary in some languages to follow the Septuagint for translation reasons.

He sent to meet them: many languages will require an object such as “messengers” (New Century Version), “other messengers” (Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje), or “a message” after the verb sent.

Good News Translation restructures the first part of this verse, transposing to the beginning of this verse the clause related to the feeling of shame of the men who had gone to Hanun. This may be a good idea for certain other languages.

The direct quotation in the last part of the verse may need to be made indirect in some languages in order to make it sound more natural. If this is necessary, the Good News Translation model will be a good one to follow. Also the idea Remain … until … may be said negatively as Good News Translation has done.

Jericho … and then return: Jericho was on the return route from Rabbah to Jerusalem. By the time the messengers had reached Jericho, they had already made most of the return trip home. One may say “Remain at Jericho … and then complete your return to Jerusalem.” Since Jericho has not been mentioned earlier in 1 or 2 Samuel, it may be helpful to add the qualifier “the city of” as in Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje. It may also be helpful to make explicit that Jerusalem is the final destination: “Then come back to Jerusalem” (New Century Version). Another way of communicating this idea may be to say, with Contemporary English Version, “Then you can come home.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .