As is often the case, the verb said will be better rendered “asked” in many languages, since it introduces a question.

The young man who told him: see the comments at verses 5 and 6.

The question Where do you come from? in this verse is not quite the same as in verse 3. While the question in verse 3 has to do with where the man had been immediately before his encounter with David, here the question is rather one of ultimate origin. The Good News Translation rendering is identical with that of New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Anchor Bible, and New American Bible: “Where are you from?” In some languages the most natural way to ask for this information will be to say “What is your village?” or “Where are your parents from?”

The son of a sojourner: it is possible that this signifies membership in a group (see 2.7), like many other expressions beginning with “son of…” or “sons of….” In this case the Amalekite messenger states that he is one of the group of foreigners living among the people of Israel. If this is the correct interpretation here, then the young man is not stating that his father was a foreigner, only that he himself is (so Good News Translation and Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje). Most versions, however, seem to understand son of here to mean that his father was an alien also.

The word sojourner comes from a root meaning to live among a people who are not blood relatives. Such a person would not normally have the same rights as his hosts; rather, according to Lev 19.33-34, he would be dependent on their hospitality. Apart from the Good News Translation model, translators may consider “son of a resident alien” (Moffatt and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “son of an Amalekite immigrant” (New American Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), or “my father … was an alien, a man of Amalec” (Knox).

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 .