The direct address to the mountains of Gilboa will almost certainly be unnatural in many languages. This poetic device may be rendered by a kind of prayer to God regarding the mountains or hills of Gilboa, as in Good News Translation, or by a hope or wish concerning these hills: “I hope that rain and dew will no longer fall on the hills of Gilboa….” This is a kind of curse wished on the place where Saul and Jonathan lost their lives. Other such curses are found in Jer 20 and Job 3. Note that Good News Translation reverses the order of “dew” and “rain” as being more natural in English.
Upsurging of the deep: these words in Revised Standard Version (also New American Bible and similarly Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente) are based on a slight change in the Hebrew text, which says “fields of offerings” or “fields of first fruits.” With the proposed correction Revised Standard Version has created a parallelism in which neither rain from above nor water from under the earth will bring moisture and fertility to the mountains of Gilboa. But there is no textual evidence for the Revised Standard Version reading, and New Revised Standard Version returns to the Masoretic Text (see the comments below).
Scholars have discussed at great length the meaning of the Hebrew at this point, and many conjectures have been proposed for correcting the Masoretic Text. The following translations are all based on various conjectures and not on the Masoretic Text: “no showers on the uplands” (Revised English Bible), “O treacherous fields where the heroes’ shield lies dishonoured!” (New Jerusalem Bible), and “on you, fields of death” (Osty-Trinquet and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, following part of the Septuagint tradition).
The majority attempt to make sense of the Masoretic Text and seem to think that the reference here is to fields that had once produced abundant crops but which David cursed to become barren in the future. The expression “fields of offerings” refers to fields so fertile that the farmers must give offerings of first fruits. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project and Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament give a {C} rating to the Masoretic Text and recommend this interpretation as the least unsatisfactory of the many proposed solutions. New Revised Standard Version reads “nor bounteous fields,” while New International Version has “[may you not have] fields that yield offerings of grain.” See also Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, “no longer cover yourself with fertile fields.” This solution is also the basis for the translations in Good News Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, and La Bible Pléiade.
The shield of the mighty: this refers either to the shield of Saul or to the shields of both Saul and Jonathan, since the word mighty is plural in Hebrew. The former seems less likely, since the rest of this verse should probably be linked with the beginning of verse 22.
Was defiled: the verb used here has been rendered “rejected” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “thrown aside” (An American Translation), and “dishonored” (Knox and New Jerusalem Bible). If the passive form is a problem in the receptor language, then Moffatt may provide a better model: “there a hero dropped his shield.”
Anointed with oil: while anointing with oil has very special connotations in many biblical contexts, here the idea seems to be nothing more than merely rubbing oil on the shield in order to protect it. At this time shields were sometimes made of leather, and the rubbing on of oil was necessary in order to prevent their deterioration. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translates “polished with oil no more.” If the passive form is not an option in the receptor language, it may be better to provide an indefinite agent, as in “which they rubbed with oil” or “that someone has rubbed with oil.” It is unlikely that Saul, as king, would have done the rubbing himself. It is possible, though not likely, that anointed with oil refers to Saul, who had been anointed (see 1 Sam 10.1) but was no longer God’s chosen king.
It is also possible to connect the first phrase from verse 22, “from the blood of the slain,” to the end of this verse. Following this division of the text, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente provides the following translation as an alternative in a footnote: “the shield of Saul no longer anointed with oil, but [anointed] with the blood of the enemies.” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible follows this division in the text:
• For there was stained the shield of the heroes,
the shield of Saul which had only been oiled
with the blood of the victims, with the fat of the heroes.
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 .