He said to him: in order to make it clear to the reader which person is talking and which is listening, it may be necessary in some languages to translate one or both of the pronouns here as proper nouns. Revised English Bible has “And he said to Amnon.”

O son of the king: the use of the vocative form O son … may be considered very unnatural in some languages. The point of this expression is to highlight the fact that Amnon’s position as the oldest son of David should make it possible for him to have whatever he wanted. But in many languages it will be better translated as an emphatic statement—as Good News Translation has done—rather than as a vocative. Or in some cases a rhetorical question may be in order here: “Should a royal prince pine away…?” (Knox).

So haggard: the word translated haggard here may be understood to mean “weak,” “thin,” “poor,” or “needy.” It is frequently translated “poor” in other contexts. But here translators see it as meaning “worn” (New Jerusalem Bible); “low-spirited” (Revised English Bible); “depressed” (La Bible du Semeur); or “dejected” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and New American Bible).

Morning after morning: literally “in the morning and in the morning.” The important point here is that Amnon’s dejection was not a passing thing. It continued and seemed to grow from one day to the next. Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente says “every morning you are thinner.” Instead of focusing on the morning, some languages may say simply “day after day.”

Jonadab’s question Will you not tell me? is simply a way of urging Amnon to tell him what was making him so sad. It need not necessarily be translated as a question. Another way of communicating the idea is “Please tell me what is bothering you.”

My brother Absalom’s sister: the words my brother, of course, really mean “half brother” in this context, as Good News Translation makes clear. But the relationships of the different persons involved may not be clear to the reader or hearer—especially in languages that use a general term meaning “sibling” and do not normally distinguish between brothers and sisters. In some languages it may be necessary to say something like “Tamar, who has the [same father and] same mother as my brother Absalom.”

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 .