Come what may: the same expression as used in the previous verse is repeated here, stressing the determination of Ahimaaz to carry the news to King David. The affirmation I will run also underscores his resolve, but it may be better rendered “I am determined to go.” The Hebrew text does not have names in the first part of this verse. It should be clear in receptor languages that Ahimaaz speaks first and then Joab replies to him.

By the way of the plain: the Hebrew word rendered plain is literally “circle” or “round” and refers to the flat area beside the Jordan Valley, as also in 1 Kgs 7.46. For this reason Good News Translation, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch say “through the Jordan Valley.” Although Knox says that Ahimaaz “took a shorter way,” it may not necessarily be that the distance was shorter. Some scholars feel that the Cushite slave took the shorter and more direct path, which would have taken him from the forest where the battle took place to the town of Mahanaim by way of the mountains. The way of the plain (through the Jordan valley) was a longer distance, but a less strenuous path, and one that posed fewer physical difficulties. Few translations of the Hebrew are literal here, but compare Fox, who has “by way of the Oval.” Fox does, however, explain in a footnote that the reference is to the lower Jordan Valley.

Outran the Cushite: the verb used here is a very common one in Hebrew, and it has many meanings, but in this context there can be no doubt that it refers to Ahimaaz arriving to tell the news to David ahead of the Cushite slave. In some languages a verb like “passed” (An American Translation and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “surpassed” will be appropriate here. But the context may not allow the use of such a verb at this point, since Ahimaaz does not actually pass the other runner until verse 26. The statement here actually anticipates what is about to happen in the story. The translation should not suggest that the two runners were on the same route. The New Living Translation translation, “Then Ahimaaz … got to Mahanaim ahead of the man from Cush,” may serve as a good model.

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 .