The structure of King David’s response may seem backward in some languages, which will require that the words I will do … come first in the sentence rather than at the end. Note that Good News Translation, as well as New American Bible, Revised English Bible, and others, have reversed the order.

Whatever seems best to you: literally “what goes well in your eyes.” In some languages it may be better to transform the entire quotation into indirect discourse along the lines of what Knox has done, “the king told them he would abide by their judgement.”

So: the conjunction here is probably not a logical connector as the Revised Standard Version rendering seems to indicate. It is rather a marker of the next step in the sequence of events. It was simply after David had made his statement and not a result of his statement that he stepped aside as his army marched out to battle.

Stood at the side of the gate: all of the fighting men passed through the city gate of Mahanaim on their way out to the battle with Absalom’s forces. David therefore stood beside the gate to watch as his troops left the town.

By hundreds and by thousands: that is, according to the groups established in verse 1 above. In languages that have a technical military term for combat units, such as “squadrons,” that term may be used here: “in squadrons of hundreds and thousands” (Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente).

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 .