Stand beside me: literally “Stand, I pray, over me.” This is a request or an appeal for the soldier to come closer to the king. He is further commanded to kill Saul. The untranslated particle of entreaty almost seems to put the helpless king in a position of begging. Some languages will begin the appeal with words like “I beg you….”

For: the particle used here introduces the reason for Saul’s request to be killed.

Anguish has seized me: the Hebrew of the remainder of this verse is unclear. The word here translated as anguish, which occurs only here in the Old Testament, has been variously rendered “convulsions” (New Revised Standard Version), “dizziness” (Fox), “confusion” (An American Translation), and “the throes of death” (Revised English Bible). And the phrase as a whole has been taken to mean “I am in agony” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) and “I am in great suffering” (New American Bible).

Moffatt and Anchor Bible follow the lead of the ancient Greek translation as well as the authorized version of the Syrian Church in rendering the questionable word as “dizziness.” Similar is the idiomatic translation in New Jerusalem Bible, “My head is swimming.”

And yet my life still lingers: translations of this expression range from “I am barely alive” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) to “yet fully alive” (New American Bible) or “I still have all my strength” (New Jerusalem Bible). Given the context, it seems more likely that the meaning is something like “I am still hanging on to life.” Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente translates the last half of this verse “Now I am dead, even though I am still breathing.”

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 .