You are my bone and my flesh: this is merely another way of talking about kinship and emphasizing the physical relationship. It stands in apposition with my kinsmen. Different languages have very different ways of communicating this idea, but it is rare indeed that the receptor language will correspond perfectly with the Hebrew expression. For this reason a literal translation is not recommended. Good News Translation has altered the Hebrew my bone and my flesh to the somewhat similar English idiom “my own flesh and blood.” Some languages may say something like “we come from the same ancestor,” “we are [members of] one tribe,” or “we have the same blood.” Compare 5.1 as well as Gen 2.23; 29.14; Judges 9.2. In this context, however, in which the contrast is between the southern tribe of Judah and the northern tribes of Israel, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch may provide a more meaningful model, with “You are comrades from my tribe.”

The final question is a repetition of what has just been said in the previous verse. See the comments there about the translation of the king in a quotation from David himself.

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 .