Your servant: Barzillai again uses this expression to refer to himself and it will be better translated by a first person singular pronoun in most languages.

Will go a little way over the Jordan: this may possibly be misunderstood by some readers to mean part way across the river, but the meaning is “a short distance on the other side of the Jordan.” The exact function of the noun translated a little way is uncertain. The basic meaning is “a little” or “a few.” Here the noun seems to mean something like “nearly” or “almost.” It is possible to understand this part of the verse as having a very different meaning, represented by the rendering of New American Bible, “In escorting the king across the Jordan, your servant is doing little enough.” Or, as New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translates it, it can be rendered as a further statement about Barzillai’s old age and consequent weakness, “Your servant could barely cross the Jordan with Your Majesty” (similarly Fox). But most versions seem to understand it in the sense found in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, and this is recommended.

The question Why should the king recompense me with such a reward? is yet another case of using the form of a question to make a statement. What Barzillai is really saying is that he does not deserve the reward that David is trying to give him by inviting him to return to Jerusalem with the royal court. The placement of this element at the end of the sentence may seem unusual in some languages. If this is the case the elements may be reversed as in Good News Translation. The Hebrew verb translated recompense is used of action that is intended to affect other people either positively or negatively. The context determines which kind of action is intended. The verb does not mean “reward,” but the context may give it that meaning. Some interpreters think that in this context the idea of a “reward” is not present, and that the verb and its object here should be translated “Why should the king do me this favor?” Nearly all translations, however, agree with the meaning expressed in Revised Standard Version.

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 .