While the sentence begun in verse 5 continues in Revised Standard Version (reflecting the Hebrew), it will be better in most languages to break it up and begin a new sentence here as Good News Translation has done.
While the actual number of victims was very likely seven, this number may also have a symbolic value. The number seven is often used in Scripture to represent completeness or totality. The death of these seven men will mean that the family of Saul is totally destroyed symbolically, even if not literally.
The passive expression let … be given to us may be easily rendered actively as “please give us,” “we are asking that you give us…,” or simply “we want…” (New Jerusalem Bible).
Sons: the word is used here in the sense of male descendants that can include grandchildren and great-grandchildren. As seen in verse 8, it turned out to include two children and five grandchildren. So the translation here should not be limited to “sons” in the literal sense of the word. Revised English Bible translates “descendants,” while New International Version speaks more specifically of “male descendants.”
The meaning of the verb translated hang is uncertain. In the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel, it seems to mean “dislocated” (Revised Standard Version “put out of joint”; Gen 32.25). In Jer 6.8 it is translated “alienated.” And in Ezek 23.17-18 the meaning appears to be “turned away from.” Holladay gives the meaning for the form of the verb here as “be exposed with broken limbs.” In the present context it has been translated in a variety of ways, including “impale” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Fox, and New Revised Standard Version), “hurl … down” (Revised English Bible), “dismember” (New American Bible and New Jerusalem Bible), “crucify” (Knox), and “be killed” (New International Version), as well as the traditional understanding, “hang” (Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Goldman, and others). The idea of being impaled or fastened onto a stake after having been run through by it may be the best translation of a very uncertain term.
Before the LORD: Contemporary English Version takes this to mean “where the LORD is worshiped.” If this is true, it would be a kind of ritual killing associated with the worship of Yahweh carried out in order to satisfy divine justice.
At Gibeon: the traditional Hebrew text has “in Gibeah of Saul,” which Good News Translation takes to mean “at Gibeah, the hometown of Saul” (according to 1 Sam 15.34, Saul lived in Gibeah). The following versions go along with the traditional Hebrew text and the meaning found in Good News Translation: New Century Version, New International Version, New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament also recommends the reading followed by Good News Translation, giving it a {B} rating.
Some, however, think that the reference to the mountain in verse 9 must be a reference to Gibeon, so they alter the Hebrew to read “at Gibeon.” Those versions favoring the reading of Revised Standard Version are New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, Moffatt, and An American Translation.
On the mountain of the LORD: the words so translated present yet another textual problem. The traditional Hebrew text has rather “the chosen one of the LORD” (referring to Saul), and this is recommended by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, which gives it an {A} evaluation. It is also reflected in Good News Translation and others that have “in Gibeah of Saul” above. The emendation of Revised Standard Version is similarly followed by the same versions that read at Gibeon in the previous problem. In Hebrew the word “the chosen one” is similar in spelling to the word “the mountain.” The meaning adopted by Good News Translation is recommended to translators, that is, Saul is described as the king whom Yahweh has chosen to be king.
I will give them: literally “I will give.” Though the Hebrew has neither a direct object nor an indirect object at the end of this verse, it may be necessary to add them in some languages, that is, “I will give them to you.”
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 .