The three sons … were there: some languages may be forced to say either “all three sons,” implying that she had no others, or “three of the sons of Zeruiah,” implying that she did have other sons who were not present during the battle. Since there is no evidence that Zeruiah had other sons, it may be better to say “all three of Zeruiah’s sons were there.”

Sons of Zeruiah: in verse 13 only one of Zeruiah’s sons, Joab, is mentioned. Here his two brothers, Abishai (see 1 Sam 26.6) and Asahel, are also introduced because the next few verses center on what happened to Asahel. Although Knox uses spellings for the names in the passage that are different from the spellings in Revised Standard Version, he does provide another possible model with the following structure: “Two sons of Sarvia [Zeruiah] besides Joab were fighting, Abisai [Abishai] and Asael [Asahel] ….”

Swift of foot: the expression swift of foot (also found in Amos 2.15) is a way of saying that a person was able to run very fast.

A wild gazelle: or more literally “as one of the gazelles which are in the field” (An American Translation). A gazelle is a kind of antelope. The kind found in Palestine were about two feet (60 cm) tall at the shoulders and about three feet (1 meter) long. They had ringed horns about one foot (30 cm) long and were fast and graceful. Instead of using the adjective wild, which seems to focus on the fact that the animal is untamed, many interpreters feel that what was intended was rather a reference to the speed of a gazelle “in an open field” (New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). A similar expression occurs in 1 Chr 12.8.

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 .