As has been noted at the beginning of this section, the Hebrew noun translated the people in Revised Standard Version refers specifically to soldiers, that is, to men old enough to fight for the king. New International Version again says “the number of the fighting men.”

Gave the sum of the numbering: this rather awkward wording in English is replaced in New Revised Standard Version by “reported … the number of those who had been recorded.” It is almost certainly incorrect to translate as in New Century Version, “gave a list of the people to the king.” This implies a register of more than a million names. But the meaning of the text is almost certainly that total numbers were presented to David rather than a complete list of names.

The numbers given do not correspond to those in the account in 1 Chronicles, where they are given as 1,100,000 for Israel and 470,000 for Judah. The wording, however, is different in 1 Chronicles (21.5), and various explanations have been given for the different figures. Translators must, however, translate the numbers as they stand in both cases, since there is no justification for harmonizing them.

In either case the numbers seem rather high, and some scholars have interpreted the word that is normally translated “thousands” as representing military units considerable smaller than a thousand men. But virtually all translations retain the rendering “thousands.”

Valiant men who drew the sword: the only difference between this phrase in 2 Samuel and the corresponding one in the account in 1 Chronicles is the presence of the word translated valiant here. The term actually has more to do with ability than with valor. Revised English Bible, like Good News Translation, uses the word “capable,” while other versions include this meaning in the verb, saying “who can serve in the army” (Contemporary English Version) or “who could wield the sword” (New Jerusalem Bible). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh speaks of soldiers who are “ready to draw the sword.”

As noted in verse 1, Israel and Judah refer to the tribes of the north and to the southern tribe, Judah. Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente may provide a helpful model, with “in Israel, to the north, … in Judah, to the south, five hundred thousand.”

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 .