The common Hebrew conjunction at the beginning of this verse is left untranslated by Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and most other versions. However, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente begins this verse with the words “At this point,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy says “Then.” Once the sons of Saul were killed, the Philistines were able to turn their full attention to Saul himself.

The battle pressed hard upon Saul: The Hebrew verb translated pressed hard upon comes from a root meaning “to be heavy.” Knoppers translates this clause as “The battle weighed upon Saul.” The point is not that Saul was in the middle of the battle (so Good News Translation) but rather that Saul was beginning to feel the pressure of the battle; the battle was taking a toll on Saul. In certain languages it may be unnatural to make The battle the subject of such a verb. The whole clause may be restructured by making Saul the subject; for example, “Saul began to feel the fierceness of the fighting.” Some versions change the subject to the Philistines; for example, La Biblia: Traducción en Lenguaje Actual has “Then the Philistines concentrated their forces in the attack on Saul.” Another possible model is “The enemies fought even harder against Saul.” But as already noted, such renderings do not capture the nuance of the Hebrew that the battle was “heavy” on Saul.

And the archers found him: The archers is literally “the archers with the bow.” Since this phrase is redundant, only the most literal translations retain the words “with the bow.” This whole clause may mean either that the archers discovered where Saul was hiding or, more likely, that their arrows found their target and hit him. Revised English Bible translates “and when the archers caught up with him,” implying the latter understanding. New International Version similarly says “and when the archers overtook him.” The meaning of this expression is linked to the understanding of the following verb in Hebrew.

And he was wounded by the archers: The Hebrew verb here in the Masoretic Text means “to tremble” or “to writhe in pain.” Following the Masoretic Text, the sense is that when the enemy archers found Saul, he “was trembling [with fear]” (Nouvelle Bible Segond, La Bible Pléiade, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, alternative rendering in Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente) or “was terrified” (Bible en français courant, La Bible du Semeur) before them. Like Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, however, many versions render this verb as “[was] wounded” (New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, El libro del Pueblo de Dios, Peregrino, apparently changing the vowels of the Hebrew verb, in agreement with several ancient versions. This is not recommended. But if this interpretation is accepted, the passive verb was wounded will have to be translated actively in certain languages. The most logical and simplest model for this might be “and the archers wounded him” (similarly Revised English Bible, Knox).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .