It was told Samuel: the Hebrew uses a passive verb form, but in some languages it may be necessary to use an active form and provide an agent for the action. Good News Translation restructures to say that “Samuel heard.” In other languages translators may prefer an indefinite subject, “someone told Samuel.”

Carmel was a small town in Judah located about forty kilometers (twenty-five miles) south of Jerusalem and about eleven kilometers (eight miles) southeast of Hebron. The name means “orchard [with fruit trees and vines]”; Nueva Biblia Española translates the name here and elsewhere as “La Vega,” that is, “The Plain” or “Fruitful Ground.” This town should not be confused with Mount Carmel, which was north of Samaria on the Mediterranean Sea coast. The possibility of such confusion makes it doubly important to add the classifier term “town” as in Good News Translation.

Saul set up a monument for himself in order to celebrate his victory over the Amalekites. New American Bible says that he “erected a trophy in his own honor.” New Century Version provides a useful model, “He has put up a monument in his own honor.” And Contemporary English Version is even more specific: “he had a monument built so everyone would remember his victory.” This monument probably consisted of stones that were placed one on top of another (see also 2 Sam 18.18, where the same word refers to a pillar erected by Absalom).

Gilgal: as in 7.17.

In those cases where direct discourse is less natural than indirect discourse, translators may wish to say:

• … someone told Samuel that Saul had gone to the town of Carmel and that he had built a monument to himself there. They also told him that Saul had left there to go on to Gilgal.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .