Since it may be unclear in certain languages to whom the subject pronoun he refers, it may be advisable to substitute the name of David, as Good News Translation has done. Similarly it may not be clear how the pronoun it should be understood. This pronoun refers to the principle stated in the previous verse, that “all will share alike.” La Bible du Semeur says “this way of acting was set up as a law….”

From that day forward … to this day: beginning with this victory over the Amalekites and continuing to the time when this account was written, it became a law in Israel for the loot to be shared between those who fought and those who did not fight (as explained in verse 24).

A statute and an ordinance: the same words appear in Exo 15.25. The Hebrew word rendered statute means an authoritative statement, a pronouncement of some kind; the word rendered ordinance has a wide range of meanings, including “custom,” “command,” and “conformity to rule.” Fox translates the first noun as “prescribed law” and the second as “a practice.” Though some have tried to find a clear distinction in meaning between these two terms, most agree that, at least here, no distinction is intended between the two nouns. Used together these two nouns refer to a legally binding regulation. Compare “the established custom” (Revised English Bible) and “a fixed rule” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).

To this day: the sense is not that David set a fixed time for this custom to be preserved, that is, “up to this day.” Rather this elliptical phrase means “and this custom has been observed since then up to the day that this book was written.” New Century Version says “This order and rule continues even today.”

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 .