How much more: instead of beginning with this interrogative-sounding introduction, it will be preferable in quite a few languages to say something like “It will be much worse for the evil people who have killed an innocent man while he was sleeping.” Note also that in this verse the wicked men are contrasted with the person they killed, who is described as a righteous man. This contrast should be maintained in translation if possible.

Shall I not…? What follows is in the form of a question, but the answer is obvious. For this reason the question may be transformed into an emphatic statement beginning with something like “I will certainly….”

Require his blood at your hand: a literal translation of this expression will almost certainly be unnatural or misleading in most languages. The idea to be translated is “hold you responsible for his death” or “consider you accountable for killing him.”

The conjunction and between the last two clauses in this verse may be misleading if translated literally. The relationship between considering these men guilty of murder and their eventual destruction is that of cause and effect. The last part of the verse may therefore be translated “I will now destroy you from the earth because you are guilty of murdering him.”

Destroy you from the earth: this can mean either “purge you from the land [of Israel]” (Anchor Bible) or “rid the earth of you” (New International Version). In either case the guilty men are to be killed.

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 .