The first sentence of this verse in Revised Standard Version is a rather literal translation of the Hebrew. They: the indefinite pronoun here may or may not refer to the same people as in the previous verse. Here it is likely that it refers to David and his men.

The ancient Greek translation adds the words “the bones of those who were hanged in the sun” following his son Jonathan, and this is reflected in versions like New Jerusalem Bible, which says “… and these, with the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan, were buried….” Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives an {A} rating to the Masoretic Text but suggests that the translation found in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation is based on a misunderstanding of the Hebrew. In Hebrew grammar direct objects are preceded by a two-letter word (ʾeth) that is not translated in most languages. But this two-letter word sometimes functions as a preposition with the meaning “with.” Here in this verse, according to Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, the third person plural suffix “them” is left implicit after the verb buried; and the word ʾeth before the bones of Saul means “with.” So verse 14 should be translated as follows: “and they buried them with the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son…” (so Hertzberg, Stuttgarter Erklärungsbibel, and similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Nueva Biblia Española provides another way of expressing the correct sense: “They buried all of them….”

Zela: little is known of this city. The only other mention is in Josh 18.28, where it is merely a name in the list of towns that belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. Since Saul’s hometown is said elsewhere to be Gibeah (1 Sam 10.26), it is surprising that Saul and Jonathan were buried in Zela. Some interpreters therefore suggest that the vowels in this Hebrew name should be changed so that the word reads “side-chamber.” This is the basis for the translations in Anchor Bible, “He buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan in the territory of Benjamin in a chamber of the tomb of Kish, [Saul’s] father,” and Contemporary English Version, “David had their bones taken to the land of Benjamin and buried in a side room in Saul’s family burial place.” Nearly all translations, however, read Zela, and translators should probably accept this reading.

The words and they did all that the king commanded may seem to refer to something else that these men did after they had buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan. But in Hebrew grammar this construction may indicate only an explanation of what precedes. This seems to be the correct meaning here; so Good News Translation rightly makes clear that by burying the bones, they were doing all that the king commanded.

Heeded supplications: some less formal renderings of these words are “was willing to accept prayers” (Revised English Bible) or “answered prayers” (Contemporary English Version).

For the land: the prayers that people were offering to God were very likely for the land that had failed to produce enough food for three years in a row. See the reference to famine in verse 1 of this chapter. This presumably means that the land began to produce adequate food supplies once again. Some possible model translations are “God took pity on the country” (New Jerusalem Bible) and “God granted relief to the land” (New American Bible).

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 .