The soldiers of Israel are often called the people in 1 and 2 Samuel (see the comments on 4.4).

Answered him in the same way: that is, they gave the same answer as in verse 25.

Several modern versions (including New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New Century Version, Contemporary English Version, Moffatt, and Knox), like Good News Translation, have justifiably turned the direct quotation of the Hebrew into an indirect quotation, since the words within quotation marks in Revised Standard Version are undoubtedly not precisely what the soldiers said. La Bible du Semeur translates this verse “They repeated to David what had been promised as a reward to the one who would kill the giant.”

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 .