The context may require a more colorful rendering of the ordinary verb said. Some may prefer “shouted” (Contemporary English Version) or “cried out” where Good News Translation has “challenged.” La Bible du Semeur, on the other hand, translates “he added,” since this is really a continuation of what Goliath started to say in verse 43.

Come to me: this may be translated “Keep on coming” or “Come close” (Knox) in some languages, since the text has already indicated that David was approaching Goliath (verse 40).

Your flesh: this refers to the physical part of a person as opposed to the spiritual. It may be translated “your body” as in Good News Translation and New Century Version or simply by the pronoun “you” (Contemporary English Version). Some languages may even say “I will give what is left of you to the animals and birds.”

Birds of the air … the beasts of the field: the Hebrew does not state explicitly why Goliath would give David’s dead body to the birds and animals. Good News Translation makes this explicit, “to eat.” Good News Translation also omits of the air and of the field as redundant and unnatural. This threat of Goliath echoes the words of Deut 28.26.

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 .