One or both of the direct quotations in this verse may be more naturally rendered as indirect in some languages. Revised English Bible, for example, turns the first quotation into an indirect quotation: “David asked him where he had come from.” The essential meaning will not be affected by doing so.

Where do you come from? The Revised Standard Version wording in English may be misleading. New Revised Standard Version reads as Good News Translation. This question is not intended to inquire about the origin or native village of the messenger. It has to do rather with where he had been most recently before coming to David. The same words in the Revised Standard Version rendering of verse 13 below represent a somewhat different Hebrew text, and the meaning is also different.

Escaped: this verb in English often implies previous capture or imprisonment, but here the idea is more like getting out of a difficult situation. The root verb is related to a word meaning to be smooth or slippery and could be rendered “I slipped away from…” or “I ran away from…,” although most English versions use the verb “escape” as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation in this verse. Elsewhere, however, it is translated “flee.” See the comments on 1 Sam 19.10.

From the camp of Israel: the meaning is not that the young man was a prisoner in the camp of Israel, but rather that he escaped from the Philistines. For this reason Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch provides a good model: “I have escaped from the Philistines.” The man’s answer may also be rendered “I have come from Saul’s camp, where I escaped from the Philistines.”

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 .