While Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have questions within a direct quotation, it may be more natural in some languages to avoid both the direct speech and the rhetorical questions.

Why should I smite you to the ground? The idea is that Abner did not want to have to kill his pursuer, but that he would have to do so if Asahel did not stop chasing him. While this is in the form of a question, it may be better expressed as a statement in some languages. One possibility is to say “I don’t want to have to kill you.”

How then could I…? If Abner had to kill Asahel, he knew he would not be able to face Joab, the brother of the person he had killed. Instead of the question, some languages may prefer a direct negative statement like “I could not possibly….” In fact Joab will later kill Abner in revenge (see 3.27).

Lift up my face: that is, look him straight in the eye without feeling guilty. Some languages may have idioms that are quite different in form but carry the same meaning. Some may say “How could I sit with your brother?” or, using the more direct statement, “I could not bear to look at your brother.” Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente says “Then I will have to break my relationship with your brother Joab,” and La Biblia Latinoamerica states “How could I then be reconciled with your brother Joab?”

Here is a possible model that does away with both of the questions in the text but maintains the basic meaning:

• “Stop chasing me, or I will have to kill you! Then I will never be able to look at the face of your brother, Joab, again.”

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 .