On the particle translated by the word Yea, see the comments at the beginning of the previous verse.
The phrase by thee means “with your help” or, using a verbal expression, “you enable.” Good News Translation has therefore rendered these words “You give me strength.”
Although the verb in line a is translated crush by Revised Standard Version, it seems more likely that it means “run to,” that is, “attack” (Good News Translation, New Century Version, and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). See New International Version “advance against”; Bible en français courant “launch an assault.” The difficulty here is knowing whether the verb comes from the root “to run” (r-w-ts) or from the root “to crush” (r-ts-ts).
A troop normally means a group of warriors or a raiding band (the same or a related Hebrew term occurs in 3.22; 4.2; 1 Sam 30.8, 15). However, the parallel in the next line (a wall) and one part of the Septuagint tradition of this verse lead some scholars to conjecture here in line a a word meaning a wall of stones or a “rampart” (Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible en français courant) instead of a troop. In Hebrew the words troop and “stone wall” are very similar in spelling. The corrected text is the basis for New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh “rush a barrier” and Bible de Jérusalem “break through the ramparts.” Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, however, gives a {B} rating to the Masoretic Text and recommends a translation such as “I will run in a raid” or “I will crush a band of raiders.”
A troop or a “band of warriors” may be rendered as a “line of soldiers.” In some languages it will be necessary to make explicit, as does Good News Translation, how God enables the writer to perform these feats; for example, “when you make me strong,” or “because you are with me…,” or “because you help me….”
Leap over a wall in line b means to break through the wall around a city, which defends it against enemy attacks. Therefore many English translations have “scale a wall,” which means to climb over it. In translation it may be necessary to say, for example, “a wall around a city” or “a wall that protects a city,” in order not to give the idea of the wall of a house. Translators should, however, avoid a rendering that will make readers think of mere athletic ability. The real underlying meaning is perhaps best expressed by Contemporary English Version, “capture cities.”
Though a literal translation of New American Bible is not advised, that translation reflects the interpretation that is recommended here: “For with your aid I run against an armed band, and by the help of my God I leap over a wall.”
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 .