The expression gird me with strength means to make strong. In languages where strength is more likely to be taken as referring to sexual virility, it will be possible to translate “you make me able to do great things [in battle].”

My assailants is more literally “those who rise up against me.” Some other ways of saying this are “my adversaries” (Anderson) or simply “my enemies” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and others). But in some languages a more literal rendering may be the most natural solution: “those [people] who fight against me” or “the men who attack me.”

The verb translated sink means “to cause to bow down, to bend, in defeat and death.” In some languages it is possible to keep the figure of subjection; for example, “you have put my enemies under my feet” or “you have thrown my enemies behind me.” My assailants is parallel with my enemies in verse 41a, and with those who hated me in verse 41b. These are not three different groups but three ways of talking about the same people. This should be made clear in translation.

In verse 41a the Hebrew is literally “my enemies you gave me [their] back.” This is generally taken to refer to the enemies running away during battle. Compare “My enemies you put to flight before me” (New American Bible) and “made my enemies retreat before me” (New Jerusalem Bible). But the noun may mean “the back of the neck,” and so some take it to be a picture of the victor placing his foot on the neck of his defeated enemy, as in Josh 10.24. Revised English Bible, for example, has “you set my foot on my enemies’ necks,” and Anderson says “You have given me the necks of my enemies.” Translators may follow either interpretation. That in New American Bible is more widely followed than that of Revised English Bible, but if the second half of verse 41 is parallel in meaning to the first part of the verse, then the second interpretation (Revised English Bible) may be preferred.

The verb destroyed at the end of verse 41 is a translation of “to silence,” that is, by killing.

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 .