When your days are fulfilled: while it will be possible in most languages to translate flatly “When you die” as in Good News Translation, many will have more indirect ways of talking about death that will be appropriate here. Some may say, for example, “When you reach your last day on earth” or “When you come to the end of your days in this world.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh uses the English idiom “When your days are done.”
Lie down with your fathers: the same expression is more often translated “slept with … fathers” (especially in 1-2 Kings and 2 Chronicles), but here as in Gen 47.30 the verb “lie” is used. This idiomatic expression refers to burial in a place that is physically close to the dead person’s parents, grandparents, and other forebears. If there is no corresponding idiom in the receptor language, it will be best to translate the meaning as in Good News Translation, “buried with your ancestors.”
Raise up: the verb so translated is a causative form in Hebrew. The basic verb is used in the physical sense of getting up from a sitting or reclining position (compare 6.2 and 1 Sam 1.9). But used figuratively the meaning is “make prominent” or “give power.” In this context the idea is “cause to become king.”
Who shall come forth from your body: this expression, which is very similar in meaning to the word offspring, emphasizes the physical aspect of the relationship. It does not necessarily mean immediate descent but clearly involves a direct physical relationship. Compare 1 Sam 24.21, where a similar expression is used when Saul asks David to promise that Saul’s descendants will not be totally destroyed. Other languages may have special expressions that correspond to this. For example, “seed,” “offspring,” or possibly a simpler and more direct statement like “one of your own children” (Revised English Bible) or “one of your sons” (Contemporary English Version). Though the text does not mention him by name here, this is an allusion to Solomon (see 1 Kgs 2.12).
Establish: this does not focus on the original setting up of a kingdom but on making firm what has already been established. The verb comes from a root meaning “to stand up; be erect.” New Jerusalem Bible says “I shall make his royal throne secure forever.”
This verse may be restructured in some languages so that the part of the verse that talks about the time when these things will happen comes later in the verse rather than at the beginning. If this structure is preferred, the Contemporary English Version model may be helpful:
• I’ll choose one of your sons to be king when you reach the end of your life and are buried in the tomb of your ancestors. I’ll make him a strong ruler….
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 .