17Then Saul said to the troops who were with him, “Call the roll and see who has gone from us.” When they called the roll, Jonathan and his armor-bearer were not there.
The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Saul” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign that depicts “sword in chest” (referring to 1 Samuel 31:4 and 1 Chronicles 10:4) and also “self-centered.” (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the inclusive pronoun, including everyone.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Samuel 14:17:
Kupsabiny: “Then, Saul told his soldiers to count themselves to know whether anyone was lost. After they finished counting, it was found that Jonathan was missing and that man holding the things of battle.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Then Saul told the men to count the soldiers to find out who all of the soldiers were not there, and it was found out that Jonathan and the one who brought his weapons were not there.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Saul said to his men, ‘[You (plur.)] gather the soldiers and look (to see) who is not there.’ And they found-out/realized that Jonatan and the one-who-carries his weapons-of-war were-not-there.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Saul realized that some of his soldiers must have attacked the Philistia army. So he said to the soldiers who were with him, ‘Check to see if any of our men are not here.’ So they checked, and they found out that Jonathan and the man who carried his weapons were gone.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
As previously, the people refers to the “soldiers” or “the force” (New Jerusalem Bible) that was with Saul. In view of the command given to these people, it is not unreasonable to call them “his officers” (Contemporary English Version).
Number: in Hebrew this verb is followed by a particle of entreaty, similar to “Please” in English, which most versions do not translate here, possibly because a royal command requires no entreaty form in most languages. The imperative verb has no object, but the context makes it clear that it is the troops that are to be counted in order to determine who was missing. While the command is in the form of a direct quotation, it is equally legitimate to translate as indirect speech: “Saul told his officers to count the soldiers to find out who had left the ranks.”
Behold: attention is here focused on the fact that it was Jonathan and his helper who were missing.
Armor-bearer: as in verse 7.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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