complete verse (1 Samuel 17:27)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Samuel 17:27:

  • Kupsabiny: “Then David was told what would be done to the person who would kill Goliath.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The people told him everything about how the man who kills Goliath would be dealt with.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The people told him what they had-been-saying about the prize that the man who can-kill Goliat would-receive.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “They told him the same thing that the other men had said, about what the king would do for anyone who killed Goliath.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on 1 Samuel 17:27

The soldiers of Israel are often called the people in 1 and 2 Samuel (see the comments on 4.4).

Answered him in the same way: that is, they gave the same answer as in verse 25.

Several modern versions (including New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New Century Version, Contemporary English Version, Moffatt, and Knox), like Good News Translation, have justifiably turned the direct quotation of the Hebrew into an indirect quotation, since the words within quotation marks in Revised Standard Version are undoubtedly not precisely what the soldiers said. La Bible du Semeur translates this verse “They repeated to David what had been promised as a reward to the one who would kill the giant.”

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 .