4David said to him, “How did things go? Tell me!” He answered, “The army fled from the battle, but also many of the army fell and died, and Saul and his son Jonathan also died.”
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)
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin that is translated as “army” in English is translated in Chichewa as “group of warriors.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Samuel 1:4:
Kupsabiny: “(Then) David asked that person that, ‘How are the words/things? Tell me!’ That man answered that, ‘Many people of Israel have been pierced/killed with Saul together with his son Jonathan and many people have escaped/fled.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Then David again asked, "What news are you bringing? Tell me." He said, "The soldiers were driven out from the place where they went to battle and many men died in battle. And also Saul and his son Jonathan were killed."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “David asked, ‘Why, what happened? Tell me.’ He said, ‘The soldiers of Israel fled from the battle. Many of them died, including Saul and his son Jonatan.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “David asked him, ‘What happened? Tell me about the battle!’ The man replied, ‘The Israeli soldiers ran away from the battle. Many of them were killed. And Saul and his son Jonathan are dead/were also killed.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)
David’s question to the fleeing Amalekite is to be understood as a request for a full report on the events of the battle. It is followed by an order to give a report. Good News Translation combines the two elements into a single command. But in many languages it may be more natural to maintain the question and the command as separate. Most translations do not render the Hebrew particle of entreaty, which is found toward the end of the quotation from the mouth of David. Compare Fox, who says “Pray tell me!”
The people: this has been variously translated as “the men” (New International Version), “the troops” (Moffatt and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “the army” (Anchor Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible), and “the soldiers” (New American Bible). While this term is sometimes used for the whole population of a given community, here the reference is clearly to an army (as has been noted frequently in 1 Samuel), but the question is, which army? Since the reporter is later identified as an Amalekite, Good News Translation may be misleading (similarly Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje). “Our army” would seem to refer to the Amalekites. But David had decimated the Amalekite army in 1 Sam 30. Apparently some of the remnant, however, had joined Saul. In any case, the reference here is clearly to Saul’s army, although it may have included some Amalekites. It may be better to translate explicitly “the army of Saul” or “the Israelite army” (Bible en français courant).
Have fallen: it should be made quite clear that there is no question here of an unintentional or accidental tumble to the ground. This is rather a euphemism for death in battle at the hands of the enemy (see the comments on 1 Sam 18.25). It will be appropriate in some cases to combine the verbs have fallen and are dead in a single verbal expression such as “were killed in battle” or, where the passive form of this model is not an option, “died in battle.”
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 .
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