And now: the translation should avoid giving the impression that God was not God or that his words were not true prior to this point. Anchor Bible brings out the meaning by twice adding the word “since”: “so now, my lord Yahweh, since you are God and your words are true, and since you have said this good thing….”

Thy words are true: some other ways of saying this are “you cause to happen whatever you promise,” or “you always do what you say,” or “you make good what you vow to do.”

This good thing: this refers again to the promise of God that David and his descendants will rule over a peaceful Israel.

Thy servant: once again, it will be more natural to change this to a first person pronoun, since David is talking about himself.

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 .