1 Chronicles 11:39

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Berothite, the armor bearer of Joab the son of Zeruiah,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 hapax legomenon — only here in the Hebrew Bible
1 first appearance in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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הַבֵּ֣רֹתִ֔י

Bêrôthîy

H1307

“the · Berothite”

Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Gentilic, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 1× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: patrial from H1268

TWOT: None

Berothite = "my wells" - an inhabitant of Berothah

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
9: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

1 hapax legomenon — a word that appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible:

הַבֵּ֣רֹתִ֔י Berothite H1307

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

הַבֵּ֣רֹתִ֔י Berothite H1307

Shared distinctive vocabulary

צֶ֖לֶק Zelek H6768 occurs in 2 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

2 Samuel 23:37

Grammatical profile

1 verb
8 nouns

Verb forms

נֹשֵׂ֕א Qal · Participle Active

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 15 words from the Hebrew and 14 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 11 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew 1 Chronicles 11:39 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

צֶ֖לֶק הָעַמּוֹנִ֑י נַחְרַי֙ הַבֵּ֣רֹתִ֔י נֹשֵׂ֕א כְּלֵ֖י יוֹאָ֥ב בֶּן צְרוּיָֽה

Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Berothite, the armor bearer of Joab the son of Zeruiah,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Chronicles 11:39 Septuagint · lemma form

σεληκ ὁ αμμωνι ναχωρ ὁ βερθι αἴρω σκεῦος ιωαβ υἱός σαρουια

Sele the son of Ammoni, Nachor the Berothite, armor-bearer to the son of Saruia,

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on 1 Chronicles 11:39 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

1Ch 11:39 Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Berothite, the armourbearer of Joab the son of Zeruiah,

Ver. 39. The armourbearer of Joab.] See on 1Ch 11:26.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

Naharai--armorbearer to Joab (Sa2 23:37). The non-occurrence of Joab's name in any of the three catalogues is most probably to be accounted for by the circumstance that his office as commander-in-chief raised him to a position superior to all these orders of military knighthood.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(39) Zelek the Ammonite.—Many of David’s warriors were aliens. (Comp. “Uriah the Hittite;” “Ittai the Gittite;” and “Ithmah the Moabite,” 1Ch_11:46.

Berothite.—Of Beeroth in Benjamin (Jos_18:25).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

39. the Berothite] Spelt generally “Beerothite.” Beeroth was a Benjamite town; 2Sa_4:2.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Zelek the Ammonite, the Berothite. Among David"s great men were evidently numbered some foreigners, whose admiration and fidelity he must have won. Hence the mention (ver. 38) of Zobah, and here of the Ammonite, (2Sa_8:12 2Sa_12:26-31) the Beerothite (Beeroth, originally a Hivite city, Jos_9:17, fell to the lot of Benjamin, Jos_18:25; to it belonging Rimmon and his two sons, Reehab and Baanah, possibly native Canaanites, the murderers of Ishbosheth, (as above) and (ver. 41) the Hittite. The armour-bearer. To be made armour-bearer was a sign of honour and attachment (1Sa_16:21; 2Sa_18:15)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

1 Chronicles, in the Historical, opens this verse with 9 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Bêrôthîy (“Berothite”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “Berothite” (Bêrôthîy) contribute to the verse as a whole?
1 word here appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Why might the author reach for such rare wording?
This is the first place “Berothite” appears in Scripture (first appears here). What does its debut here establish?
How does 2 Samuel 23:37, which shares the word «Zelek», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«נֹשֵׂ֕א» is a Qal Participle Active verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.
1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 7 words in this verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.