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1 Chronicles 16:19

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) 1 Chronicles 16:19 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
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1 Chronicles 16:19 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/1-chronicles/16/19.

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English Translation
When you were but a few men in number, Yes, very few, and foreigners in it;
World English Bible · Public Domain
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Compare translations 3

The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.

Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.

Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    When you were but a few men in number, Yes, very few, and foreigners in it;
  • King James Version Public Domain
    When ye were but few, even a few, and strangers in it.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    when you were few in number, according to a little, and sojourners in it.

unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).

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Show all 18 translations

Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    When you were but a few men in number, Yes, very few, and foreigners in it;
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    When they were few in number, few indeed, and strangers in the land,
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    When they were few in number, few indeed, and strangers in the land,
  • King James Version Public Domain
    When ye were but few, even a few, and strangers in it.
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    When ye were but a few men in number, Yea, very few, and sojourners in it;
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    When ye were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and sojourners in it;
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    When ye were fewe in number, yea, a very fewe, and strangers therein,
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    When they were but a small number: very few and sojourners in it.
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    When ye are few of number, As a little thing, and sojourners in it.
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    When you were few in number, || As a little thing, and sojourners in it.
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    When they were only few in number, so very few, and they were strangers in the land,
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    when you were few in number, according to a little, and sojourners in it.
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    When ye were a few men in number, Of small account, and strangers in it.
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    when you were but a few men in number, yes, very few, and foreigners in it.
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    When ye were but few, even a few, and strangers in it.
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    He said this when there were only a few of you, just a small group of foreigners in the land.
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    When you were still small in number, and strange in the land;
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    When ye were but a few men in number, yea, very few, and sojourners in it,

Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).

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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 →

6
words
5
distinct lemmas
Historical
section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is מְתֵ֣י man H4962 — appearing just 22 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מְתֵ֣י man H4962 occurs in 21 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 2 verbs
  • 3 nouns
  • 1 preposition

Verb forms

  • בִּֽהְיֽוֹתְכֶם֙ Qal · Infinitive Construct
  • וְגָרִ֥ים Qal · Participle Active

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 16 words from the Hebrew and 17 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.

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Cross-references

4

Topical passages linked to 1 Chronicles 16:19 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

  • Genesis 34:30 Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house."
  • Deuteronomy 7:7 Yahweh didn't set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples:
  • Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
  • Acts 7:5 He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when he still had no child.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

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 16:19 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

בִּֽהְיֽוֹתְכֶם֙ מְתֵ֣י מִסְפָּ֔ר כִּמְעַ֖ט וְגָרִ֥ים בָּֽהּ

When you were but a few men in number, Yes, very few, and foreigners in it;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Chronicles 16:19 Septuagint · lemma form

ἐν ὁ γίγνομαι αὐτός ὀλιγοστός ἀριθμός ὡς σμικρύνω καί παραοἰκέω ἐν αὐτός

when they were few in number, when they were but little, and lived as strangers in it;

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

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 16:19 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 →

The Biblical Illustrator

Joseph S. Exell

1Ch_16:19-22

He suffered no man to do them wrong.

Evil-doing restrained

I. Here is the nearness and dearness of the saints unto God.

II. Here is the great dancer to kings and states to deal with His saints otherwise than well.

III. Here is the care and protection which God had over them, set and amplified.

1. By the number and condition of the persons whom He defended.

2. By what He did for them. (Thomas Goodwin.)

Touch not Mine anointed:--

Touch not Mine anointed

I. The person whose the speech is. He is the Lord our God (1Ch_16:14).

II. The persons to whom. In general to all; specially to some.

III. The persons concerning whom. His anointed.

1. The patriarchs, who were the rulers of their people. The name implies fatherhood and government. They were anointed before there was any material anointing at all.

2. The kings who were the successors of the patriarchs.

(1) The Holy Ghost applies this term to Saul, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah, Cyrus (1Sa_12:3-4; 2Sa_19:21; 2Ch_6:42; Lam_4:20; Isa_45:1).

(2) This is affirmed by

(a) The third general Council of Ephesus.

(b) The great Council of Toledo the Fourth.

(c) The great Western Council of Francford.

3. The fathers use the term in the same way.

4. After the patriarchs, this term is appropriate to kings, and kings only, all the Bible through. It is used--

(1) Four times by God, Mine anointed.

(2) Six times to God, Thine anointed.

(3) Ten times of God, His anointed.

(4) Twelve times it is Gods anointed.

In the text and in Psa_105:1-45. it is applied to the patriarchs; all the other instances refer either to Christ or to kings. (Bp. Andrewes.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Meaning, from the time that Abraham entered, unto the time that Jacob went into Egypt for famine.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) The fourth strophe of Psalms 105 begins here.

When ye were but few.—The psalm has “when they [that is, your fathers] were but few; “and so LXX. here.

Few.—Literally, men of number = easily counted. (Comp. Gen_34:30.)

Strangers in it.—Sojourners, μέτοικοι (Gen_23:4).

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

19. when ye were] Psa_105:12 when they were.

strangers] R.V. sojourners. The patriarchs were not simply strangers, but strangers who made a long sojourn in Canaan.

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.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

Connecting Statement:

The words "you," "they," "them," and "their" in these verses refer to Israel.

strangers in the land

It is implied that "the land" refers to Canaan. AT: "foreigners in the land of Canaan" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another

These two phrases have similar meanings and are used together for emphasis. (See: Parallelism)

for their sakes

"for their own well-being"

Do not touch my anointed ones

Here "touch" means to harm. It is an exaggeration Yahweh used to strengthen his warning to not harm his people. AT: "Do not harm the people I have anointed" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)

translationWords

nation

kingdom

oppress

punish

king

anoint

prophet

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

When you were few in number [It was] then that He swore to give them the land of Canaan, the portion of your heritage. And this is a great thing, so that they cannot say that because of your great numbers, you seized the land of Canaan, but when you were few in number. Now if you say that even a thousand or more have a number, what is this about which it is written: “When you were few in number”? Therefore, it says: “hardly dwelling in it.” The meaning is that if He would say to one settler, e.g., to Abraham alone, to Isaac alone, to Jacob alone, to one of them He would say, “To you I will give the land of Canaan,” it would not be a wonder, because they were settled in it! But He swore to give you the land at a time when your ancestors were strangers sojourning in it, as it is written (Gen. 35:27): “... that is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.” And furthermore, if He would say to a stranger who is settling, “To you and to your seed I will give this land,” it would not be such a wonder. Therefore, he says that they were not even strangers who were settling, but...

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

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 6 words (5 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is math (“man”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. What does “man” (math) contribute to the verse as a whole?
  2. Genesis 34:30 shares the word «man» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
  3. The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
  4. The verb «בִּֽהְיֽוֹתְכֶם֙» is Qal Infinitive Construct. How does its form color the action?
  5. Reading how The Biblical Illustrator and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

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Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

Comparing translations? Open the Compare panel on any verse page to stack up to four side by side.