1 Chronicles 16:9

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Sing to him, sing praises to him; Talk you of all his marvelous works.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs longer here — compare

Download a study sheet

One document with this verse’s original text, its word-by-word gloss line, the meaning frame, cross-references with their text, attributed commentary, and full source and license credits — printable, and it pastes into notes with its structure intact.

This verse Autodidact and up

Study sheet (.html) Plain text (.txt)

A passage Seminary Student

Up to 50 verses in one chapter. A passage sheet keeps up to 6 commentary sources and 12 cross-references per verse, in the order this page ranks them, and says so on the sheet whenever that leaves anything out. Ask for a single verse and you get the Autodidact verse sheet above.

Everything on this page stays free to read, with no account — the sheet is a download of what is already on screen, not access to it.

Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer

Word by word

More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →

Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →

שִׂ֖יחוּ

sîyach

H7878

“meditate”

Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural

Appears 20× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Judges 5:10

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 2255

to put forth, mediate, muse, commune, speak, complain, ponder, sing - (Qal) - to complain - to muse, meditate upon, study, ponder - to talk, sing, speak - (Polel) to meditate, consider, put forth thoughts

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 →

7: words
5: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is שִׂ֖יחוּ to meditate H7878 — appearing just 20 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

שִׂ֖יחוּ to meditate H7878 occurs in 20 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
1 noun
2 prepositions

Verb forms

שִׁ֤ירוּ Qal · Imperative
זַמְּרוּ Piel · Imperative
שִׂ֖יחוּ Qal · Imperative
נִפְלְאֹתָֽיו Niphal · Participle Active

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 14 words from the Hebrew and 21 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably longer here. See the side-by-side →

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 7 Hebrew tokens and 13 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.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to 1 Chronicles 16:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
Psalms 96:1–3 Sing to Yahweh a new song! Sing to Yahweh, all the earth.
Psalms 98:1–4 Sing to Yahweh a new song, For he has done marvelous things! His right hand, and his holy arm, have worked salvation for him.
James 5:13 Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises.
Psalms 95:1–2 Oh come, let's sing to Yahweh. Let's shout aloud to the rock of our salvation!
Matthew 26:30 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Psalms 40:10 I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly.
Psalms 71:17 God, you have taught me from my youth. Until now, I have declared your wondrous works.

Ephesians 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing, and singing praises in your heart to the Lord;
Psalms 145:4–6 One generation will commend your works to another, And will declare your mighty acts.
Psalms 145:12 To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, The glory of the majesty of his kingdom.
Malachi 3:16 Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened, and heard, and a book of memory was written before him, for those who feared Yahweh, and who honored his name.

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.

Here the Septuagint runs noticeably longer than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 21 words vs World English Bible 14. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.

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

Hebrew 1 Chronicles 16:9 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

שִׁ֤ירוּ לוֹ֙ זַמְּרוּ ל֔וֹ שִׂ֖יחוּ בְּכָל נִפְלְאֹתָֽיו

Sing to him, sing praises to him; Talk you of all his marvelous works.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Chronicles 16:9 Septuagint · lemma form

ᾄδω αὐτός καί ὑμνέω αὐτός διαἡγέομαι πᾶς ὁ θαυμάσιος αὐτός ὅς ποιέω κύριος

Sing songs to him, and sing hymns to him, relate to all people his wonderful deeds, which the Lord has wrought.

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 16:9 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 16:9 Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works.

Ver. 9-11], {See Trapp on "Psa 105:1"} {See Trapp on "Psa 105:2"} {See Trapp on "Psa 105:3"} &c.

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.

The Biblical Illustrator

Joseph S. Exell

1Ch_16:9

Sing psalms unto Him, talk ye of all His wondrous works.

Good conversation

I. The subject here suggested for our commonplace talk: his wondrous works. We ought to talk more about Gods wondrous works.

1. As we find them in Holy Scripture.

2. As we find them in the history of our own country.

3. As we find them in our own individual history.

II. The excellency of this subject is both negative and positive.

1. Negative. Were we to talk more of Gods wondrous works--

(1) We should talk less about our own works.

(2) We should be free from talking of other peoples works.

(3) It would keep us from the ordinary frivolities of conversation.

2. Positive. The habit once acquired of talking more of Gods wondrous works--

(1) Would necessitate stricter habits of observation and of discrimination in watching the providence of God;

(2) would be very ennobling;

(3) would cause our gratitude to glow and would give an impulse to our entire life.

III. Let me urge this taking ordinarily and commonly about Gods wondrous works. Not only will it prevent much evil and do us much good, but it will be the means of doing much good to others. It will--

1. Impress the sinner.

2. Enlighten the ignorant.

3. Comfort the desponding. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

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

Who of his wonderful providence hath chosen a few of the stock of Abraham to be his children.

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

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) Sing psalms.—The word implies a musical accompaniment.

Talk ye.—A third term for singing. Chant ye.

His wondrous works.—His wonders, or miracles. The word means things separate, distinct, and so out of the common (Exo_3:20).

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

9. sing psalms] R.V. sing praises.

talk you] R.V. mg. Meditate ye. Meditation leads to fresh proclamation.

wondrous works] R.V. marvellous works (cp. 1Ch_16:12), i.e. works beyond man’s expectation; cp. Gen_18:14, Is anything too hard (wonderful, R.V. mg.) for the Lord?

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.

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 7 words (5 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is sîyach (“to meditate”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to meditate” (sîyach) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Judges 5:10, which shares the word «to meditate», read alongside this verse?
The Septuagint runs longer here than the Hebrew. What might account for the difference?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«שִׁ֤ירוּ» is a Qal Imperative verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and The Biblical Illustrator read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 7 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 12 words in this verse.
5 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.