1 Kings 2:18

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Bathsheba said, Well; I will speak for you to the king.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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בַּת

Bath-Shebaʻ

H1339

“Bath-sheba”

Noun, Proper

Appears 22× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at 2 Samuel 11:3

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H1323 and H7651 (in the sense of H7650 )

TWOT: None

Bath-sheba = "daughter of an oath" - the wife of Uriah whom David had murdered, having had adulterous relations with her; subsequently wife of David and mother of Solomon, Shimea, Shobab, and Nathan

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
8: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is בַּת Bath-sheba H1339 — appearing just 22 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

בַּת Bath-sheba H1339 occurs in 11 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
2 nouns
2 adjectives
1 pronoun
2 prepositions

Verb forms

וַתֹּ֥אמֶר Qal · Sequential Imperfect
אֲדַבֵּ֥ר Piel · Imperfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

בַּת Bath-sheba H1339 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 11 words from the Hebrew and 12 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 10 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 Kings 2:18 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Proverbs 14:15 A simple man believes everything, But the prudent man carefully considers his ways.

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 Kings 2:18 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַתֹּ֥אמֶר בַּת שֶׁ֖בַע ט֑וֹב אָנֹכִ֕י אֲדַבֵּ֥ר עָלֶ֖יךָ אֶל הַמֶּֽלֶךְ

Bathsheba said, Well; I will speak for you to the king.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Kings 2:18 Septuagint · lemma form

καί εἶπον βηρσαβεε καλῶς ἐγώ λαλέω περί σύ ὁ βασιλεύς

And Bersabee said, Well; I will speak for you to the king.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Pulpit Commentary 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 →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וַאֲמַרַת בַּת שֶׁבַע טַב אֲנָא אֲמַלֵיל עֲלָךְ קֳדָם מַלְכָּא:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on 1 Kings 2:18 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

1Ki 2:18 And Bathsheba said, Well; I will speak for thee unto the king.

Ver. 18. Well; I will speak for thee.] Though Bathsheba were a wise woman, grandchild to Ahithophel, yet she perceived not Adonijah’s drift - viz., to undermine her son Solomon, and to shoulder him out of the throne. Hence she was so facile and forward to gratify him.

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 Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

18. I will speak for thee] Bath-sheba does not seem to have suspected Adonijah’s design, and this simplicity of hers he perhaps hoped to trade upon, and thought that his petition, coming to Solomon through her, might appear less dangerous. That she should consent to ask the king was not unnatural. ‘The damsel was very fair’ (1Ki_1:4) and Adonijah ‘a very goodly man’ (1Ki_1:6), and such a marriage might appear to her not unfitting.

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.

John Gill's Exposition

And Bathsheba said, well,.... Very well spoken, the thing is good and right:

I will speak for thee unto the king; and use her interest with him, not seeing into his design, but pitying an unfortunate man.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

18. Well; I will speak for thee — But did not Bathsheba perceive the treasonable project hidden under Adonijah’s petition? Probably not in all its consequences. She doubtless had some fear of him, and was anxious as far as possible to conciliate him, for she knew that his hereditary right to the throne had been set aside by Jehovah’s choice of her son Solomon.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

And Bathsheba said, Well there is no reason why the strict rendering "good," should not be preserved here. The A.V follows the LXX kalwv. Similarly Luther, wohl; but Bahr, gut, I will speak for thee LXX peri sou unto the king.

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 Kings, in the Historical, opens this verse with 9 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Bath-Shebaʻ (“Bath-sheba”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Bath-sheba” (Bath-Shebaʻ) shape what this verse is saying?
2 Samuel 11:3 shares the word «Bath-sheba» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“Bath-sheba” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «וַתֹּ֥אמֶר» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 10 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 4 words in this verse.
“Bath-sheba” occurs 2× in this single verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.