He said, Whether they are come out for peace, take them alive, or whether they are come out for war, taken them alive.
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The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
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He said, Whether they are come out for peace, take them alive, or whether they are come out for war, taken them alive.
And he said, Whether they be come out for peace, take them alive; or whether they be come out for war, take them alive.
And he said, “If they have gone out for peace, seize them alive, and if they have gone out for battle, seize them alive.”
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
He said, Whether they are come out for peace, take them alive, or whether they are come out for war, taken them alive.
“If they have marched out in peace,” he said, “take them alive. Even if they have marched out for war, take them alive.”
“If they have marched out in peace,” he said, “take them alive. Even if they have marched out for war, take them alive.”
And he said, Whether they be come out for peace, take them alive; or whether they be come out for war, take them alive.
And he said, Whether they are come out for peace, take them alive, or whether they are come out for war, taken them alive.
And he said, Whether they be come out for peace, take them alive; or whether they be come out for war, take them alive.
And he sayde, Whether they be come out for peace, take them aliue: or whether they bee come out to fight, take them yet aliue.
And he said: Whether they come for peace, take them alive: or whether they come to fight, take them alive.
And he saith, `If for peace they have come out -- catch them alive; and if for battle they have come out -- alive catch them.'
And he says, “If they have come out for peace, catch them alive; and if they have come out for battle, catch them alive.”
Ben Hadad said, “Whether they have come out for peace or war, take them alive.”
And he said, “If they have gone out for peace, seize them alive, and if they have gone out for battle, seize them alive.”
And he said, Whether they be come out for peace, take them alive; or whether they be come out for war, take them alive.
He said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive.”
And he said, Whether they have come out for peace, take them alive; or whether they have come out for war, take them alive.
“If they're coming in peace, take them alive,” he ordered. “If they're coming to attack, take them alive.”
And he said, If they have come out for peace, take them living, and if they have come out for war, take them living.
And he said: 'Whether they are come out for peace, take them alive; or whether they are come out for war, take them alive.'
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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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 →
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Repetition
Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 23 words from the Hebrew and 33 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 11 Hebrew tokens and 21 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.
Topical passages linked to 1 Kings 20:18 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
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) 33 words vs World English Bible 23. 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.
וַיֹּ֛אמֶר אִם לְשָׁל֥וֹם יָצָ֖אוּ תִּפְשׂ֣וּם חַיִּ֑ים וְאִ֧ם לְמִלְחָמָ֛ה יָצָ֖אוּ חַיִּ֥ים תִּפְשֽׂוּם
He said, Whether they are come out for peace, take them alive, or whether they are come out for war, taken them alive.
World English Bible · Public Domain
ἀναἵστημι καί καταβαίνω εἰς ἀπαντή αχααβ βασιλεύς ἰσραήλ ὁ ἐν σαμαρεία ἰδού οὗτος ἐν ἀμπελών ναβουθαι ὅτι καταβαίνω ἐκεῖ κληρονομέω αὐτός
Arise, and go down to meet Achaab king of Israel, who is in Samaria, for he is in the vineyard of Nabuthai, for he has gone down there to take possession of it.
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 →
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.
וַאֲמַר אִם לִשְׁלָמָא נְפַקוּ אֲחוֹדוּנוּן כַּד חַיִין וְאִם לִקְרָבָא נְפַקוּ כַּד חַיִין אֲחוֹדוּנוּן:
(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.
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 11 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is tâphas (“to seize”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on 1 Kings 20:18 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
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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne
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
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Matthew Poole's English Annotations
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Whedon's Commentary on the Bible
Daniel D. Whedon
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
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Wesley's Explanatory Notes
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
unfoldingWord translationNotes
Door43 World Missions Community
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.