1 Kings 20:8

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

All the elders and all the people said to him, Don't you listen, neither consent.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs longer here — compare

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תֹאבֶֽה

ʼâbâh

H14

“to be willing”

Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 54× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 24:5

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 3

to be willing, consent - (Qal) - to be willing - to consent, yield to, accept - to desire

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 →

10: words
9: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

תֹאבֶֽה to be willing H14 occurs in 52 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
3 nouns
1 adjective
1 preposition
2 particles

Verb forms

וַיֹּאמְר֥וּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
תִּשְׁמַ֖ע Qal · Jussive
תֹאבֶֽה Qal · Imperfect

Repetition

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

כָּל all H3605 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 15 words from the Hebrew and 31 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.

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) 31 words vs World English Bible 15. 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 Kings 20:8 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיֹּאמְר֥וּ אֵלָ֛יו כָּל הַזְּקֵנִ֖ים וְכָל הָעָ֑ם אַל תִּשְׁמַ֖ע וְל֥וֹא תֹאבֶֽה

All the elders and all the people said to him, Don't you listen, neither consent.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Kings 20:8 Septuagint · lemma form

καί γράφω βιβλίον ἐπί ὁ ὄνομα αχααβ καί σφραγίζω ὁ σφραγίς αὐτός καί ἀποστέλλω ὁ βιβλίον πρός ὁ πρεσβύτερος καί ὁ ἐλεύθερος ὁ καταοἰκέω μετά ναβουθαι

And she wrote a letter in the name of Achaab, and sealed it with his seal, and sent the letter to the elders, and to the freemen who lived with Nabuthai.

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 →

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)

וַאֲמַרוּ לֵיהּ כָּל סָבַיָא וְכָל עַמָא לָא תִשְׁמַע וְלָא תֵיבֵי:

(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 20:8 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 20:8 And all the elders and all the people said unto him, Hearken not [unto him], nor consent.

Ver. 8. Hearken not unto him.] Stand to the issue of a bloody war rather.

“ Victorem a victo superari saepe videmus.

A cane non magno saepe tenetur aper. ”

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.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

They thought it their duties rather to venture their lives, than to grant to that thing which was not lawful, only to satisfy the lust of a tyrant.

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

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 8. Hearken not unto him] The elders had every thing at stake, and they chose rather to make a desperate defense than tamely to yield to such degrading and ruinous conditions.

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

8. Hearken not unto him, nor consent] The R.V. omits the needless italics and reads neither instead of nor. The shorter the form of such a decision the better and more natural.

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 all the elders and all the people said unto him,.... They were unanimous in their advice:

hearken not unto him, nor consent; promising, no doubt, that they would stand by him.

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

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

“The people” had no distinct place in the ordinary Jewish or Israelite constitution; but they were accustomed to signify their approbation or disapprobation of the decisions of the elders by acclamations or complaints (Jos 9:18; Jdg 11:11, etc.).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

And the elders and the people not only, i.e. , the inhabitants of Samaria (Keil), but also those who had flea thither for refuge. It is not implied that they were formally consulted, but at such a crisis, when nothing could be done, humanly speaking, without their support, it was natural that they should express their opinion said unto him Hearken not unto him nor consent. Lit., thou shalt not consent. la is the equivalent of mh, ne, and al of ouj, non. Cf. Amo_5:5, and Ewald 350 a.

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 10 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼâbâh (“to be willing”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word ʼâbâh carries the sense “to be willing.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Genesis 24:5, which shares the word «to be willing», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “all” (2× in this one verse) do in 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?
«וַיֹּאמְר֥וּ» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 7 words in this verse.
“all” occurs 2× in this single verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 10 words in this verse.