1 Samuel 14:5

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

The one crag rose up on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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מָצ֥וּק

mâtsûwq

H4690

“pillar”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 2× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at 1 Samuel 2:8

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H6693

TWOT: 1896a

molten support, pillar, column

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
8: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is מָצ֥וּק pillar H4690 — appearing just 2 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מָצ֥וּק pillar H4690 occurs in 2 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

1 Samuel 2:8

Grammatical profile

6 nouns
2 adjectives
2 prepositions

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

הָאֶחָ֛ד one H259 ×2
מ֣וּל front H4136 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 22 words from the Hebrew and 21 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 10 Hebrew tokens and 17 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.

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 Samuel 14:5 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

הַשֵּׁ֧ן הָאֶחָ֛ד מָצ֥וּק מִצָּפ֖וֹן מ֣וּל מִכְמָ֑שׂ וְהָאֶחָ֥ד מִנֶּ֖גֶב מ֥וּל גָּֽבַע

The one crag rose up on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Samuel 14:5 Septuagint · lemma form

ὁ ὁδός ὁ εἷς ἀπό βορέας ἔρχομαι μαχμας καί ὁ ὁδός ὁ ἄλλος ἀπό νότος ἔρχομαι γαβεε

The one way was northward to one coming to Machmas, and the other way was southward to one coming to Gabae.

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)

שִׁנָא חֲדָא מִסְתַּכְיָא מִצִפוּנָא לְקָבֵל מִכְמָשׁ וַחֲדָא מִדָרוֹמָא לְקָבֵיל גִבְעֲתָא:

(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 Samuel 14:5 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

1Sa 14:5 The forefront of the one [was] situate northward over against Michmash, and the other southward over against Gibeah.

Ver. 5. The fore front.] Heb., The tooth. See 1Sa 14:4.

Northward over against Michmash.] So that these rocks were placed on either end of the inlet or passage; and he that would pass must climb over both. Sic petitur caelum.

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

5. the forefront of the one, &c.] Lit. The one crag (lit. tooth) was a pillar on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba. The Sept. omits “a pillar.”

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

The forefront of the one was situate northward, over against Michmash,.... The northern precipice of this rock was towards Michmash, where the Philistines lay encamped, and where was the passage of Michmash the garrison went into and possessed:

and the other southward, over against Gibeah; the southern precipice faced Gibeah, and both precipices were to be got over before he could get to the garrison, these lying between the two passages; the one at one end, called the passage of Michmash, the other at the other, which might be called the passage of Gibeah.

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

5. Gibeah — Rather, Geba. See note on 1Sa_13:16.

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

Was situate, etc. The word thus translated is that rendered pillar in 1Sa_2:8, and the verse should possibly be translated, "And the one tooth (or crag) was a rocky mass on the north over against Michmash, and the other was on the south over against Geba" (not Gibeah, as the A.V; see. 1Sa_13:16) But the word is omitted in the versions, and may be an interpolation.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

Jutted out from the north. Slanting from the north side toward Michmos.

Toward Geva. From where Yonoson emerged.

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 Samuel, in the Historical, opens this verse with 10 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is mâtsûwq (“pillar”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “pillar” (mâtsûwq) contribute to the verse as a whole?
1 Samuel 2:8 shares the word «pillar» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“one” 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?
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 10 Hebrew ↔ 17 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 18 words in this verse.
“one” occurs 2× in this single verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 10 words in this verse.