וְדָוִ֖ד ה֣וּא הַקָּטָ֑ן וּשְׁלֹשָׁה֙ הַגְּדֹלִ֔ים הָלְכ֖וּ אַחֲרֵ֥י שָׁאֽוּל
David was the youngest; and the three eldest followed Saul.
World English Bible · Public Domain
1 Samuel 17:14
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) 1 Samuel 17:14 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
English Translation
David was the youngest; and the three eldest followed Saul.
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Compare translations 3
The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.
Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.
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World English Bible Public Domain
David was the youngest; and the three eldest followed Saul.
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King James Version Public Domain
And David was the youngest: and the three eldest followed Saul.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And David, he the youngest. And the three oldest went after Saul.
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Show all 18 translations
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
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World English Bible Public Domain
David was the youngest; and the three eldest followed Saul.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
And David was the youngest. The three oldest had followed Saul,
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
And David was the youngest. The three oldest had followed Saul,
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King James Version Public Domain
And David was the youngest: and the three eldest followed Saul.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
And David was the youngest; and the three eldest followed Saul.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
And David was the youngest: and the three eldest followed Saul.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
So Dauid was the least: and the three eldest went after Saul.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
But David was the youngest. So the three eldest having followed Saul,
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
And David is the youngest, and the three eldest have gone after Saul,
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
And David is the youngest, and the three eldest have gone after Saul,
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And David, he the youngest. And the three oldest went after Saul.
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Darby Bible Public Domain
And David was the youngest; and the three eldest had followed Saul.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
David was the youngest; and the three oldest followed Saul.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
And David was the youngest: and the three eldest followed Saul.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
David was the youngest. The three oldest were with Saul,
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
And David was the youngest: and the three oldest were with Saul's army.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
And David was the youngest; and the three eldest followed Saul. —
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).
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 →
הַקָּטָ֑ן
qâṭân
H6996
“the · small”
Particle, Definite Article + Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- Appears 101× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Genesis 1:16
- Part of Speech
- Particle + Adjective
- Type
- Adjective
- Gender
- Masculine
- Number
- Singular
- State
- Absolute
Full BDB Definition
young, small, insignificant, unimportant
- small
- insignificant
- young
- unimportant
- וְדָוִ֖ד Dâvid H1732 “and · David” Conjunction + Noun, Proper
- ה֣וּא hûwʼ H1931 “he” Pronoun, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- הַקָּטָ֑ן qâṭân H6996 “the · small” Particle, Definite Article + Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- וּשְׁלֹשָׁה֙ shâlôwsh H7969 “and · three” Conjunction + Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- הַגְּדֹלִ֔ים gâdôwl H1419 “the · great” Particle, Definite Article + Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute
- הָלְכ֖וּ hâlak H1980 “to walk” Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural
- אַחֲרֵ֥י ʼachar H310 “after” Preposition
- שָׁאֽוּל Shâʼûwl H7586 “Saul” Noun, Proper
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 →
- 8
- words
- 8
- distinct lemmas
- Historical
- section
Grammatical profile
- 1 verb
- 2 nouns
- 3 adjectives
- 1 pronoun
- 1 preposition
Verb forms
- הָלְכ֖וּ Qal · Perfect
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 10 words from the Hebrew and 13 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.
Cross-references
2Topical passages linked to 1 Samuel 17:14 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- 1 Samuel 16:11 Samuel said to Jesse, Are here all your children? He said, There remains yet the youngest, and, behold, he is keeping the sheep. Samuel said to Jesse, Send and get him; for we will not sit down until he come here.
- Genesis 25:23 Yahweh said to her, Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples will be separated from your body. The one people will be stronger than the other people. The elder will serve the younger.
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.
καί εἶπον δαυίδ πρός σαούλ ποιμαίνω εἰμί ὁ δοῦλος σύ ὁ πατήρ αὐτός ἐν ὁ ποίμνιον καί ὅταν ἄρχω ὁ λέων καί ὁ ἄρκος καί λαμβάνω πρόβατον ἐκ ὁ ἀγέλη
And David himself was the younger son, and the three elder followed Saul.
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.
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Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)
וְדָוִד הוּא זְעֵירָא וּתְלָתָא רַבְרְבַיָא אֲזַלוּ בָּתַר שָׁאוּל:
(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.
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 8 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is qâṭân (“small”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- How does “small” (qâṭân) shape what this verse is saying?
- How does 1 Samuel 16:11, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
- These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
- «הָלְכ֖וּ» is a Qal Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
- Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?
Things to notice
- These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
- 8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on 1 Samuel 17:14 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.
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.
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.
Rashi
Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)
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.