וַתַּעֲרֹ֤ךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ וּפְלִשְׁתִּ֔ים מַעֲרָכָ֖ה לִקְרַ֥את מַעֲרָכָֽה
Israel and the Philistines put the battle in array, army against army.
World English Bible · Public Domain
1 Samuel 17:21
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) 1 Samuel 17:21 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
Israel and the Philistines put the battle in array, army against army.
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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
Israel and the Philistines put the battle in array, army against army.
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King James Version Public Domain
For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And Israel and the Philistines arrayed, array to meet array.
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
Israel and the Philistines put the battle in array, army against army.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
And Israel and the Philistines arrayed in formation against each other.
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
And Israel and the Philistines arrayed in formation against each other.
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King James Version Public Domain
For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
And Israel and the Philistines put the battle in array, army against army.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
And Israel and the Philistines put the battle in array, army against army.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
For Israel and the Philistims had put themselues in araie, armie against armie.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
For Israel had put themselves in array, and the Philistines who stood against them were prepared.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
and Israel and the Philistines set in array rank to meet rank.
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
and Israel and the Philistines set in array rank to meet rank.
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
Then Israel and the Philistines lined up for battle, army against army.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And Israel and the Philistines arrayed, array to meet array.
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Darby Bible Public Domain
And Israel and the Philistines put the battle in array, rank against rank.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
Israel and the Philistines put the battle in array, army against army.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
The Israelites took up their battle line and the Philistines took up their battle line on the opposite side.
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
And Israel and the Philistines had put their forces in position, army against army.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
And Israel and the Philistines put the battle in array, army against army.
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 →
מַעֲרָכָ֖ה
maʻărâkâh
H4634
“rank”
Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute
- Appears 20× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Exodus 39:37
- Part of Speech
- Noun
- Type
- Common
- Gender
- Feminine
- Number
- Singular
- State
- Absolute
Full BDB Definition
row, rank, battle-line
- battle-line
- rank
- row
- וַתַּעֲרֹ֤ךְ ʻârak H6186 “and · to arrange” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular
- יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ Yisrâʼêl H3478 “Israel” Noun, Proper
- וּפְלִשְׁתִּ֔ים Pᵉlishtîy H6430 “and · Philistines” Conjunction + Noun, Gentilic, Masculine, Plural, Absolute
- מַעֲרָכָ֖ה maʻărâkâh H4634 “rank” Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute
- לִקְרַ֥את qârâʼ H7122 “to meet” Preposition + Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct
- מַעֲרָכָֽה maʻărâkâh H4634 “rank” Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute
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 →
- 6
- words
- 5
- distinct lemmas
- Historical
- section
Notable vocabulary
The rarest word here is מַעֲרָכָ֖ה rank H4634 — appearing just 20 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
Shared distinctive vocabulary
מַעֲרָכָ֖ה rank H4634 occurs in 18 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
- 2 verbs
- 4 nouns
Verb forms
- וַתַּעֲרֹ֤ךְ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
- לִקְרַ֥את Qal · Infinitive Construct
Repetition
A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
- מַעֲרָכָ֖ה rank H4634 ×2
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 12 words from the Hebrew and 12 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.
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.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
And Israel and the Philistines formed their lines one opposite the other.
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)
וְסַדָרוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל וּפְלִשְׁתָּאֵי סִדְרָא לִקֳדָמוּת סִדְרָא:
(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 6 words (5 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is maʻărâkâh (“rank”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- What does “rank” (maʻărâkâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
- How does Exodus 39:37, which shares the word «rank», read alongside this verse?
- What does the repetition of “rank” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
- The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
- «וַתַּעֲרֹ֤ךְ» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
- Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?
Things to notice
- These translations choose different wording for 7 words in this verse.
- “rank” occurs 2× in this single verse.
- 5 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on 1 Samuel 17:21 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.
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.
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.
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.