וַיָּשֻׁ֨בוּ֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מִדְּלֹ֖ק אַחֲרֵ֣י פְלִשְׁתִּ֑ים וַיָּשֹׁ֖סּוּ אֶת מַחֲנֵיהֶֽם
The children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they plundered their camp.
World English Bible · Public Domain
1 Samuel 17:53
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) 1 Samuel 17:53 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
The children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they plundered their camp.
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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
The children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they plundered their camp.
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King James Version Public Domain
And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their tents.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And the sons of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they plundered their camp.
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
The children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they plundered their camp.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
When the Israelites returned from their pursuit of the Philistines, they plundered their camps.
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
When the Israelites returned from their pursuit of the Philistines, they plundered their camps.
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King James Version Public Domain
And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their tents.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they plundered their camp.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their camp.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
And the children of Israel returned from pursuing the Philistims, and spoyled their tents.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
And the children of Israel returning, after they had pursued the Philistines, fell upon their camp.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
and the sons of Israel turn back from burning after the Philistines, and spoil their camps.
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
and the sons of Israel return from burning after the Philistines, and spoil their camps.
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
The people of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And the sons of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they plundered their camp.
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Darby Bible Public Domain
And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they pillaged their camps.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
The children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they plundered their camp.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
And the children of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their tents.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
When the Israelites returned from their hot pursuit of the Philistines, they plundered their camps.
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
Then the children of Israel came back from going after the Philistines, and took their goods from the tents.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their camp.
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 →
וַיָּשֹׁ֖סּוּ
shâçaç
H8155
“and · to plunder”
Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
- Appears 5× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Judges 2:14
- Part of Speech
- Conjunction + Verb
- Stem
- Qal
- Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- Person
- 3rd Person
- Gender
- Masculine
- Number
- Plural
Full BDB Definition
to plunder, spoil
- (Qal) to plunder
- (Niphal) to be plundered, be rifled
- וַיָּשֻׁ֨בוּ֙ shûwb H7725 “and · to return” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
- בְּנֵ֣י bên H1121 “sons of” Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct
- יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל Yisrâʼêl H3478 “Israel” Noun, Proper
- מִדְּלֹ֖ק dâlaq H1814 “from · to burn” Preposition + Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct
- אַחֲרֵ֣י ʼachar H310 “after” Preposition
- פְלִשְׁתִּ֑ים Pᵉlishtîy H6430 “Philistines” Noun, Gentilic, Masculine, Plural, Absolute
- וַיָּשֹׁ֖סּוּ shâçaç H8155 “and · to plunder” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
- אֶת ʼêth H853 “-” Particle, Direct Object
- מַחֲנֵיהֶֽם machăneh H4264 “camps · their” Noun, Common, Both, Plural, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
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 →
- 9
- words
- 9
- distinct lemmas
- Historical
- section
Notable vocabulary
The rarest word here is וַיָּשֹׁ֖סּוּ to plunder H8155 — appearing just 5 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
Shared distinctive vocabulary
וַיָּשֹׁ֖סּוּ to plunder H8155 occurs in 5 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
- 3 verbs
- 4 nouns
- 1 preposition
- 1 particle
Verb forms
- וַיָּשֻׁ֨בוּ֙ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
- מִדְּלֹ֖ק Qal · Infinitive Construct
- וַיָּשֹׁ֖סּוּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 15 words from the Hebrew and 16 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
3Topical passages linked to 1 Samuel 17:53 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- 2 Kings 7:7–16 Therefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their donkeys, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.
- Jeremiah 4:20 Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, [and] my curtains in a moment.
- Jeremiah 30:16 Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, everyone of them, shall go into captivity; and those who despoil you shall be a spoil, and all who prey on you will I give for a prey.
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.
And the men of Israel returned from pursuing after the Philistines, and they destroyed their camp.
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)
וְתָבוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מִלְמִרְדַף בָּתַר פְלִשְׁתָּאֵי וּבְזוֹ יַת מַשִׁרְיַתְהוֹן:
(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 9 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is shâçaç (“to plunder”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- The word shâçaç carries the sense “to plunder.” How does it shape the verse?
- Judges 2:14 shares the word «to plunder» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
- 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?
- The verb «וַיָּשֻׁ֨בוּ֙» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
- Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Tyndale Open Study Notes read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?
Things to notice
- These translations choose different wording for 6 words in this verse.
- 9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on 1 Samuel 17:53 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.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
Tyndale Open Resources
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
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.
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.
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.