1 Samuel 17:9

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

If he be able to fight with me, and kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall you be our servants, and serve us.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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לְהִלָּחֵ֤ם

lâcham

H3898

“to fight”

Preposition + Verb, Niphal, Infinitive Construct

Appears 177× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 1:10

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 1104 , 1105

to fight, do battle, make war - (Qal) to fight, do battle - (Niphal) to engage in battle, wage war - (Qal) to eat, use as food

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 →

18: words
10: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Grammatical profile

8 verbs
2 nouns
1 pronoun
4 prepositions
2 conjunctions
1 particle

Verb forms

יוּכַ֞ל Qal · Imperfect
לְהִלָּחֵ֤ם Niphal · Infinitive Construct
וְהִכָּ֔נִי Hiphil · Perfect
וְהָיִ֥ינוּ Qal · Sequential Perfect
אֽוּכַל Qal · Imperfect
וְהִכִּיתִ֔יו Hiphil · Perfect
וִהְיִ֤יתֶם Qal · Sequential Perfect
וַעֲבַדְתֶּ֖ם Qal · Sequential Perfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

יוּכַ֞ל to prevail H3201 ×2
וְהִכָּ֔נִי to strike H5221 ×2
וְהָיִ֥ינוּ to be H1961 ×2
לַעֲבָדִ֑ים servant H5650 ×2
אִם if H518 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 35 words from the Hebrew and 36 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 18 Hebrew tokens and 29 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.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to 1 Samuel 17:9 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 11:1 Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabesh Gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.

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.

Hebrew 1 Samuel 17:9 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

אִם יוּכַ֞ל לְהִלָּחֵ֤ם אִתִּי֙ וְהִכָּ֔נִי וְהָיִ֥ינוּ לָכֶ֖ם לַעֲבָדִ֑ים וְאִם אֲנִ֤י אֽוּכַל לוֹ֙ וְהִכִּיתִ֔יו וִהְיִ֤יתֶם לָ֨נוּ֙ לַעֲבָדִ֔ים וַעֲבַדְתֶּ֖ם אֹתָֽנוּ

If he be able to fight with me, and kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall you be our servants, and serve us.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Samuel 17:9 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἐάν δύναμαι πρός ἐγώ πολεμέω καί ἐάν πατάσσω ἐγώ καί εἰμί σύ εἰς δοῦλος ἐάν δέ ἐγώ δύναμαι καί πατάσσω αὐτός εἰμί ἐγώ εἰς δοῦλος καί δουλεύω ἐγώ

And if he shall be able to fight against me, and shall strike me, then will we be your servants: but if I should prevail and strike him, you⌃ shall be our servants, and serve us.

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)

אִם יִכּוּל לַאֲגָחָא קְרָבָא עִמִי וְיִקְטְלִינַנִי וּנְהֵי לְכוֹן לְעַבְדִין וְאִם אֲנָא אִכּוּל לֵיהּ וְאַקְטִלִינֵיהּ וּתְהוֹן לָנָא לְעַבְדִין וְתִפְלְחוּן יָתָנָא:

(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 17:9 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 17:9 If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.

Ver. 9. If he be able, … then will we be your servants.] Thus of old the Romans and Albans put the trial of the common cause upon the hazard of three champions on each side. Our ordinary duellers who, like those youngsters of Helkath Hazzurim, {2Sa 2:14-16} sheath their swords in their fellows’ bowels, are doubtless set on by that old manslayer, that he may feed upon them both at once, as the cock-pit-masters do upon their cocks of the game. What David did in this monomachy {duel}, was by a singular instinct of God.

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

Hebrew, smite me.

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

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 9. Then will we be your servants] Of this stipulation we hear nothing farther.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) Then will we be your servants.—Each of the positions which the two opposing armies held was well-nigh impregnable; thus it seemed as though a single combat was the only way of deciding the present campaign: besides which, in those far back times such single combats between renowned chieftains of the opposing armies were not by any means uncommon. The reader of the Iliad will ever readily call to mind—in colloquies before the deadly duel—words not altogether unlike the haughty, boastful challenge of the giant Philistine. See, for instance, the speeches of Glaucus and Diomede in Book VI. of the Iliad: “Come hither,” says Glaucus, “that you may quickly reach the goal of death.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

9. then will we be your servants] Compare the agreement between the Romans and Albans about the combat of the Horatii and Curiatii, “that the nation whose citizens conquered in the combat should rule the other in peace” (Livy I. 24). Paris challenged Menelaus to decide the Trojan war by single combat (Hom. Il. III. 86 ff.).

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

If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants,.... For which it does not appear he had any commission or authority to say; nor did the Philistines think themselves obliged to abide by what he said, since, when he was slain, they did not yield themselves servants to the Israelites:

but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us; to which terms also the Israelites did not consent; nor did David, who engaged with him, enter the fray on such conditions.

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

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Us. It does not appear that this proposal was accepted or ratified by either party. The Israelites had still to pursue the enemy. (Estius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

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 18 words (10 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is lâcham (“to fight”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word lâcham carries the sense “to fight.” How does it shape the verse?
How does 1 Samuel 11:1, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “to prevail” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«יוּכַ֞ל» is a Qal 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

This verse counts 18 Hebrew ↔ 29 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
“to prevail” occurs 2× in this single verse.
10 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 18 words in this verse.