1 Samuel 18:2

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father's house.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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שָׁא֖וּל

Shâʼûwl

H7586

“Saul”

Noun, Proper

Appears 406× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 36:37

Full BDB Definition

Origin: pass part of H7592

TWOT: None

Saul or Shaul = "desired" - a Benjamite, son of Kish, and the 1st king of Israel - an early king of Edom and a successor of Samlah - a son of Simeon - a Levite, son of Uzziah

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

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
4 nouns
1 pronoun
1 particle

Verb forms

וַיִּקָּחֵ֥הוּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
נְתָנ֔וֹ Qal · Perfect
לָשׁ֖וּב Qal · Infinitive Construct

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 18 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 9 Hebrew tokens and 16 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 18:2 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 17:15 Now David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.
1 Samuel 16:21–23 David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armor bearer.

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 18:2 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיִּקָּחֵ֥הוּ שָׁא֖וּל בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֑וּא וְלֹ֣א נְתָנ֔וֹ לָשׁ֖וּב בֵּ֥ית אָבִֽיו

Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father's house.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Samuel 18:2 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἐκἄρχω ὁ γυνή καί λέγω πατάσσω σαούλ ἐν χιλιάς αὐτός καί δαυίδ ἐν μυριάς αὐτός

And Saul took him in that day, and did not suffer him to return to his father's house.

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)

וְדַבְּרֵיהּ שָׁאוּל בְּיוֹמָא הַהוּא וְלָא שַׁבְקֵיהּ לְמֵיתַב בֵּית אֲבוּהִי:

(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 18:2 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 18:2 And Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father’s house.

Ver. 2. Saul took him that day.] According as Samuel had foretold, {1Sa 8:11-12} and for a step to the kingdom, whereunto he was anointed, and no less assured. See Psa 63:11.

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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

1Sa 18:2. Saul took him that day — By which it appears, that, before this, David had not had his constant residence at court, after he first came thither, but went home to his father when Saul was well, and had no need of him. This confirms the remarks made on the former chapter.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

18:2 David had previously served Saul part-time (see 17:15 and corresponding study note); now Saul kept David with him full-time.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

Saul would let him go no more home--He was established as a permanent resident at court.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

John Gill's Exposition

And Saul took him that day,.... Not only into his favour, and into his service, but into his court; even on that very day he slew the Philistine, or however as soon as it could be done:

and would let him go no more home to his father's house; as he used to do before; when he only served as a musician to him, then he was only at court when Saul was in a melancholy disposition, and wanted him, and so was going and returning, and in the intervals kept his father's sheep, Sa1 17:15; but now he would not suffer him to attend such business any longer, since he was not only to become a courtier, and be made a prince or noble, but to marry his daughter, according to the declaration he had made, with respect to any man that should kill Goliath.

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

By which it appears, that beforetime David had not his constant residence at court, but did return to his father’s house, and thence again to the court, as occasion required.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

2. Saul… would let him go no more home — That is, to remain there in his former occupation. He was doubtless permitted to go and visit his father whenever he desired, but not to resume his charge of the sheep as before. 1Sa_17:15.

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

Vers. 2-4. Saul took him that day. Bent solely on war, Saul gladly took so promising, a young soldier as David to be one of his bodyguard, (1Sa_14:52) and henceforward he was constantly with him. Thus in two ways, first as a musician, and now as a soldier, David was forced into those intimate relations with Saul, which ended so tragically. For a while, however, those happier results ensued summed up in 1Sa_16:21. Jonathan and David made a covenant. We are not to suppose that this happened immediately. David continued on friendly terms with Saul for a considerable period, during which he went on many expeditions, and grew in military renown (see ver. 5). And thus the love which began with admiration of David"s prowess grew deeper and more confirmed by constant intercourse, till this solemn bond of mutual friendship was entered into by the two youthful heroes, by which they bound themselves under all circumstances to be true and faithful to one another. How nobly Jonathan kept the bond the history proceeds immediately to tell us; nor was David subsequently unmindful of it. (2Sa_9:1, 2Sa_9:7) Jonathan stripped himself of the robe, etc. In confirmation of the bond Jonathan gave David first his robe, the meil, which, as we have seen on 1Sa_2:19, was the ordinary dress of the wealthier classes; and next his garments, his military dress, (see on 1Sa_17:38, 1Sa_17:39) worn over the meil, and which here seems to include his accoutrements, the bow, sword, and girdle, though elsewhere distinguished from them. (2Sa_20:8) In thus clothing David in his own princely equipments Jonathan was showing his friend the greatest personal honour, (Est_6:8) and such a gift is still highly esteemed in the East.

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

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Took him, &c. - By which it appears, that before this David had not his constant residence at court.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

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 Shâʼûwl (“Saul”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word Shâʼûwl carries the sense “Saul.” How does it shape the verse?
How does 1 Samuel 17:15, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«וַיִּקָּחֵ֥הוּ» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 16 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 10 words in this verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.