1 Samuel 20:28

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem:

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs longer here — compare

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מֵעִמָּדִ֖י

ʻimmâd

H5978

“from · with · me”

Preposition + Preposition + Suffix, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular

Appears 44× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 3:12

Full BDB Definition

Origin: prol for H5973

TWOT: 1640b

with

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 →

11: words
9: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מֵעִמָּדִ֖י with H5978 occurs in 44 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
5 nouns
2 prepositions
1 particle

Verb forms

וַיַּ֥עַן Qal · Sequential Imperfect
נִשְׁאֹ֨ל Niphal · Infinitive Absolute
נִשְׁאַ֥ל Niphal · Perfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

נִשְׁאֹ֨ל to ask H7592 ×2
בֵּ֥ית Bethlehem H1035 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 13 words from the Hebrew and 21 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably longer here. See the side-by-side →

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 11 Hebrew tokens and 19 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 20:28 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 20:6 If your father miss me at all, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city; for it is the yearly sacrifice there for all the family.

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.

Here the Septuagint runs noticeably longer than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 21 words vs World English Bible 13. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew 1 Samuel 20:28 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיַּ֥עַן יְהוֹנָתָ֖ן אֶת שָׁא֑וּל נִשְׁאֹ֨ל נִשְׁאַ֥ל דָּוִ֛ד מֵעִמָּדִ֖י עַד בֵּ֥ית לָֽחֶם

Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem:

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Samuel 20:28 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἀποκρίνω ιωναθαν ὁ σαούλ καί εἶπον αὐτός παρααἰτέω δαυίδ παρά ἐγώ ἕως εἰς βηθλεεμ ὁ πόλις αὐτός πορεύομαι

And Jonathan answered Saul, and said to him, David asked leave of me to go as far as Bethleem his city;

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)

וַאֲתֵיב יְהוֹנָתָן יַת שָׁאוּל אִשְׁתְּאָלָא אִשְׁתְּאַל דָוִד מִנִי לְמֵיזַל עַד בֵּית לֶחֶם:

(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 20:28 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 20:28 And Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked [leave] of me [to go] to Bethlehem:

Ver. 28. To go to Bethlehem.] {See Trapp on "1Sa 20:6"}

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

And Jonathan answered Saul,.... In reply to Saul's question, and to excuse David, he said:

David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem; his own city, his native place, where his family lived, whom he was desirous to see, and yet chose not to go without asking leave; and as Saul was not at home, he asked leave of Jonathan, who was next to him, and acted for him; and he was very pressing and importunate in his suit, and therefore Jonathan could not well deny him it; and he hoped this would ben sufficient excuse for his absence, especially when what follows should be observed.

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

asked permission from me to go

"asked me to allow him to go"

if I have found favor in your eyes

Here the eyes represent seeing, and seeing represents thoughts or judgment. See how you translated this in 1 Samuel 20:3. AT: "I have pleased you" or "you consider me favorably" (See: Metaphor)

the king's table

Jonathan speaks of Saul as if he is another person to show that he respects Saul. AT: "your table" (See: Pronouns)

translationWords

Bethlehem

family

sacrifice

favor

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

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 11 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʻimmâd (“with”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word ʻimmâd carries the sense “with.” How does it shape the verse?
Genesis 3:12 shares the word «with» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“to ask” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
Compared with the Hebrew, the Septuagint runs longer here. What questions does that raise?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «וַיַּ֥עַן» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 11 Hebrew ↔ 19 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 4 words in this verse.
“to ask” occurs 2× in this single verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.