1 Samuel 20:40

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy, and said to him, Go, carry them to the city.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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יְהֽוֹנָתָן֙

Yᵉhôwnâthân

H3083

“Jonathan”

Noun, Proper

Appears 79× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at 1 Samuel 14:6

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H3068 and H5414

TWOT: None

Jonathan or Jehonathan = "Jehovah has given" - a son of king Saul and a friend of David - a son of the high priest Abiathar and the last descendant of Eli of whom we hear - a nephew of David who like David slew a giant of Gath - an uncle of David - one of David's mighty warriors - one of David's treasurers - a scribe in the time of Jeremiah - a Levite and father of Zechariah, a priest who blew the trumpet at the dedication of the wall - a son or descendant of Gershom, the son of Moses, and a priest to the tribe of Dan - a son of Kareah and a brother of Johanan; a Judaite captain after the fall of Jerusalem - another Judaite father of Peleth - father of Ebed in the time of Ezra - son of Asahel in the time of Ezra - a priest of the family of Melicu in the time of Nehemiah - son of Joiada and his successor to the high priesthood in the time of Nehemiah

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 →

13: words
11: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
4 nouns
3 prepositions
2 particles

Verb forms

וַיִּתֵּ֤ן Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר Qal · Sequential Imperfect
לֵ֖ךְ Qal · Imperative
הָבֵ֥יא Hiphil · Imperative

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 13 Hebrew tokens and 20 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.

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 20:40 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיִּתֵּ֤ן יְהֽוֹנָתָן֙ אֶת כֵּלָ֔יו אֶל הַנַּ֖עַר אֲשֶׁר ל֑וֹ וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ל֔וֹ לֵ֖ךְ הָבֵ֥יא הָעִֽיר

Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy, and said to him, Go, carry them to the city.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Samuel 20:40 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ιωναθαν δίδωμι ὁ σκεῦος αὐτός ἐπί ὁ παιδάριον αὐτός καί εἶπον ὁ παιδάριον αὐτός πορεύομαι εἰςἔρχομαι εἰς ὁ πόλις

And Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy, and said to his boy, Go, enter into the 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)

וִיהַב יְהוֹנָתָן יַת זֵינֵיהּ לְעוּלֵימָא דִילֵיהּ וַאֲמַר לֵיהּ אֱזֵיל אוֹבִילֵיהּ לְקַרְתָּא:

(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 20:40 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 →

Commentary source

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

1Sa 20:40 And Jonathan gave his artillery unto his lad, and said unto him, Go, carry [them] to the city.

Ver. 40. Go, carry them to the city.] The lad he sent away, that David and he might talk together the more freely; for he knew that little pitchers also have ears.

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 20:40. His artillery — His bow, and arrows, and quiver.

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

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Hebrew, instruments.

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

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

Jonathan gave his artillery unto his lad--that is, his missive weapons. The French word artillerie, signifies "archery." The term is still used in England, in the designation of the "artillery company of London," the association of archers, though they have long disused bows and arrows. Jonathan's boy being despatched out of the way, the friends enjoyed the satisfaction of a final meeting.

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

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 40. Jonathan gave his artillery] I believe this to be the only place in our language where the word artillery is not applied to cannon or ordnance. The original (כלי keley) signifies simply instruments, and here means the bow, quiver, and arrows.

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

(40) His artillery.—Literally, his implements. The word “artillery,” expressive though it be, would scarcely now be used in this sense; we should now translate the Hebrew word by “arms.”

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

40. his artillery] i.e. his bow and quiver. From Lat. ars, used in late Latin to mean ‘an implement,’ came the late Latin artillaria, and O. Fr. artillerie, ‘machines or equipment of war.’ The word was used of missile weapons long before the invention of gunpowder. See Bible Word-Book, p. 37.

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

And Jonathan gave his artillery unto his lad,.... "His vessels" (l) or instruments; his arms, as the Targum, his quiver, bow, and arrows:

and said unto him, go, carry them to the city; to Gibeah, to Jonathan's house, or to his apartments at court there.

(l) "vasa sua", Montanus; "instrumenta sua", Piscator; "arma sua", V. L. Tigurine version.

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

Arms. Protestants, "artillery:" but the bow and arrow, &c., are meant. The boy was sent away under this pretext.

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).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

His artillery; his bow, and arrows, and quiver.

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

40. Artillery — Rather, his implements. His bow, arrows, and quiver. Jonathan is not content to dismiss David with a mere signal; he covets one more interview and fond embrace.

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. 40-42. His artillery. Ie. his weapons. To get rid of the boy Jonathan sends him home with his bow and arrows, and then David arose out of a place toward the south, or "from the south side" of the stone Ezel, and while not forgetting in his repeated obeisance the honour due to Jonathan"s dignity, yet friendship prevailed, and they kissed one another and wept sore, until David exceeded, i.e. broke down, and was completely mastered by his grief. And so they parted, David to begin a life of danger and wandering, while Jonathan returned to the city to be a dutiful son to Saul. Phillipson remarks, "The scenes in this chapter are some of the most affecting presented to us in history, whether in old or modern times, and we may Well wonder at the delicacy of feeling and the gentleness of the sentiments which these two men in those old rough times entertained for one another. No ancient writer has set before us so noble an example of a heart felt, unselfish, and thoroughly human state of feeling, and none has described friendship with such entire truth in all its relations, and with such complete and profound knowledge of the human heart."

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

Artillery - His bow, and arrows, and quiver.

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 13 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Yᵉhôwnâthân (“Jonathan”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word Yᵉhôwnâthân carries the sense “Jonathan.” How does it shape the verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «וַיִּתֵּ֤ן» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 13 Hebrew ↔ 20 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 7 words in this verse.
11 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 13 words in this verse.