1 Samuel 24:12

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Yahweh judge between me and you, and Yahweh avenge me of you; but my hand shall not be on you.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs longer here — compare

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וּנְקָמַ֥נִי

nâqam

H5358

“and · to avenge · me”

Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular + Suffix, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular

Appears 35× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 4:15

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 1413

to avenge, take vengeance, revenge, avenge oneself, be avenged, be punished - (Qal) - to avenge, take vengeance - to entertain revengeful feelings - (Niphal) - to avenge oneself - to suffer vengeance - (Piel) to avenge - (Hophal) to be avenged, vengeance be taken (for blood) - (Hithpael) to avenge oneself

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
8: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וּנְקָמַ֥נִי to avenge H5358 occurs in 31 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
3 nouns
4 prepositions
1 particle

Verb forms

יִשְׁפֹּ֤ט Qal · Jussive
וּנְקָמַ֥נִי Qal · Sequential Perfect
תִֽהְיֶה Qal · Imperfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

יְהוָה֙ LORD H3068 ×2
בֵּינִ֣י between H996 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 20 words from the Hebrew and 54 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.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to 1 Samuel 24:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Judges 11:27 I therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me: Yahweh, the Judge, be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.
Psalms 43:1 Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.
Psalms 35:1 Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me.
Genesis 16:5 Sarai said to Abram, "This wrong is your fault. I gave my handmaid into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. Yahweh judge between me and you."
Job 5:8 "But as for me, I would seek God, To God would I commit my cause;
Psalms 94:1 Yahweh, you God to whom vengeance belongs, You God to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth.
Romans 12:19 Don't seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God's wrath. For it is written, "Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord."
1 Peter 2:23 Who, when he was cursed, didn't curse back. When he suffered, didn't threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously;

Psalms 7:8–9 Yahweh administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, Yahweh, according to my righteousness, And to my integrity that is in me.
Genesis 31:53 The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac.
1 Samuel 26:10–11 David said, As Yahweh lives, Yahweh will strike him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle and perish.
1 Samuel 26:23 Yahweh will render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness; because Yahweh delivered you into my hand today, and I wouldn't put forth my hand against Yahweh's anointed.
Revelation 6:10 They cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

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) 54 words vs World English Bible 20. 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 24:12 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

יִשְׁפֹּ֤ט יְהוָה֙ בֵּינִ֣י וּבֵינֶ֔ךָ וּנְקָמַ֥נִי יְהוָ֖ה מִמֶּ֑ךָּ וְיָדִ֖י לֹ֥א תִֽהְיֶה בָּֽךְ

Yahweh judge between me and you, and Yahweh avenge me of you; but my hand shall not be on you.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Samuel 24:12 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἰδού ὁ πτερυγίον ὁ διπλοΐς σύ ἐν ὁ χείρ ἐγώ ἐγώ ἀποαἱρέω ὁ πτερυγίον καί οὐ ἀποκτείνω σύ καί γιγνώσκω καί ὁράω σήμερον ὅτι οὐ εἰμί κακία ἐν ὁ χείρ ἐγώ οὐδέ ἀσέβεια καί ἀθέτησις καί οὐ ἁμαρτάνω εἰς σύ καί σύ δεσμεύω ὁ ψυχή ἐγώ λαμβάνω αὐτός

And behold, the skirt of your mantle is in my hand, I cut off the skirt, and did not kill you: know then and see today, there is no evil in my hand, nor impiety, nor rebellion; and I have not sinned against you, yet you lay snares for my soul to take it.

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)

וְרִבּוֹנִי אִסְתַּכַּל אַף חֲזֵי יַת כְּנַף מְעִילָךְ בִּידִי אֲרֵי בְּמִפְסְקִי יַת כְּנַף מְעִילָךְ וְלָא קְטַלְתִּיךְ דַע וַחֲזוֹ אֲרֵי לֵית בִּידִי חוֹב וְסוּרְחַן וְלָא חָטִית לָךְ וְאַתְּ כָּמִין עַל נַפְשִׁי לְמִקְטְלָהּ:

(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 24:12 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 24:12 The LORD judge between me and thee, and the LORD avenge me of thee: but mine hand shall not be upon thee.

Ver. 12. The Lord judge between me and thee.] He appealeth to God the righteous Judge: as did Athanasius, when Constantine the Arian emperor sent him into banishment, Iudicet Dominus inter me et te, O Imperator, quia calumniis inimicorum credidisti. So did John Huss, and many more martyrs, who cited their adversaries to answer them before God’s tribunal, setting them a time.

And the Lord avenge me of thee.] This he desireth ex recto iusticiae zelo, from a right principle: and woe be to those whom God’s persecuted people shall put over to him to be punished. He is the Lord God of recompences, and will surely requite. {Jer 51:56}

But mine hand shall not be upon thee.] I will not do thee that wrong, nor myself that disservice; fear it not.

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

24:12 May the Lord judge: There was no human authority to adjudicate between Saul and David (cp. Gen 16:5; 31:53; Exod 5:21; Judg 11:27). • Perhaps the Lord will punish you: David rested in God’s will rather than trying to force God’s hand.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 12. The Lord judge between me and thee] Appeals of this kind to God are the common refuge of the poor and oppressed people. So also among the Hindoos: God will judge between us. Mother Kalee will judge. Sometimes this springs from a consciousness of innocence, and sometimes from a desire of revenge.

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

John Gill's Exposition

The Lord judge between me and thee,.... And make it appear who is in the right, and who in the wrong:

and the Lord avenge me of thee; if he continued thus to persecute him:

but mine hand shall not be upon thee; to kill thee, though it may be in my power again to do it, as it has been; but this I am determined upon, let me suffer what I will, I will not lay hands on thee to do thee any hurt, but leave thee with God to requite all the evil done to me by thee.

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

Father. He had married Saul’s daughter; (Menochius) and the king ought to be the common father of his people. (Haydock)

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

Avenge me of thee, or, will avenge me of thee, to wit, if thou dost persist in thy injurious and cruel designs against me.

Mine hand shall not be upon thee; I will not execute vengeance on thee, but will leave it wholly to God.

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

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Will avenge - If thou persistest in thy injuries and cruel designs against me.

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

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

After he had proved to the king in this conclusive manner that he had no reason whatever for seeking his life, he invoked the Lord as judge between him and his adversary: "Jehovah will avenge me upon thee, but my hand will not be against thee. As the proverb of the ancients (הקּדמוני is used collectively) says, Evil proceedeth from the evil, but my hand shall not be upon thee." The meaning is this: Only a wicked man could wish to avenge himself; I do not.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

my hand shall not be against you

The hand is a metonym for the ability to cause harm. See how you translated a similar phrase in 1 Samuel 24:6. AT: "I will not harm you in any way" (See: Metonymy)

ancients

This nominal adjective can be translated as a noun phrase. AT: "people who lived long ago" (See: Nominal Adjectives)

translationWords

Yahweh

judge

avenge

hand

proverb

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

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

My father, indeed see. Meaning, pay attention to the matter, and also see the evidence, for the corner of your robe is in my hand, and I could have killed you.

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.

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 (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is nâqam (“to avenge”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “to avenge” (nâqam) contribute to the verse as a whole?
How does Genesis 4:15, which shares the word «to avenge», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “LORD” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
The Septuagint runs longer here than the Hebrew. What might account for the difference?
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?
«יִשְׁפֹּ֤ט» is a Qal Jussive verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Tyndale Open Study Notes read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
“LORD” occurs 2× in this single verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.