they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
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The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
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they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
They were a wall for us both night and day, all of the days of our being with them, tending the sheep.
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
They were a wall around us, both day and night, the whole time we were herding our sheep near them.
They were a wall around us, both day and night, the whole time we were herding our sheep near them.
They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
they were a wall unto us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
they were a wall unto us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
They were as a wall vnto vs both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping sheepe.
They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
a wall they have been unto us both by night and by day, all the days of our being with them, feeding the flock.
they have been a wall to us both by night and by day, all the days of our being with them, feeding the flock.
They were a wall to us both day and night, all the while we were with them tending the sheep.
They were a wall for us both night and day, all of the days of our being with them, tending the sheep.
They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the while we were with them feeding the sheep.
They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
They were like a protective wall to us, both day and night, during the whole time we were with them looking after the sheep.
But day and night they were like a wall round us while we were with them, looking after the sheep.
they were a wall unto us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
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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 →
Shared distinctive vocabulary
יוֹמָ֑ם daytime H3119 occurs in 50 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Repetition
Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 22 words from the Hebrew and 32 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 13 Hebrew tokens and 21 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.
Topical passages linked to 1 Samuel 25:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
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) 32 words vs World English Bible 22. 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.
חוֹמָה֙ הָי֣וּ עָלֵ֔ינוּ גַּם לַ֖יְלָה גַּם יוֹמָ֑ם כָּל יְמֵ֛י הֱיוֹתֵ֥נוּ עִמָּ֖ם רֹעִ֥ים הַצֹּֽאן
they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
World English Bible · Public Domain
ὡς τεῖχος εἰμί περί ἐγώ καί ὁ νύξ καί ὁ ἡμέρα πᾶς ὁ ἡμέρα ὅς εἰμί παρά αὐτός ποιμαίνω ὁ ποίμνιον
And when we were in the field, they were as a wall round about us, both by night and by day, all the days that we were with them feeding the flock.
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 →
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.
שׁוּר מַקַף הֲווֹ עִלָנָא אַף בְּלֵילֵי אַף בִּימָם כָּל יוֹמִין דַהֲוֵינָא עִמְהוֹן רָעָן עָנָא:
(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.
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 yôwmâm (“daytime”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on 1 Samuel 25:16 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
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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne
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
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations
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
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes
Door43 World Missions Community
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.