He said, Why does my lord pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in my hand?
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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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He said, Why does my lord pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in my hand?
And he said, Wherefore doth my lord thus pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in mine hand?
And he said, “Why this, my master pursuing after his servant? For what have I done, and what evil in my hand?
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.
He said, Why does my lord pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in my hand?
And he continued, “Why is my lord pursuing his servant? What have I done? What evil is in my hand?
And he continued, “Why is my lord pursuing his servant? What have I done? What evil is in my hand?
And he said, Wherefore doth my lord thus pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in mine hand?
And he said, Wherefore doth my lord pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in my hand?
And he said, Wherefore doth my lord pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in mine hand?
And he sayde, Wherefore doeth my lorde thus persecute his seruant? for what haue I done? or what euill is in mine hand?
And he said: Wherefore doth my lord persecute his servant? What have I done? or what evil is there in my hand?
and he saith, `Why `is' this -- my lord is pursuing after his servant? for what have I done, and what `is' in my hand evil?
And he says, “Why [is] this—my lord is pursuing after his servant? For what have I done, and what evil [is] in my hand?
He said, “Why does my master pursue his servant? What have I done? What evil is in my hand?
And he said, “Why this, my master pursuing after his servant? For what have I done, and what evil in my hand?
And he said, Why does my lord thus pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in my hand?
He said, “Why does my lord pursue his servant? For what have I done? What evil is in my hand?
And he said, Why doth my lord thus pursue his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in my hand?
“Why is my lord hunting me, his servant? What is it that I've done? What crime am I guilty of?” he continued.
And he said, Why does my lord go armed against his servant? what have I done? or what evil is there in me?
And he said: 'Wherefore doth my lord pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in my hand?
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 →
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Repetition
A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 22 words from the Hebrew and 26 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 22 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 26:18 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.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
וַיֹּ֕אמֶר לָ֥מָּה זֶּ֛ה אֲדֹנִ֥י רֹדֵ֖ף אַחֲרֵ֣י עַבְדּ֑וֹ כִּ֚י מֶ֣ה עָשִׂ֔יתִי וּמַה בְּיָדִ֖י רָעָֽה
He said, Why does my lord pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in my hand?
World English Bible · Public Domain
καί εἶπον ἵνα τίς οὗτος καταδιώκω ὁ κύριος ἐγώ ὀπίσω ὁ δοῦλος αὐτός ὅτι τίς ἁμαρτάνω καί τίς εὑρίσκω ἐν ἐγώ ἀδίκημα
And he said, Why does my lord thus pursue after his servant? for in what have I sinned? and what unrighteousness has been found in me?
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.
וַאֲמַר לְמָא דְנַן רִבּוֹנִי רָדִיף בָּתַר עַבְדֵיהּ אֲרֵי מֶה עֲבָדִית וּמַה בְּיָדִי חוֹבָא:
(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 râdaph (“to pursue”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on 1 Samuel 26:18 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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
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
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.