Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?
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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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Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?
Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
this not David, of whom they sing in the dances, saying, ‘Saul has struck his thousands, and David his myriads’?”
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.
Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?
Is this not the David about whom they sing in their dances: ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?”
Is this not the David about whom they sing in their dances: ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?”
Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands?
Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
Is not this Dauid, of whome they sang in daunces, saying, Saul slewe his thousande, and Dauid his ten thousande?
Is not this David, to whom they sung in their dances, saying: Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
Is not this David, of whom they answer in choruses, saying, Saul hath smitten among his thousands, and David among his myriads?'
Is this not David, of whom they answer in choruses, saying, Saul has struck among his thousands, and David among his myriads?”
Is this not David of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands'?”
this not David, of whom they sing in the dances, saying, ‘Saul has struck his thousands, and David his myriads’?”
Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul smote his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
Isn’t this David, of whom people sang to one another in dances, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”
Is not this David, of whom they sung one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
Isn't this the David they sing about in their dances: ‘Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?”
Is this not David, who was named in their songs, when in the dance they said to one another, Saul has put to death thousands, and David tens of thousands?
Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying: Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?'
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 →
Notable vocabulary
The rarest word here is בַּמְּחֹל֖וֹת dance H4246 — appearing just 8 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
Shared distinctive vocabulary
בַּמְּחֹל֖וֹת dance H4246 occurs in 8 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 23 words from the Hebrew and 20 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 14 Hebrew tokens and 18 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 29:5 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.
הֲלוֹא זֶ֣ה דָוִ֔ד אֲשֶׁ֧ר יַעֲנוּ ל֛וֹ בַּמְּחֹל֖וֹת לֵאמֹ֑ר הִכָּ֤ה שָׁאוּל֙ בַּֽאֲלָפָ֔יו וְדָוִ֖ד ברבבתו בְּרִבְבֹתָֽיו
Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?
World English Bible · Public Domain
οὐ οὗτος δαυίδ ὅς ἐκἄρχω ἐν χορός λέγω πατάσσω σαούλ ἐν χιλιάς αὐτός καί δαυίδ ἐν μυριάς αὐτός
Is not this David whom they celebrated in dances, saying, Saul has struck his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
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.
הֲלָא דֵין דָוִד דְמַשְׁמְעִין לֵיהּ בְּחִנְגַיָא לְמֵימָר קְטַל שָׁאוּל בְּאַלְפִין וְדָוִד בְּרִבְוָן:
(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 14 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is mᵉchôlâh (“dance”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on 1 Samuel 29:5 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.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
Tyndale Open Resources
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
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.
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.