1 Samuel 3:6

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) 1 Samuel 3:6 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
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1 Samuel 3:6 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/1-samuel/3/6.

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English Translation
Yahweh called yet again, Samuel. Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for you called me. He answered, I didn't call, my son; lie down again.
World English Bible · Public Domain
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Compare translations 3

The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.

Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.

Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    Yahweh called yet again, Samuel. Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for you called me. He answered, I didn't call, my son; lie down again.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    And the LORD called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    And Yahweh resumed calling Samuel again. And Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Behold me, for you called to me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son. Go back, lie down.”

unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).

Versions to compare (up to 4)

3 of 4 selected

Show all 18 translations

Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    Yahweh called yet again, Samuel. Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for you called me. He answered, I didn't call, my son; lie down again.
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    Once again the LORD called, “Samuel!” So Samuel got up, went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you have called me.” “My son, I did not call,” Eli replied. “Go back and lie down.”
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    Once again the LORD called, “Samuel!” So Samuel got up, went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you have called me.” “My son, I did not call,” Eli replied. “Go back and lie down.”
  • King James Version Public Domain
    And the LORD called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    And Jehovah called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    And the LORD called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    And the Lord called once againe, Samuel. And Samuel arose, and went to Eli, and said, I am here: for thou diddest call me. And he answered, I called thee not, my sonne: go againe and sleepe.
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    And the Lord called Samuel again. And Samuel arose and went to Heli, and said: Here am I: for thou calledst me. He answered: I did not call thee, my son: return and sleep.
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    And Jehovah addeth to call again Samuel, and Samuel riseth and goeth unto Eli, and saith, `Here `am' I, for thou hast called for me;' and he saith, `I have not called, my son, turn back, lie down.'
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    And YHWH adds to call Samuel again, and Samuel rises and goes to Eli, and says, “Here I [am], for you have called for me”; and he says, “I have not called, my son, turn back, lie down.”
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    Yahweh called again, “Samuel.” Again Samuel rose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Eli answered, “I did not call you, my son; lie down again.”
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    And Yahweh resumed calling Samuel again. And Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Behold me, for you called to me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son. Go back, lie down.”
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    And Jehovah called again, Samuel! And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I did not call, my son: lie down again.
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    The LORD called yet again, “Samuel!” Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; for you called me.” He answered, “I didn’t call, my son. Lie down again.”
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    And the LORD called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    Then the Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up, went to Eli and said, “I'm here—you called me.” “I didn't call you, my son,” Eli replied. “Go back to bed.”
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    And again the Lord said, Samuel. And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, Here am I; for you certainly said my name. But he said in answer, I said nothing, my son; go to your rest again.
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    And the LORD called yet again Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said: 'Here am I; for thou didst call me.' And he answered: 'I called not, my son; lie down again.'

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).

Word by word

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עֵלִ֔י
ʻÊlîy
H5941
“Eli”
Noun, Proper
Part of Speech
Noun
Type
Proper
Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H5927

TWOT: None

Eli = "ascension" - descendant of Aaron through Ithamar and high priest and judge of Israel when Samuel entered service as a child
  1. וַיֹּ֣סֶף yâçaph H3254 “and · to add” Conjunction + Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  2. יְהוָ֗ה Yᵉhôvâh H3068 “LORD” Noun, Proper
  3. קְרֹ֣א qârâʼ H7121 “to call” Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct
  4. עוֹד֮ ʻôwd H5750 “still” Adverb
  5. שְׁמוּאֵל֒ Shᵉmûwʼêl H8050 “Samuel” Noun, Proper
  6. וַיָּ֤קָם qûwm H6965 “and · to rise” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  7. שְׁמוּאֵל֙ Shᵉmûwʼêl H8050 “Samuel” Noun, Proper
  8. וַיֵּ֣לֶךְ yâlak H3212 “and · to walk” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  9. אֶל ʼêl H413 “to” Preposition
  10. וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ʼâmar H559 “and · to say” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  11. הִנְנִ֔י hên H2005 “behold · me” Particle, Demonstrative + Suffix, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular
  12. כִּ֥י kîy H3588 “that” Conjunction
  13. קָרָ֖אתָ qârâʼ H7121 “to call” Verb, Qal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular
  14. וַיֹּ֛אמֶר ʼâmar H559 “and · to say” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  15. לֹֽא lôʼ H3808 “not” Particle, Negative
  16. קָרָ֥אתִי qârâʼ H7121 “to call” Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular
  17. בְנִ֖י bên H1121 “son · my” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular
  18. שׁ֥וּב shûwb H7725 “return” Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular
  19. שְׁכָֽב shâkab H7901 “lie down” Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular

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 →

21
words
16
distinct lemmas
Historical
section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

עֵלִ֔י Eli H5941 occurs in 30 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 10 verbs
  • 5 nouns
  • 2 prepositions
  • 1 conjunction
  • 1 adverb
  • 2 particles

Verb forms

  • וַיֹּ֣סֶף Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect
  • קְרֹ֣א Qal · Infinitive Construct
  • וַיָּ֤קָם Qal · Sequential Imperfect
  • וַיֵּ֣לֶךְ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
  • וַיֹּ֣אמֶר Qal · Sequential Imperfect
  • קָרָ֖אתָ Qal · Perfect
  • וַיֹּ֛אמֶר Qal · Sequential Imperfect
  • קָרָ֥אתִי Qal · Perfect
  • שׁ֥וּב Qal · Imperative
  • שְׁכָֽב Qal · Imperative

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

  • קְרֹ֣א to call H7121 ×3
  • שְׁמוּאֵל֒ Samuel H8050 ×2
  • וַיֹּ֣אמֶר to say H559 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 30 words from the Hebrew and 37 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 21 Hebrew tokens and 27 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.

Cross-references

4

Topical passages linked to 1 Samuel 3:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

  • Genesis 43:29 He lifted up his eyes, and saw Benjamin, his brother, his mother's son, and said, "Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me?" He said, "God be gracious to you, my son."
  • 1 Samuel 4:16 The man said to Eli, I am he who came out of the army, and I fled today out of the army. He said, How went the matter, my son?
  • 2 Samuel 18:22 Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok yet again to Joab, But come what may, Please let me also run after the Cushite. Joab said, Why will you run, my son, seeing that you will have no reward for the news?
  • Matthew 9:2 Behold, they brought to him a man who was paralyzed, lying on a bed. Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, "Son, cheer up! Your sins are forgiven you."

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.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew 1 Samuel 3:6 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיֹּ֣סֶף יְהוָ֗ה קְרֹ֣א עוֹד֮ שְׁמוּאֵל֒ וַיָּ֤קָם שְׁמוּאֵל֙ וַיֵּ֣לֶךְ אֶל עֵלִ֔י וַיֹּ֣אמֶר הִנְנִ֔י כִּ֥י קָרָ֖אתָ לִ֑י וַיֹּ֛אמֶר לֹֽא קָרָ֥אתִי בְנִ֖י שׁ֥וּב שְׁכָֽב

Yahweh called yet again, Samuel. Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for you called me. He answered, I didn't call, my son; lie down again.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Samuel 3:6 Septuagint · lemma form

καί προςτίθημι κύριος καί καλέω σαμουηλ σαμουηλ καί πορεύομαι πρός ηλι ὁ δεύτερος καί εἶπον ἰδού ἐγώ ὅτι καλέω ἐγώ καί εἶπον οὐ καλέω σύ ἀναστρέφω καταεὕδω

And the Lord called again, Samuel, Samuel: and he went to Heli the second time, and said, Behold here am I, for you did call me: and he said, I called you not; return, go to sleep.

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)

1

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.

  1. Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)
    וְאוֹסִיף יְיָ לְמִקְרֵי עוֹד שְׁמוּאֵל וְקָם שְׁמוּאֵל וַאֲזַל לְוַת עֵלִי וַאֲמַר הָא אֲנָא אֲרֵי קְרֵיתָא לִי וַאֲמַר לָא קְרֵיתִי בְרִי תּוּב שְׁכִיב:

    (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 3:6 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 3:6 And the LORD called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here [am] I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.

Ver. 6. And the Lord called yet again, Samuel.] How oft do we either turn the deaf ear to God’s call, or else mistake, and run another way, till he please to speak home to our hearts, and "cause us to hear him," as the Church speaks! {Son 8:13}

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

6. thou didst call me] Simply, thou calledst, as in 1Sa_3:5, and again in 1Sa_3:8. There is no additional emphasis in the original.

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 the Lord called yet again, Samuel,.... Called him a second time by his name, with a like audible voice as before:

and Samuel arose, and went to Eli; did not run as before, being perhaps more thoughtful of this affair, that he should be called a second time, and careful not to awake Eli, should he be mistaken again, and find him asleep:

and said, here am I, for thou didst call me; perceiving that he was awake, he desired to know what he wanted, and he was ready to help him; for he was now certain of it that he did call him:

and he answered, I called not, my son, lie down again; by this appellation, my son, he expresses his affection to him, and signifies he took it kindly that he should show such readiness to do anything for him and would not have him be discouraged and abashed, because he was mistaken, but return to his bed and rest again.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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 21 words (16 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʻÊlîy (“Eli”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. How does “Eli” (ʻÊlîy) shape what this verse is saying?
  2. How does 1 Samuel 1:3, which shares the word «Eli», read alongside this verse?
  3. What does the repetition of “to call” (3× in this one verse) do in this verse?
  4. 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?
  5. «וַיֹּ֣סֶף» is a Hiphil Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
  6. Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

Reading settings

Reading text

Shown beneath each verse's original-language words.

Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

Comparing translations? Open the Compare panel on any verse page to stack up to four side by side.