1 Samuel 6:16

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

When the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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סַרְנֵֽי

çeren

H5633

“lords of”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct

Appears 22× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Joshua 13:3

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from an unused root of uncertain meaning

TWOT: 1546 , 1547

lord, ruler, tyrant - axle

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 →

8: words
8: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is סַרְנֵֽי lord H5633 — appearing just 22 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

סַרְנֵֽי lord H5633 occurs in 20 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
4 nouns
1 adjective
1 pronoun

Verb forms

רָא֑וּ Qal · Perfect
וַיָּשֻׁ֥בוּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 15 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 8 Hebrew tokens and 14 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

Topical passages linked to 1 Samuel 6:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Joshua 13:3 from the Shihor, which is before Egypt, even to the border of Ekron northward, [which] is reckoned to the Canaanites; the five lords of the Philistines; the Gazites, and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avvim,
Judges 3:3 [namely], the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath.
1 Samuel 6:4 Then they said, "What shall be the trespass-offering which we shall return to him?" They said, "Five golden tumors, and five golden mice, [according to] the number of the lords of the Philistines; for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.
Judges 16:5 The lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will each give you of us eleven hundred [pieces] of silver.
Judges 16:23–30 The lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.
1 Samuel 5:10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. It happened, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people.
1 Samuel 6:12 The cattle took the straight way by the way to Beth-shemesh; they went along the highway, lowing as they went, and didn't turn aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth-shemesh.

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 6:16 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַחֲמִשָּׁ֥ה סַרְנֵֽי פְלִשְׁתִּ֖ים רָא֑וּ וַיָּשֻׁ֥בוּ עֶקְר֖וֹן בַּיּ֥וֹם הַהֽוּא

When the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Samuel 6:16 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ὁ πέντε σατράπης ὁ ἀλλόφυλος ὁράω καί ἀναστρέφω εἰς ἀσκαλών ὁ ἡμέρα ἐκεῖνος

And the five lords of the Philistines saw, and returned to Ascalon in that day.

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)

וְחַמְשָׁא טוּרְנֵי פְלִשְׁתָּאֵי חֲזוֹ וְתָבוּ לְעֶקְרוֹן בְּיוֹמָא הַהוּא:

(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 6:16 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

1Sa 6:16 And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen [it], they returned to Ekron the same day.

Ver. 16. They returned to Ekron the same day.] Amazed and convinced, but not effectually converted, Puncti et repuncti, minime tamen ad resipiscentiam compuncti.

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

(16) They returned to Ekron.—The five Philistine princes, when they had watched the strange scene from a distance, returned; their mission was accomplished, and the question solved as to the source of the plagues which had visited their country.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it,.... Observed all that was done, how the kine performed their journey, drew the cart in which the ark was straight to Bethshemesh, stopped in a field near it, where it was received joyfully by the people, and sacrifices offered on account of it:

they returned to Ekron the same day; as they might very well, since it was but twelve miles from Bethshemesh.

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

Day. It was distant about 18 miles. (Calmet) --- Provinces. Hebrew, "lords." Some think that only five images of each sort were inclosed in the box: others suppose that the people of each village presented a golden mouse, to satisfy their own devotion, and that they might not be infested with such vermin. Clarius thinks they also sent an equal number of the other images of the anus, chap. v. (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

To wit, when they had seen that prodigious return of the ark to its own country, and the entertainment it found there.

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

16. Returned to Ekron the same day — Which might easily be done, providing they knew the route — the distance being only seven miles. “It might be said, by those ignorant of the country, that the whole distance being a level plain, there was no great miracle needed to secure the safe transmission of the ark over this comparatively short distance; but let them make a similar experiment, and stake their skepticism upon its success, if they have the courage to do so, or let them even try to reach Ain Shems themselves without a guide, and see how they will succeed.” — W.M. Thomson.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

They returned to Ekron the same day. The lords of the Philistines would of course take no part in this rejoicing, but, having seen the ark restored, and the people busied in making preparations for the sacrifice, returned immediately home.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

the five rulers of the Philistines

"the five Philistine kings"

translationWords

Philistines

Ekron

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

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 8 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is çeren (“lord”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word çeren carries the sense “lord.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Joshua 13:3, which shares the word «lord», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«רָא֑וּ» is a Qal Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 14 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.