1 Samuel 8:21

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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שְׁמוּאֵ֔ל

Shᵉmûwʼêl

H8050

“Samuel”

Noun, Proper

Appears 140× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Numbers 34:20

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from the pass part of H8085 and H410

TWOT: None

Samuel = "his name is El" - son of Elkanah by his wife Hannah and judge or prophet of Israel during the days of Saul and David - son Ammihud and the prince of the tribe of Simeon who was chosen to divide the land of Canaan between the tribes. Spelled 'Shemuel' - son of Tola and grandson of Issachar. Spelled 'Shemuel'

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 →

9: words
9: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
6 nouns
1 particle

Verb forms

וַיִּשְׁמַ֣ע Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַֽיְדַבְּרֵ֖ם Piel · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 18 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 9 Hebrew tokens and 15 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 8:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Judges 11:11 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them: and Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah.

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 8:21 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיִּשְׁמַ֣ע שְׁמוּאֵ֔ל אֵ֖ת כָּל דִּבְרֵ֣י הָעָ֑ם וַֽיְדַבְּרֵ֖ם בְּאָזְנֵ֥י יְהוָֽה

Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Samuel 8:21 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἀκούω σαμουηλ πᾶς ὁ λόγος ὁ λαός καί λαλέω αὐτός εἰς ὁ οὖς κύριος

And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and spoke them in the ears of the Lord.

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)

וּשְׁמַע שְׁמוּאֵל יַת כָּל פִּתְגָמֵי עַמָא וְסַדְרִנוּן קֳדָם יְיָ:

(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 8:21 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 →

Commentary source

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

1Sa 8:21 And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD.

Ver. 21. In the ears of the Lord.] Whereof he had the royalty, as a favourite.

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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

1Sa 8:21. He rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord — He repeated them privately between God and himself, for his own vindication and comfort, and as a foundation for his prayers to God for direction and assistance.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

8:21 repeated to the Lord: The role of a prophet included bringing the people’s case before God (cp. Num 27:5).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 21. Rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord.] He went to the altar, and in his secret devotion laid the whole business before God.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) In the ears of the Lord.—Again the seer returns from the council chamber, where he had met the elders of the people, to some quiet spot, probably the sanctuary he had set up in his own “Ramah of the Watchers,” where he poured out his heart before his God-Friend.

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

21. he rehearsed them] i.e. repeated them. ‘Rehearse’ is derived from Fr. reherser, to harrow over again. Samuel once more laid the matter before Jehovah in prayer, and again received the same answer.

This narrative is in close connexion with ch. 1Sa_10:17-27. The intervening section, possibly derived from a different source, gives an account of Samuel’s preliminary interview with Saul, preparatory to his formal election as king.

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 Samuel heard all the words of the people,.... Patiently, and without interruption; attentively heard them, took notice of them, laid them up in his memory; but gave no answer to them, but reported them to the Lord, as in the next clause:

and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord; privately, in a free and familiar manner, with great exactness, as they were expressed; this he did, not before the people publicly, but in secret prayer, seeking for direction what he should further do, or what answer he should return to them.

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

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

He repeated them privately between God and himself; partly for his own vindication and comfort; and partly as a foundation for his prayers to God, for direction and assistance in this difficult case.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

All the words. The elders had of course reported to Samuel all the arguments used in the assembly, and just as previously he had carried his own distress at the national discontent with his government to Jehovah"s footstool in prayer (ver. 6), so now, in his mediatorial office as prophet, he carries thither the nation"s petition.

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

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Rehearsed - He repeated them privately between God and himself; for his own vindication and comfort: and as a foundation for his prayers to God, for direction and assistance.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

These words of the people were laid by Samuel before the Lord, and the Lord commanded him to give the people a king. With this answer Samuel sent the men of Israel, i.e., the elders, away. This is implied in the words, "Go ye every man unto his city," since we may easily supply from the context, "till I shall call you again, to appoint you the king you desire."

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

he repeated them in the ears of Yahweh

Here "the ears of Yahweh" refers to Yahweh. Samuel prayed to Yahweh repeating all that the people said. AT: "he repeated them to Yahweh" (See: Synecdoche)

Obey their voice

Here the metonym "their voice" refers to the will of the people. AT: "Obey the people" (See: Metonymy)

cause someone to be king for them

"make someone king over them." Use the common term in your language for making someone king.

go to his own city

"go home"

translationWords

word

people group

Yahweh

obey

voice

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 9 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Shᵉmûwʼêl (“Samuel”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word Shᵉmûwʼêl carries the sense “Samuel.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Judges 11:11, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«וַיִּשְׁמַ֣ע» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 15 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 4 words in this verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.