וַיִּ֥פֶן אַחֲרָ֖יו וַיִּרְאֵ֑נִי וַיִּקְרָ֣א אֵלָ֔י וָאֹמַ֖ר הִנֵּֽנִי
When he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. I answered, Here am I.
World English Bible · Public Domain
2 Samuel 1:7
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) 2 Samuel 1:7 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.
English Translation
When he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. I answered, Here am I.
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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.
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World English Bible Public Domain
When he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. I answered, Here am I.
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King James Version Public Domain
And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called unto me. And I answered, Here am I.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And he turned behind him, and he saw me. And he called to me, and I said, ‘Behold me.’
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Show all 18 translations
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
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World English Bible Public Domain
When he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. I answered, Here am I.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
When he turned around and saw me, he called out and I answered, ‘Here I am!’
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me, and I answered, ‘Here I am!’
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King James Version Public Domain
And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called unto me. And I answered, Here am I.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called unto me. And I answered, Here am I.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called unto me. And I answered, Here am I.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
And when he looked backe, he saw me, and called me. And I answered, Here am I.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
And looking behind him, and seeing me, he called me. And I answered, Here am I.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
and he turneth behind him, and seeth me, and calleth unto me, and I say, Here `am' I.
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
and he turns behind him, and sees me, and calls to me, and I say, Here I [am].
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
Saul turned around and saw me and called out to me. I answered, 'Here I am.'
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And he turned behind him, and he saw me. And he called to me, and I said, ‘Behold me.’
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Darby Bible Public Domain
And he looked behind him, and saw me, and called to me. And I said, Here am I.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
When he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. I answered, ‘Here I am.’
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. And I answered, Here am I.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
He turned around and saw me. He called out and I replied, ‘I'm here to help!’
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
And looking back, he saw me and gave a cry to me. And answering him I said, Here am I.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called unto me. And I answered: Here am I.
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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וַיִּ֥פֶן
pânâh
H6437
“and · to turn”
Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- Appears 135× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Genesis 18:22
- Part of Speech
- Conjunction + Verb
- Stem
- Qal
- Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- Person
- 3rd Person
- Gender
- Masculine
- Number
- Singular
Full BDB Definition
to turn
- (Qal)
- to turn toward or from or away
- to turn and do
- to turn, decline (of day)
- to turn toward, approach (of evening)
- to turn and look, look, look back or at or after or for
- (Piel) to turn away, put out of the way, make clear, clear away
- (Hiphil)
- to turn
- to make a turn, show signs of turning, turn back
- (Hophal) to be turned back
- וַיִּ֥פֶן pânâh H6437 “and · to turn” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- אַחֲרָ֖יו ʼachar H310 “after · him” Preposition + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- וַיִּרְאֵ֑נִי râʼâh H7200 “and · to see · me” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular + Suffix, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular
- וַיִּקְרָ֣א qârâʼ H7121 “and · to call” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- אֵלָ֔י ʼêl H413 “to · me” Preposition + Suffix, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular
- וָאֹמַ֖ר ʼâmar H559 “and · to say” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular
- הִנֵּֽנִי hên H2005 “behold · me” Particle, Demonstrative + Suffix, Personal, 1st Person, Common, 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 →
- 7
- words
- 7
- distinct lemmas
- Historical
- section
Grammatical profile
- 4 verbs
- 2 prepositions
- 1 particle
Verb forms
- וַיִּ֥פֶן Qal · Sequential Imperfect
- וַיִּרְאֵ֑נִי Qal · Sequential Imperfect
- וַיִּקְרָ֣א Qal · Sequential Imperfect
- וָאֹמַ֖ר Qal · 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.
Cross-references
5Topical passages linked to 2 Samuel 1:7 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Judges 9:54 Then he called hastily to the young man his armor bearer, and said to him, Draw your sword, and kill me, that men not say of me, A woman killed him. His young man thrust him through, and he died.
- 1 Samuel 22:12 Saul said, Hear now, you son of Ahitub. He answered, Here I am, my lord.
- 2 Samuel 9:6 Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, and fell on his face, and did obeisance. David said, Mephibosheth. He answered, Behold, your servant!
- Isaiah 6:8 I heard the Lord's voice, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am. Send me!"
- Isaiah 65:1 I am inquired of by those who didn't ask; I am found by those who didn't seek me: I said, See me, see me, to a nation that was not called by my name.
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.
καί ἐπιβλέπω ἐπί ὁ ὀπίσω αὐτός καί ὁράω ἐγώ καί καλέω ἐγώ καί εἶπον ἰδού ἐγώ
And he looked behind him, and saw me, and called me; and I said, Behold, here am I.
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.
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Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)
וְאִתְפְּנֵי לַאֲחוֹרוֹהִי וַחֲזָנִי וּקְרָא לִי וַאֲמַרִית הָא אֲנָא:
(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.
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.
2 Samuel, in the Historical, opens this verse with 7 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is pânâh (“to turn”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- What does “to turn” (pânâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
- How does Judges 9:54, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
- 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?
- «וַיִּ֥פֶן» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
- Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?
Things to notice
- These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
- 7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on 2 Samuel 1:7 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.
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.