The messenger said to David, The men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field, and we were on them even to the entrance of the gate.
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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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The messenger said to David, The men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field, and we were on them even to the entrance of the gate.
And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate.
And the messenger said to David that “the men became strong against us and they came out against us the field, but we were against them to the entrance of the gate.
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.
The messenger said to David, The men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field, and we were on them even to the entrance of the gate.
The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.
The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.
And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate.
And the messenger said unto David, The men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entrance of the gate.
And the messenger said unto David, The men prevailed against us and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate.
And the messenger said vnto Dauid, Certainely the men preuailed against vs, and came out vnto vs into the field, but we pursued them vnto the entring of the gate.
And the messenger said to David: The men prevailed against us, and they came out to us into the field: and we vigorously charged and pursued them even to the gate of the city.
and the messenger saith unto David, `Surely the men have been mighty against us, and come out unto us into the field, and we are upon them unto the opening of the gate,
and the messenger says to David, “Surely the men have been mighty against us, and come out to us into the field, and we are on them to the opening of the gate,
Then the messenger said to David, “The enemy were stronger than we were at first; they came out to us into the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.
And the messenger said to David that “the men became strong against us and they came out against us the field, but we were against them to the entrance of the gate.
And the messenger said to David, The men prevailed against us, and came out against us into the field, and we were upon them as far as the entrance of the gate.
The messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field; and we were on them even to the entrance of the gate.
And the messenger said to David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field, and we were upon them even to the entrance of the gate.
The messenger explained to David, “The defenders were stronger than us, and they came out at us in the open, but we forced them back to the entrance of the town gate.
And the man said to David, Truly the men got the better of us, and came out against us into the open country, but we sent them back to the very doors of the town.
And the messenger said unto David: 'The men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entrance of the gate.
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 גָבְר֤וּ to be strong H1396 — appearing just 25 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
Shared distinctive vocabulary
גָבְר֤וּ to be strong H1396 occurs in 24 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 30 words from the Hebrew and 32 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 16 Hebrew tokens and 28 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.
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.
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר הַמַּלְאָךְ֙ אֶל דָּוִ֔ד כִּֽי גָבְר֤וּ עָלֵ֨ינוּ֙ הָֽאֲנָשִׁ֔ים וַיֵּצְא֥וּ אֵלֵ֖ינוּ הַשָּׂדֶ֑ה וַנִּהְיֶ֥ה עֲלֵיהֶ֖ם עַד פֶּ֥תַח הַשָּֽׁעַר
The messenger said to David, The men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field, and we were on them even to the entrance of the gate.
World English Bible · Public Domain
καί εἶπον ὁ ἄγγελος πρός δαυίδ ὅτι κραταιόω ἐπί ἐγώ ὁ ἀνήρ καί ἐκἔρχομαι ἐπί ἐγώ εἰς ὁ ἀγρός καί γίγνομαι ἐπί αὐτός ἕως ὁ θύρα ὁ πύλη
And the messenger said to David, The men prevailed against us, and they came out against us into the field, and we came upon them even to the door of the gate.
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.
וַאֲמַר אִזְגַדָא לְדָוִד אֲרֵי תַקִיפוּ עֲלָנָא גַבְרַיָא וּנְפַקוּ לְוָתָנָא לְחַקְלָא וַהֲוֵינָא טַרְדִין לְהוֹן עַד מַעֲלָנָא דְתַרְעָא:
(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.
2 Samuel, in the Historical, opens this verse with 16 words (14 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is gâbar (“to be strong”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on 2 Samuel 11:23 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.
Geneva Bible (1599)
Geneva Bible translators
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.
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.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.