2 Samuel 15:35

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) 2 Samuel 15:35 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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2 Samuel 15:35 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/2-samuel/15/35.

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English Translation
Don't you have Zadok and Abiathar the priests there with you? therefore it shall be, that whatever thing you shall hear out of the king's house, you shall tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
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
    Don't you have Zadok and Abiathar the priests there with you? therefore it shall be, that whatever thing you shall hear out of the king's house, you shall tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    And hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? therefore it shall be, that what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king's house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    not Zadok and Abiathar the priests with you there? And may it be, every word that you hear from the house of the king, declare to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests.

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
    Don't you have Zadok and Abiathar the priests there with you? therefore it shall be, that whatever thing you shall hear out of the king's house, you shall tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    Will not Zadok and Abiathar the priests be there with you? Report to them everything you hear from the king’s palace.
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    Will not Zadok and Abiathar the priests be there with you? Report to them everything you hear from the king’s palace.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    And hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? therefore it shall be, that what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king's house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    And hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? therefore it shall be, that what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king's house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    And hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? therefore it shall be, that what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king’s house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    And hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the Priests? therefore what so euer thou shalt heare out of the Kings house, thou shalt shew to Zadok and Abiathar the Priests.
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    And thou hast with thee Sadoc, and Abiathar the priests: and what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king's house, thou shalt tell it to Sadoc and Abiathar the priests.
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    and are there not with thee there Zadok and Abiathar the priests? and it hath been, the whole of the matter that thou hearest from the house of the king thou dost declare to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests.
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    and are Zadok and Abiathar the priests not with you there? And it has been, the whole of the matter that you hear from the house of the king you declare to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests.
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    Will you not have the priests Zadok and Abiathar with you? So whatever you hear in the king's palace, you must tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    not Zadok and Abiathar the priests with you there? And may it be, every word that you hear from the house of the king, declare to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests.
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    And hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? and it shall be, [that] whatsoever thing thou shalt hear out of the king's house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    Don’t you have Zadok and Abiathar the priests there with you? Therefore whatever you hear out of the king’s house, tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    And hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? therefore it shall be, that whatever thing thou shalt hear out of the king's house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, will be there too. Tell them everything you hear in the king's palace.
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    And have you not there Zadok and Abiathar the priests? so whatever comes to your ears from the king's house, give word of it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    And hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? therefore it shall be, that what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king's house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.

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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וְאֶבְיָתָ֖ר
ʼEbyâthâr
H54
“and · Abiathar”
Conjunction + Noun, Proper
Part of Speech
Conjunction + Noun
Type
Proper
Full BDB Definition

Origin: contracted from H1 and H3498

TWOT: None

Abiathar = "my father is great" - priest, son of Ahitub (Ahimelech), faithful to David, but later rebelled with Adonijah
  1. וַהֲל֤וֹא lôʼ H3808 “and · not” Conjunction + Particle, Interrogative + Particle, Negative
  2. עִמְּךָ֙ ʻim H5973 “with · you” Preposition + Suffix, Personal, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular
  3. שָׁ֔ם shâm H8033 “there” Adverb
  4. צָד֥וֹק Tsâdôwq H6659 “Zadok” Noun, Proper
  5. הַכֹּהֲנִ֑ים kôhên H3548 “the · priests” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute
  6. וְהָיָ֗ה hâyâh H1961 “and · to be” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  7. כָּל kôl H3605 “all of” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct
  8. הַדָּבָר֙ dâbâr H1697 “the · word” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
  9. אֲשֶׁ֤ר ʼăsher H834 “which” Particle, Relative
  10. תִּשְׁמַע֙ shâmaʻ H8085 “to hear” Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular
  11. מִבֵּ֣ית bayith H1004 “from · house of” Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct
  12. הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ melek H4428 “the · king” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
  13. תַּגִּ֕יד nâgad H5046 “to make known” Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular
  14. לְצָד֥וֹק Tsâdôwq H6659 “to/for · Zadok” Preposition + Noun, Proper
  15. וּלְאֶבְיָתָ֖ר ʼEbyâthâr H54 “and · to/for · Abiathar” Conjunction + Preposition + Noun, Proper
  16. הַכֹּהֲנִֽים kôhên H3548 “the · priests” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute

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 →

17
words
14
distinct lemmas
Historical
section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וְאֶבְיָתָ֖ר Abiathar H54 occurs in 28 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 3 verbs
  • 10 nouns
  • 1 preposition
  • 1 adverb
  • 2 particles

Verb forms

  • וְהָיָ֗ה Qal · Perfect
  • תִּשְׁמַע֙ Qal · Imperfect
  • תַּגִּ֕יד Hiphil · Imperfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

  • צָד֥וֹק Zadok H6659 ×2
  • וְאֶבְיָתָ֖ר Abiathar H54 ×2
  • הַכֹּהֲנִ֑ים priest H3548 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 36 words from the Hebrew and 39 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 17 Hebrew tokens and 30 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

1

Topical passages linked to 2 Samuel 15:35 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

  • 2 Samuel 17:15–16 Then said Hushai to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counseled.

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 2 Samuel 15:35 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַהֲל֤וֹא עִמְּךָ֙ שָׁ֔ם צָד֥וֹק וְאֶבְיָתָ֖ר הַכֹּהֲנִ֑ים וְהָיָ֗ה כָּל הַדָּבָר֙ אֲשֶׁ֤ר תִּשְׁמַע֙ מִבֵּ֣ית הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ תַּגִּ֕יד לְצָד֥וֹק וּלְאֶבְיָתָ֖ר הַכֹּהֲנִֽים

Don't you have Zadok and Abiathar the priests there with you? therefore it shall be, that whatever thing you shall hear out of the king's house, you shall tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Samuel 15:35 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἰδού μετά σύ ἐκεῖ σαδωκ καί αβιαθαρ ὁ ἱερεύς καί εἰμί πᾶς ῥῆμα ὅς ἐάν ἀκούω ἐκ οἶκος ὁ βασιλεύς καί ἀναἀγγέλλω ὁ σαδωκ καί ὁ αβιαθαρ ὁ ἱερεύς

And, behold, there are there with you Sadoc and Abiathar the priests; and it shall be that every word that you shall hear of the house of the king, you shall report it to Sadoc and Abiathar the priests.

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)
    וַהֲלָא עִמָךְ תַּמָן צָדוֹק וְאֶבְיָתָר כַּהֲנַיָא וִיהֵי כָּל פִּתְגָמָא דְתִשְׁמַע מִבֵּית מַלְכָּא תְּחַוֵי לְצָדוֹק וּלְאֶבְיָתָר כַּהֲנַיָא:

    (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 2 Samuel 15:35 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

2Sa 15:35 And [hast thou] not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? therefore it shall be, [that] what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king’s house, thou shalt tell [it] to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.

Ver. 35. Zadok and Abiathar the priests?] Qui facilem et fidelem operam tibi praestabunt.

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

And hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests?.... To assist in forming schemes directly opposite to Ahithophel's, or to whom he could communicate the secrets of Absalom's court:

therefore it shall be that what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king's house; Absalom's, who had now, at possession of the house and palace of David:

thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests; to whom he might have recourse without suspicion, pretending he had business with them as priests, on religious accounts, to offer sacrifices for him, &c.

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

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

David then commissioned him to communicate to the priests Zadok and Abiathar all that he should hear of the king's house, and send word to him through their sons.

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

Will you not have the priests Zadok and Abiathar with you?

David asks this rhetorical question to tell Hushai that he will not be alone. This can be written as a statement. AT: "Zadok and Abiathar the priests will be there to help you." (See: Rhetorical Question)

whatever you hear

This is a generalization. It means all of the important and insightful things that he hears, not every single word he hears. (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)

Ahimaaz ... Jonathan

These are the names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)

by their hand

The phrase "their hand" refers to the sons and means that they were to serve as messengers. AT: "their sons to tell me" (See: Synecdoche)

translationWords

Zadok

priest

palace

hand

Absalom

Jerusalem

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.

2 Samuel, in the Historical, opens this verse with 17 words (14 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼEbyâthâr (“Abiathar”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. What does “Abiathar” (ʼEbyâthâr) contribute to the verse as a whole?
  2. How does 1 Samuel 22:20, which shares the word «Abiathar», read alongside this verse?
  3. What does the repetition of “Zadok” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
  4. These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
  5. «וְהָיָ֗ה» is a Qal Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
  6. Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

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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).

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