2 Samuel 17:26

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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וְאַבְשָׁלֹ֔ם

ʼĂbîyshâlôwm

H53

“and · Absalom”

Conjunction + Noun, Proper

Appears 111× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at 2 Samuel 3:3

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H1 and H7965

TWOT: None

Absalom or Abishalom = "my father is peace" - father-in-law of Rehoboam - third son of David, killer of first-born son Amnon, also leader of revolt against his father - David

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 →

5: words
5: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Grammatical profile

1 verb
4 nouns

Verb forms

וַיִּ֤חַן Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 9 words from the Hebrew and 11 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

Topical passages linked to 2 Samuel 17:26 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Numbers 32:1–42 Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that behold, the place was a place for cattle;
Deuteronomy 3:15 I gave Gilead to Machir.
Joshua 17:1 [This] was the lot for the tribe of Manasseh; for he was the firstborn of Joseph. As for Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because he was a man of war, therefore he had Gilead and Bashan.

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 17:26 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיִּ֤חַן יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ וְאַבְשָׁלֹ֔ם אֶ֖רֶץ הַגִּלְעָֽד

Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Samuel 17:26 Septuagint · lemma form

καί παρα ἐνβάλλω πᾶς ἰσραήλ καί αβεσσαλωμ εἰς ὁ γῆ γαλαάδ

And all Israel and Abessalom encamped in the land of Galaad.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, John Gill's Exposition discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

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)

וּשְׁרָא יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאַבְשָׁלוֹם בַּאֲרַע גִלְעָד:

(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 17:26 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 17:26 So Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead.

Ver. 26. Pitched in the land of Gilead.] Near Mahanaim, that they might keep in and contrain David, or draw him out to fight them.

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

(26) Pitched in the land of Gilead.—Gilead is the tract of country on the east of the Jordan, extending from the land of Moab on the south to Bashan on the north, the valley of the Hieromax forming probably its northern boundary. The site of Mahanaim has not been identified, but it was almost certainly within the territory of Gilead. Absalom, however, did not actually reach Mahanaim before he met and was defeated by the forces of David.

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

Brought beds,.... For David and his men, who, fleeing from Jerusalem in haste, could bring none with them, and therefore were ill provided while in the plains of the wilderness; the Septuagint version says there were ten of them, and that they were of tapestry, wrought on both sides, and such the ancients used (z), see Pro 7:16; and so ten basins in the next clause:

and basins, and earthen vessels; to put their food and liquors in, and eat and drink out of, and for other services:

and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn; or "kali", which was made of the above corn ground into meal, and mixed with water or milk, and eaten with honey or oil, as there was another sort made of pulse, later mentioned:

and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse; or "kali", made of these in the above manner. Some think (a) coffee is meant, but without reason.

(z) Vid. Aristophan. in Pluto, p. 55. (a) Sterringa, Animadv. Philol. Sacr. p. 48.

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

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 5 words (5 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼĂbîyshâlôwm (“Absalom”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word ʼĂbîyshâlôwm carries the sense “Absalom.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Numbers 32:1–42, which shares this passage’s theme, 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?
«וַיִּ֤חַן» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect 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

These translations choose different wording for 3 words in this verse.
5 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 5 words in this verse.