The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, my son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son!
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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 king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, my son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son!
But the king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!
And the king covered his face, and the king cried out a loud voice, “My son Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!”
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 king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, my son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son!
But the king covered his face and cried out at the top of his voice, “O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!”
But the king covered his face and cried out at the top of his voice, “O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!”
But the king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!
And the king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!
And the king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!
So the King hid his face, and the King cryed with a loude voyce, My sonne Absalom, Absalom my sonne, my sonne.
And the king covered his head, and cried with a loud voice: O my son Absalom, O Absalom my son, O my son.
and the king hath covered his face, yea, the king crieth -- a loud voice -- `My son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son.'
and the king has covered his face, indeed, the king cries [with] a loud voice, “My son Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!”
The king covered his face and cried in a loud voice, “My son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son!”
And the king covered his face, and the king cried out a loud voice, “My son Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!”
And the king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, My son Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!
The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, “My son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son!”
But the king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!
The king held his face in his hands and sobbed loudly, “My son Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!”
But the king, covering his face, gave a great cry, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!
(19-5) And the king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice: 'O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!'
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
1 hapax legomenon — a word that appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible:
First appearance in Scripture
This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Repetition
Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 21 words from the Hebrew and 20 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.
Topical passages linked to 2 Samuel 19:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
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.
וְהַמֶּ֨לֶךְ֙ לָאַ֣ט אֶת פָּנָ֔יו וַיִּזְעַ֥ק הַמֶּ֖לֶךְ ק֣וֹל גָּד֑וֹל בְּנִי֙ אַבְשָׁל֔וֹם אַבְשָׁל֖וֹם בְּנִ֥י בְנִֽי
The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, my son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son!
World English Bible · Public Domain
καί διακλέπτω ὁ λαός ἐν ὁ ἡμέρα ἐκεῖνος ὁ εἰςἔρχομαι εἰς ὁ πόλις καθώς διακλέπτω ὁ λαός ὁ αἰσχύνω ἐν ὁ αὐτός φεύγω ἐν ὁ πόλεμος
And the king hid his face: and the king cried with a loud voice, My son Abessalom! Abessalom my son!
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.
וּמִתְגַנְבִין עַמָא בְּיוֹמָא הַהוּא לְמֵיעַל לְקַרְתָּא כְּמָא דְמִתְגַנְבִין עַמָא דְמִתְכַּלְמִין בְּמִפַּכְהוֹן בִּקְרָבָא:
(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 13 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is lâʼaṭ (“to cover”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on 2 Samuel 19:4 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.
Joseph Benson's Commentary
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — 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.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke's Commentary
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
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.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
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.
Whedon's Commentary on the Bible
Daniel D. Whedon
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.