These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
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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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Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.
These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
These four were born to Rapha in Gath. And they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
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.
These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
So these four descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.
So these four descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.
These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
These foure were borne to Haraphah in Gath, and died by the hande of Dauid and by the hands of his seruants.
These four were born of Arapha in Geth, and they fell by the hand of David, and of his servants.
these four have been born to the giant in Gath, and they fall by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
these four have been born to the giant in Gath, and they fall by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
These were descendants of the Rephaim of Gath, and they were killed by the hand of David and by the hand of his soldiers.
These four were born to Rapha in Gath. And they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
These four were born to Raphah, in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
These four were the descendants of the giants in Gath, but they were all killed by David and his men.
These four were of the offspring of the Rephaim in Gath; and they came to their end by the hands of David and his servants.
These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
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 לְהָרָפָ֖ה giants H7497 — appearing just 25 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
Shared distinctive vocabulary
לְהָרָפָ֖ה giants H7497 occurs in 24 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Repetition
A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 24 words from the Hebrew and 29 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 21:22 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.
אֶת אַרְבַּ֥עַת אֵ֛לֶּה יֻלְּד֥וּ לְהָרָפָ֖ה בְּגַ֑ת וַיִּפְּל֥וּ בְיַד דָּוִ֖ד וּבְיַ֥ד עֲבָדָֽיו
These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
World English Bible · Public Domain
ὁ τέσσαρες οὗτος τίκτω ἀπόγονος ὁ γίγας ἐν γεθ ὁ ραφα οἶκος καί πίπτω ἐν χείρ δαυίδ καί ἐν χείρ ὁ δοῦλος αὐτός
These four were born descendants of the giants in Geth, the family of Rapha; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
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.
יַת אַרְבַּעַת אִילֵין אִתְיְלִידוּ לְגִבָּרָא בְּגַת וְאִתְמַסְרוּ בִידָא דְדָוִד וּבִידָא דְעַבְדוֹהִי:
(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 11 words (10 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is râphâʼ (“giants”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on 2 Samuel 21:22 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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword 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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
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.
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.
John Wesley's Explanatory Notes
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.