2 Samuel 23:29

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 hapax legomenon — only here in the Hebrew Bible
2 first appearances in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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חֵ֥לֶב

Chêleb

H2460

“Heleb”

Noun, Proper

Appears 1× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: the same as H2459

TWOT: None

Heleb = "milk"

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 →

10: words
8: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

1 hapax legomenon — a word that appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible:

חֵ֥לֶב Heleb H2460

First appearance in Scripture

These words make their first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

חֵ֥לֶב Heleb H2460
רִיבַ֔י Ribai H7380

Shared distinctive vocabulary

רִיבַ֔י Ribai H7380 occurs in 2 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

1 Chronicles 11:31

Grammatical profile

10 nouns

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

בֶּֽן son H1121 ×3

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 19 words from the Hebrew and 18 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 10 Hebrew tokens and 12 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

Topical passages linked to 2 Samuel 23:29 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Joshua 18:28 and Zelah, Eleph, and the Jebusite (the same is Jerusalem), Gibeath, [and] Kiriath; fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families.
1 Chronicles 11:30–31 Maharai the Netophathite, Heled the son of Baanah the Netophathite,
1 Chronicles 27:15 The twelfth [captain] for the twelfth month was Heldai the Netophathite, of Othniel: and in his division were twenty-four thousand.

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 23:29 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

חֵ֥לֶב בֶּֽן בַּעֲנָ֖ה הַנְּטֹפָתִ֑י אִתַּי֙ בֶּן רִיבַ֔י מִגִּבְעַ֖ת בְּנֵ֥י בִנְיָמִֽן

Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Samuel 23:29 Septuagint · lemma form

ελα υἱός βαανα ὁ νετωφαθίτης εθθι υἱός ριβα ἐκ γαβαεθ υἱός βενιαμίν

Esthai the son of Riba of Gabaeth, son of Benjamin the Ephrathite; Asmoth the Bardiamite; Emasu the Salabonite:

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)

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)

חֵלֶב בַּר בַּעֲנָה דְמִנְטֹפֶת אִתַי בַּר רִיבַי מִגִבְעֲתָא דִבְנֵי בִנְיָמִין:

(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 23:29 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 →

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(29) Heleb.—The name is variously written Heled (1Ch_11:30) and Heldai (1Ch_27:15). He was the general for the twelfth month.

Ittai, or Ithai (1Ch_11:31), is to be distinguished from Ittai the Gittite, since this man was from Gibeah of Benjamin.

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

29. Heleb] Or Heled (1Ch_11:30), or Heldai (1Ch_27:15), of the house of Othniel, commander of the twelfth division.

Ittai] Ithai in Chron. is merely a different way of pronouncing the same name. He must of course be distinguished from Ittai the Gittite.

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

Heleb the son of Baanah, a Netophathite,.... Called Heled, Ch1 11:30,

Ittai the son of Ribai out of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin: sometimes called Gibeah of Benjamin, Jdg 20:10, and Gibeah of Saul, Sa1 11:4, being a city in the tribe of Benjamin, and the birth place of Saul king of Israel; and this man is distinguished hereby from Ittai the Gittite, Sa2 15:19.

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

Heled. Hebrew ends improperly in b.

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).

The Pulpit Commentary

Heleb. He is called Heled and Heldai in the parallel places in Chronicles, where we are told that he was a descendant of Othniel, and commander of the twelfth brigade. Ittai. He is called Ithai, by a very slight change, in Chronicles. Gibeah is the Geba so closely connected with the history of Saul. (see 1Sa_13:3, 1Sa_13:15, etc.) (For Ittai the Philistine, a distinct person, (see 2Sa_15:19)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

General Information:

This continues the list of David's greatest soldiers. (See: How to Translate Names)

translationWords

son

Benjamin

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 10 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Chêleb (“Heleb”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Heleb” (Chêleb) shape what this verse is saying?
1 word here appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Why might the author reach for such rare wording?
2 words make their first appearance in Scripture here. What does this debut establish?
How does 1 Chronicles 11:31, which shares the word «Ribai», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “son” (3× in this one verse) do in this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
Compare how Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.
2 words make their first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 10 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 4 words in this verse.
“son” occurs 3× in this single verse.