2 Samuel 23:38

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

2 first appearances in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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גָּרֵ֖ב

Gârêb

H1619

“Gareb”

Noun, Proper

Appears 3× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from the same as H1618

TWOT: None

Gareb = "scabby" - one of the heroes of David's army (noun proper masculine) - a hill near Jerusalem, apparently southwest (noun proper locative)

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 →

4: words
3: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is גָּרֵ֖ב Gareb H1619 — appearing just 3 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

First appearance in Scripture

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

הַיִּתְרִ֔י Ithrite H3505
גָּרֵ֖ב Gareb H1619

Shared distinctive vocabulary

גָּרֵ֖ב Gareb H1619 occurs in 3 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

4 nouns

Repetition

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

הַיִּתְרִ֔י Ithrite H3505 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 6 words from the Hebrew and 6 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.

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 4 Hebrew tokens and 6 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 23:38 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

1 Chronicles 2:53 The families of Kiriath Jearim: The Ithrites, and the Puthites, and the Shumathites, and the Mishraites; of them came the Zorathites and the Eshtaolites.
2 Samuel 20:26 and also Ira the Jairite was chief minister to David.
1 Chronicles 11:40 Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,

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 23:38 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

עִירָא֙ הַיִּתְרִ֔י גָּרֵ֖ב הַיִּתְרִֽי

Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Samuel 23:38 Septuagint · lemma form

ιρας ὁ ιεθιραῖος γαρηβ ὁ ιεθιραῖος

Iras the Ethirite. Gerab the Ethenite.

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)

עִירָא דְמִן יֶתֶר גָרַב דְמִן יֶתֶר:

(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 23:38 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 →

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

38. Ithrite] Belonging to the family of Jether, which settled at Kirjath-jearim (1Ch_2:53).

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

Ira an Ithrite, Gareb an Ithrite. These were of Jether, as the Targum, a descendant of Caleb, of the tribe of Judah, Ch1 2:50 Ch1 4:15.

2 Samuel 23:39

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

The Pulpit Commentary

Ithrite. Of the family of Jether, of Kirjath-jearim. (1Ch_2:53) unless Ira and Gareb were two brothers of Amasa, and sons of Jether the husband of Abigail, David"s sister. (2Sa_17:25)

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

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 4 words (3 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Gârêb (“Gareb”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word Gârêb carries the sense “Gareb.” How does it shape the verse?
2 words make their first appearance in Scripture here. What does this debut establish?
How does 1 Chronicles 11:40, which shares the word «Gareb», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “Ithrite” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
Compare how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

2 words make their first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 4 Hebrew ↔ 6 Greek words.
“Ithrite” occurs 2× in this single verse.
3 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 4 words in this verse.