He did obeisance, and said, "What is your servant, that you should look on such a dead dog as I am?"
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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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He did obeisance, and said, "What is your servant, that you should look on such a dead dog as I am?"
And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?
And he prostrated himself, and he said, “What your servant, that you should turn to a dead dog that like me?”
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.
He did obeisance, and said, "What is your servant, that you should look on such a dead dog as I am?"
Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog like me?”
Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog like me?”
And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?
And he did obeisance, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?
And he did obeisance, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?
And he bowed himselfe and sayd, What is thy seruant, that thou shouldest looke vpon such a dead dog as I am?
He bowed down to him, and said: Who am I thy servant, that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am?
And he boweth himself, and saith, `What `is' thy servant, that thou hast turned unto the dead dog -- such as I?'
And he bows himself and says, “What [is] your servant, that you have turned to the dead dog—such as I?”
Mephibosheth bowed and said, “What is your servant, that you should look with favor on such a dead dog as I am?”
And he prostrated himself, and he said, “What your servant, that you should turn to a dead dog that like me?”
And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?
He bowed down, and said, “What is your servant, that you should look at such a dead dog as I am?”
And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am?
Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “Who am I, your servant, that you should pay any attention to a dead dog like me?”
And he went down on his face before the king, and said, What is your servant, for you to take note of a dead dog such as I am?
And he bowed down, and said: 'What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?'
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 →
Shared distinctive vocabulary
הַכֶּ֥לֶב dog H3611 occurs in 31 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 21 words from the Hebrew and 21 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 11 Hebrew tokens and 20 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.
Topical passages linked to 2 Samuel 9:8 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.
וַיִּשְׁתַּ֕חוּ וַיֹּ֖אמֶר מֶ֣ה עַבְדֶּ֑ךָ כִּ֣י פָנִ֔יתָ אֶל הַכֶּ֥לֶב הַמֵּ֖ת אֲשֶׁ֥ר כָּמֽוֹנִי
He did obeisance, and said, "What is your servant, that you should look on such a dead dog as I am?"
World English Bible · Public Domain
καί προςκυνέω μεμφιβοσθε καί εἶπον τίς εἰμί ὁ δοῦλος σύ ὅτι ἐπιβλέπω ἐπί ὁ κύων ὁ θνήσκω ὁ ὅμοιος ἐγώ
And Memphibosthe did obeisance, and said, Who am I your servant, that you have looked upon a dead dog like me?
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.
וּסְגִיד וַאֲמַר מָה עַבְדָךְ אֲרֵי אִתְפְּנִיתָא עַל גְבַר הֶדְיוֹט דִכְוָתִי:
(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 (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is keleb (“dog”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on 2 Samuel 9:8 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.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
Tyndale Open Resources
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Geneva Bible (1599)
Geneva Bible translators
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.
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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
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.