But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and, behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky.
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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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But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and, behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky.
But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven.
But the signal began to go up from the city, a column of smoke, and Benjamin turned after it, and behold, the whole of the city had gone up to the heavens.
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.
But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and, behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky.
But when the column of smoke began to go up from the city, the Benjamites looked behind them and saw the whole city going up in smoke.
But when the column of smoke began to go up from the city, the Benjamites looked behind them and saw the whole city going up in smoke.
But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven.
But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and, behold, the whole of the city went up `in smoke' to heaven.
But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to heaven.
But when the flame bega to arise out of the citie, as a pillar of smoke, the Beniamites looked backe, and behold, the flame of the citie began to ascend vp to heauen.
And perceived as it were a pillar of smoke rise up from the city; and Benjamin looking back, saw that the city was taken, and that the flames ascended on high:
and the volume hath begun to go up from the city -- a pillar of smoke -- and Benjamin turneth behind, and lo, gone up hath the perfection of the city toward the heavens.
but the volume has begun to go up from the city—a pillar of smoke—and Benjamin turns behind, and behold, the perfection of the city has gone up toward the heavens.
But when a pillar of smoke began to rise up out of the city, the Benjamites turned and saw the smoke rising to the sky from the whole city.
But the signal began to go up from the city, a column of smoke, and Benjamin turned after it, and behold, the whole of the city had gone up to the heavens.
But when the signal began to rise out of the city in a column of smoke, the Benjaminites looked behind them; and behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to heaven.
But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and behold, the whole city went up in smoke to the sky.
But when the flame began to rise from the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjaminites looked behind them, and behold, the flame of the city ascended to heaven.
However, when the Israelites saw the columns of smoke rising heavenwards to form a great cloud over the whole of the town,
Then the sign went up out of the town in the pillar of smoke, and the Benjamites, turning back, saw all the town going up in smoke to heaven.
But when the beacon began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to heaven.
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 כְלִיל whole H3632 — appearing just 15 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
Shared distinctive vocabulary
כְלִיל whole H3632 occurs in 15 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Repetition
Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 36 words from the Hebrew and 30 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 15 Hebrew tokens and 26 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 Judges 20:40 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.
וְהַמַּשְׂאֵ֗ת הֵחֵ֛לָּה לַעֲל֥וֹת מִן הָעִ֖יר עַמּ֣וּד עָשָׁ֑ן וַיִּ֤פֶן בִּנְיָמִן֙ אַחֲרָ֔יו וְהִנֵּ֛ה עָלָ֥ה כְלִיל הָעִ֖יר הַשָּׁמָֽיְמָה
But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and, behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky.
World English Bible · Public Domain
καί ὁ σύσσημον ἀναβαίνω ἐπί πολύς ἐπί ὁ πόλις ὡς στῦλος καπνός καί ἐπιβλέπω βενιαμίν ὀπίσω αὐτός καί ἰδού ἀναβαίνω ὁ συντέλεια ὁ πόλις ἕως οὐρανός
And the signal went up increasingly over the city as a pillar of smoke; and Benjamin looked behind him, and behold the destruction of the city went up to heaven.
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
On this verse, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓
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.
וּתְנָנָא שְׁרֵי לְאַסָקָא מִן קַרְתָּא יְטוּר דִתְנָן וְאִתְפְּנִיאוּ דְּבֵית בִּנְיָמִין בַּתְרֵיהוֹן וְהָא סְלִיק תְּנָנָא דְקַרְתָּא לְצֵית שְׁמַיָא:
(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.
Judges, in the Historical, opens this verse with 15 words (13 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is kâlîyl (“whole”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on Judges 20:40 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.
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.
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.
unfoldingWord translationNotes
Door43 World Missions Community
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.