Judges 9:39

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs longer here — compare

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גַ֔עַל

Gaʻal

H1603

“Gaal”

Noun, Proper

Appears 9× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Judges 9:26

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H1602

TWOT: None

Gaal = "loathing" - son of Eved who aided the Shechemites in their rebellion against Abimelech

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 →

7: words
7: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is גַ֔עַל Gaal H1603 — appearing just 9 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

גַ֔עַל Gaal H1603 occurs in 9 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
5 nouns

Verb forms

וַיֵּ֣צֵא Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיִּלָּ֖חֶם Niphal · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 12 words from the Hebrew and 17 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably longer here. See the side-by-side →

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 7 Hebrew tokens and 10 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.

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

Here the Septuagint runs noticeably longer than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 17 words vs World English Bible 12. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Judges 9:39 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיֵּ֣צֵא גַ֔עַל לִפְנֵ֖י בַּעֲלֵ֣י שְׁכֶ֑ם וַיִּלָּ֖חֶם בַּאֲבִימֶֽלֶךְ

Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Judges 9:39 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἐκἔρχομαι γααλ ἐνώπιον ἀνήρ συχεμ καί παρατάσσω πρός αβιμελεχ

And Gaal went forth before the men of Sychem, and set the battle in array against Abimelech.

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)

וּנְפַק גַעַל קֳדָם יַתְבֵי שְׁכֶם וַאֲגַח קְרָבָא בַּאֲבִימֶלֶךְ:

(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 Judges 9:39 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

Jdg 9:39 And Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech.

Ver. 39. And Gaal went out.] Zebul’s taunts had made him ashamed to retire: but God had a special hand in it, for his just punishment. That is a true saying of one, Where iniquity breaketh fast, calamity will be sure to dine; to sup where it dineth, and to lodge where it suppeth.

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.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

As their captain.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(39) Before the men of Shechem.—Not merely “in the presence of the Shechemites,” as some of the versions understand it, but as leader of the “lords” of Shechem. (Comp. Jdg_9:23.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him,.... Abimelech got the better of him in the battle, and obliged him to give way, and he pursued him closely as he was fleeing:

and many were overthrown and wounded, even unto the entering of the gate; or, "they fell many wounded" (k), or slain, as the Targum; that is, many were killed and wounded, as in the battle, so in the pursuit, and lay all the way to the entrance into the gate of the city, to which Gaal, and the men of Shechem, made for their safety, and got in.

(k) "et ceciderant vulnerati multi", Pagninus, Montanus.

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

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

39. Gaal went out before the men of Shechem — It must have been a hasty gathering and a hurried advance, so that they were ill prepared to meet Abimelech.

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

Before the men of Shechem, i.e. at their head, as their leader, as the phrase not uncommonly means. (Gen_33:3 Exo_13:21)

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

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

Then Gaal went out "before the citizens of Shechem;" i.e., not at their head as their leaders, which is the meaning of לפני in Gen 33:3; Exo 13:21; Num 10:35, etc., - for, according to Jdg 9:33-35, Gaal had only gone out of the town with his own retinue, and, according to Jdg 9:42, Jdg 9:43, the people of Shechem did not go out till the next day, - but "in the sight of the lords of Shechem," so that they looked upon the battle. But the battle ended unfortunately for him. Abimelech put him to flight (רדף as in Lev 26:36), and there fell many slain up to the gate of the city, into which Gaal had fled with his followers.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

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.

Judges, in the Historical, opens this verse with 7 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Gaʻal (“Gaal”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word Gaʻal carries the sense “Gaal.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Judges 9:26, which shares the word «Gaal», read alongside this verse?
The Septuagint runs longer here than the Hebrew. What might account for the difference?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«וַיֵּ֣צֵא» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 7 Hebrew ↔ 10 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 4 words in this verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.