Psalms 136:18

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

And killed mighty kings; For his loving kindness endures forever:

World English Bible · Public Domain

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אַדִּירִ֑ים

ʼaddîyr

H117

“great”

Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute

Appears 27× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 15:10

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H142

TWOT: 28b

great, majestic - of waters of sea - of a tree - of kings, nations, gods - great one, majestic one - of nobles, chieftains, servants

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 →

6: words
6: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

אַדִּירִ֑ים great H117 occurs in 25 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

1 verb
3 nouns
1 adjective
1 conjunction

Verb forms

וַֽ֭יַּהֲרֹג Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 10 words from the Hebrew and 10 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 6 Hebrew tokens and 11 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 Psalms 136:18 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Deuteronomy 29:7 When you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we struck them:

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.

You’re reading Greek Psalm 135 (Hebrew Psalm 136). The Septuagint counts the superscription, so verse numbers can differ from the Hebrew — chapter-level alignment, not verse-by-verse. Numbering follows Rahlfs.

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

Hebrew Psalms 136:18 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַֽ֭יַּהֲרֹג מְלָכִ֣ים אַדִּירִ֑ים כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ

And killed mighty kings; For his loving kindness endures forever:

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Greek Psalm 135:18 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἀποκτείνω βασιλεύς κραταιός ὅτι εἰς ὁ αἰών ὁ ἔλεος αὐτός

and killed mighty kings; for his mercy endures for ever:

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 →

Commentary

Notes on Psalms 136:18 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

Psa 136:18 And slew famous kings: for his mercy [endureth] for ever:

Ver. 18. And slew famous kings] Magnificos, sumptuosos, fastuosos, et arrogantes.

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.

J. A. Alexander on Psalms

Joseph Addison Alexander

18. (Psa 136:18) And slew mighty kings—for unto eternity (is) his mercy. The first clause answers to the latter half of Psa 135:10, with the substitution of another Hebrew word for mighty.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Declaring thereby that no power nor authority was so dear unto him, as the love of his Church.

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

John Gill's Exposition

And slew famous kings,.... Famous for their power and strength, their courage and valour who were not only smitten and discomfited, but slain in battle;

for his mercy endureth for ever; towards his own people, for whose sake these kings were slain.

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

The Treasury of David

Charles H. Spurgeon

Ver. 18. And slew famous kings. What good was their fame to them? As they opposed God they became infamous rather than famous. Their deaths made the Lord's fame to increase among the nations while their fame ended in disgraceful defeat.

For his mercy endureth for ever. Israelitish patriots felt that they, could never have too much of this music; God had protected their nation, and they chanted his praises with unwearied iteration.

Kings he smote despite their fame,

For his mercy's still the same.

Ver. 18,20. The profane of our times may hence learn to take heed how they wrong the faithful. God is "wise in heart and mighty in strength:" Job 9:4. Who ever waxed fierce against his people and hath prospered? For their sakes he hath destroyed great kings and mighty, Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og the king of Bashan. He can pluck off thy chariot wheels, strike thee in the hinder parts, cause thy heart to fail thee for fear, and in a moment fetch thy soul from thee: better were it for thee to have a millstone hanged about thy neck, and thou to be cast into the bottom of the sea, than to offend the least of these faithful ones; they are dear in his sight, tender to him, as the apple of his eye. John Barlow, 1632.

Psalms 136:19*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

And slew famous kings. Oreb, Zeb, Zeba, Zalmunna, Agag. For his mercy, etc.

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

for his covenant faithfulness endures forever

The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be translated with an adjective. See how you translated this in Psalms 136:1. AT: "because he remains faithful to his covenant forever" (See: Abstract Nouns)

Sihon ... Og

These kings were just two of the many kings that God enabled the Israelites to defeat. (See: How to Translate Names)

translationWords

Amorite

Bashan

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.

Psalms, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 6 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼaddîyr (“great”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word ʼaddîyr carries the sense “great.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Exodus 15:10, which shares the word «great», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«וַֽ֭יַּהֲרֹג» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and J. A. Alexander on Psalms read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 6 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 13 words in this verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.