1 Samuel 27 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Each card keeps the independently rendered source readings above their shared comparison and reception notes. The badge records the source’s governing classification; disparate readings are marked in red. Each reading retains its original reference.
1 Samuel 27
Exile and moral peril on the way to kingship
Editorial Christian reading within the Davidic history leading to Jesus [NT1]. Flight, raids, killing of witnesses, and deception are narrated without converting every action into an example to imitate.
27:1–7 | David seeks refuge and receives Ziklag
Verse MT 27:1 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
MT 27:1
David said to his heart, “Now I shall be swept away one day by Saul’s hand. Nothing is better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Saul will give up seeking me any longer throughout Israel’s territory, and I shall escape from his hand.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
LXX 27:1
David said in his heart, “Now I shall be added one day into Saul’s hands. There is no good for me unless I escape to the foreigners’ land and Saul gives up seeking me throughout Israel’s territory. I shall escape from his hand.”
Classification & Notes
Different
Text: Hebrew describes being swept away; Greek being added, continuing its elliptical death-language from 26:10. Hebrew presents the escape as the better course; Greek as a necessary condition for any good. Neither column supplies a divine instruction for this decision.
Verse MT 27:2 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
MT 27:2
David rose and crossed over, he and the six hundred men with him, to Achish son of Maoch, king of Gath.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
LXX 27:2
David and the four hundred men with him rose and went to Achish son of Ammach, king of Gath.
Classification & Notes
Different
Text: Hebrew has six hundred men and Maoch; Greek four hundred and Ammach. The number is not harmonized with either column’s earlier notices.
Verse MT 27:3 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
MT 27:3
David stayed with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each with his household; David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the Carmelite, Nabal’s wife.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
LXX 27:3
David stayed with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each with his household; David with both his wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
Classification & Notes
Different
Text: Hebrew’s feminine Carmelite designation describes Abigail; Greek’s masculine designation describes Nabal. Both preserve her identification through Nabal as well as her present marriage to David.
Verse MT 27:4 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
MT 27:4
Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, and he no longer sought him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
LXX 27:4
It was reported to Saul that David had fled to Gath, and he no longer sought him.
Classification & Notes
Same
Text: The report and end of the pursuit agree.
Verse MT 27:5 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
MT 27:5
David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in one of the country towns, and I will stay there. Why should your servant stay with you in the royal city?”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
LXX 27:5
David said to Achish, “If your servant has found favor in your eyes, please let them give me a place in one of the country towns, and I will stay there. Why should your servant stay with you in a royal city?”
Classification & Notes
Similar
Text: Greek uses your servant in both self-references; Hebrew initially uses I. Both leave the plural agents who are to assign a place unnamed.
Verse MT 27:6 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
MT 27:6
Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to Judah’s kings to this day.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
LXX 27:6
He gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the king of Judea to this day.
Classification & Notes
Different
Text: Hebrew names Achish and plural kings; Greek an unnamed giver and a singular king. To this day belongs to the narrator’s horizon, not the date of this draft.
Verse MT 27:7 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
MT 27:7
The number of days David stayed in the Philistines’ country was a year and four months.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
LXX 27:7
The number of days David stayed in the foreigners’ country was four months.
Classification & Notes
Different
Text: Hebrew’s days-and-four-months formula is construed as a year plus four months; Greek has only four months. The Hebrew year rendering interprets the calendrical use of days and is recorded rather than treated as an explicit shanah noun.
27:8–12 | Raids and the reports to Achish
Verse MT 27:8 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
MT 27:8
David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Gizrites, and the Amalekites, for these had inhabited the land from of old, as far as Shur and the land of Egypt.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
LXX 27:8
David and his men went up and attacked all the Gesiri and the Amalekite. Look, the land—from Gelampsour as far as the land of Egypt—was inhabited with suitable fortified settlements.
Classification & Notes
Divergent
Text: Hebrew follows the read Gizrite rather than the written Girzite form [Q27]; Greek lacks a separate corresponding people and has Gelampsour rather than the Hebrew antiquity/Shur sequence. Greek’s final syntax is exceptionally difficult: settlements supplies an absent noun for fortified, with suitable construing anēkontōn. This is a provisional construal checked against [N], 27:8, not an assured reconstruction.
Verse MT 27:9 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
MT 27:9
David struck the land and left neither man nor woman alive. He took sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and garments, then returned and came to Achish.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
LXX 27:9
He struck the land and left neither man nor woman alive. He took flocks, herds, donkeys, camels, and clothing, and they returned and came to Achish.
Classification & Notes
Different
Text: Hebrew names David and keeps singular return verbs; Greek continues him unnamed and shifts to plural returners. Both retain the killings and seizure of property without euphemism.
Verse MT 27:10 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
MT 27:10
Achish said, “Where have you raided today?” David said, “Against Judah’s Negeb, the Jerahmeelites’ Negeb, and the Kenites’ Negeb.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
LXX 27:10
Achish said to David, “Whom have you attacked today?” David said to Achish, “The south of Judea, the south of Jesmega, and the south of Kenezi.”
Classification & Notes
Different
Text: Hebrew’s short al-question is difficult and rendered where in context; Greek explicitly asks against whom. The Jerahmeelite/Jesmega and Kenite/Kenezi designations remain distinct. Hebrew Negeb retains its regional term; Greek gives south. The reported targets differ from the narrator’s targets in 27:8.
Verse MT 27:11 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
MT 27:11
David left neither man nor woman alive to bring to Gath, saying, “Lest they report against us, saying, ‘This is what David did.’” This was his practice all the days he stayed in the Philistines’ country.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
LXX 27:11
He left neither man nor woman alive to bring to Gath, saying, “Let them not report to Gath against us, saying, ‘This is what David does.’” This was his established practice all the days David stayed in the foreigners’ country.
Classification & Notes
Similar
Text: Greek explicitly names Gath as the reporting destination and David in the closing clause. Hebrew mishpat and Greek dikaiōma describe habitual practice here, not a divine moral authorization. The stated motive for leaving no witnesses remains explicit.
Verse MT 27:12 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
MT 27:12
Achish trusted David, saying, “He has made himself utterly odious among his people Israel, and he will be my slave forever.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
LXX 27:12
David was greatly trusted with Achish, saying, “He has made himself utterly shamed among his people Israel, and he will be my slave forever.”
Classification & Notes
Different
Text: Hebrew has Achish actively trusting and David becoming odious; Greek David being trusted and becoming shamed. The Greek saying-participle is syntactically awkward after the passive clause; the following my-slave statement is understood as Achish’s assessment, without rewriting its introduction.