1 Samuel 11:1

Young's Literal Translation (1862/1898)

And Nahash the Ammonite cometh up, and encampeth against Jabesh-Gilead, and all the men of Jabesh say unto Nahash, `Make with us a covenant, and we serve thee.'

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וַיַּ֗עַל נָחָשׁ֙ הָֽעַמּוֹנִ֔י וַיִּ֖חַן עַל־יָבֵ֣שׁ גִּלְעָ֑ד וַיֹּ֨אמְר֜וּ כָּל־אַנְשֵׁ֤י יָבֵישׁ֙ אֶל־נָחָ֔שׁ כְּרָת־לָ֥נוּ בְרִ֖ית וְנַעַבְדֶֽךָּ

Transliteration

And wayyaʿal nāḥāš the ʿammônî and wayyiḥan against yābēš gilʿād and wayyōʾmərû all ʾanšê yābēš to nāḥāš kərāt-lānû bərît and wənaʿabdekā

Grammar Details

• *wayyaʿal*: waw consecutive + Qal imperfect 3rd masculine singular - and he went up
• *nāḥāš*: proper noun, masculine singular - Nahash
• *ʿammônî*: adjective, masculine singular - Ammonite
• *wayyiḥan*: waw consecutive + Qal imperfect 3rd masculine singular - and he encamped
• *yābēš*: proper noun - Jabesh
• *gilʿād*: proper noun - Gilead
• *wayyōʾmərû*: waw consecutive + Qal imperfect 3rd masculine plural - and they said
• *ʾanšê*: construct plural of *ʾîš* - men of
• *kərāt-lānû*: Qal imperative masculine singular + preposition + 1st person plural suffix - cut for us
• *bərît*: noun, feminine singular - covenant
• *wənaʿabdekā*: waw conjunction + Qal imperfect 1st person plural + 2nd person masculine singular suffix - and we will serve you

Word Meanings

• *nāḥāš*: Nahash (name meaning 'serpent')
• *yābēš gilʿād*: Jabesh-Gilead (city name)
• *bərît*: covenant/agreement/treaty
• *naʿabdekā*: serve you/be your subjects/be subservient to you

Referenced Verses

• Judg 21:8 : 8 And they say, `Who is `that' one out of the tribes of Israel who hath not come up unto Jehovah to Mizpeh?' and lo, none hath come in unto the camp from Jabesh-Gilead -- unto the assembly.
• 1 Sam 12:12 : 12 `And ye see that Nahash king of the Bene-Ammon hath come against you, and ye say to me, Nay, but a king doth reign over us; and Jehovah your God `is' your king!
• 1 Kgs 20:34 : 34 And he saith unto him, `The cities that my father took from thy father, I give back, and streets thou dost make for thee in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria;' -- `and I, with a covenant, send thee away;' and he maketh with him a covenant, and sendeth him away.
• Ezek 17:13 : 13 And he taketh of the seed of the kingdom, And maketh with him a covenant, And bringeth him in to an oath, And the mighty of the land he hath taken,
• Gen 26:28 : 28 And they say, `We have certainly seen that Jehovah hath been with thee, and we say, `Let there be, we pray thee, an oath between us, between us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;
• Exod 23:32 : 32 thou dost not make a covenant with them, and with their gods;
• Job 41:4 : 4 Doth he make a covenant with thee? Dost thou take him for a servant age-during?
• Isa 36:16 : 16 `Do not hearken unto Hezekiah, for thus said the king of Asshur, Make ye with me a blessing, and come out unto me, and eat ye each of his vine, and each of his fig-tree, and drink ye each the waters of his own well,
• Deut 23:3 : 3 `An Ammonite and a Moabite doth not enter into the assembly of Jehovah; even a tenth generation of them doth not enter into the assembly of Jehovah -- to the age;
• Judg 10:7 : 7 and the anger of Jehovah burneth against Israel, and He selleth them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the Bene-Ammon,
• Judg 11:8-9 : 8 and the elders of Gilead say unto Jephthah, `Therefore, now, we have turned back unto thee; and thou hast gone with us, and fought against the Bene-Ammon, and thou hast been to us for head -- to all the inhabitants of Gilead.' 9 And Jephthah saith unto the elders of Gilead, `If ye are taking me back to fight against the Bene-Ammon, and Jehovah hath given them before me -- I, am I to you for a head?' 10 And the elders of Gilead say unto Jephthah, `Jehovah is hearkening between us -- if according to thy word we do not so.' 11 And Jephthah goeth with the elders of Gilead, and the people set him over them for head and for captain, and Jephthah speaketh all his words before Jehovah in Mizpeh. 12 And Jephthah sendeth messengers unto the king of the Bene-Ammon, saying, `What -- to me and to thee, that thou hast come in unto me, to fight in my land.' 13 And the king of the Bene-Ammon saith unto the messengers of Jephthah, `Because Israel took my land in his coming up out of Egypt, from Arnon, and unto the Jabbok, and unto the Jordan; and now, restore them in peace.' 14 And Jephthah addeth yet and sendeth messengers unto the king of the Bene-Ammon, 15 and saith to him, `Thus said Jephthah, Israel took not the land of Moab, and the land of the Bene-Ammon, 16 for in their coming up out of Egypt, Israel goeth in the wilderness unto the Red Sea, and cometh in to Kadesh, 17 and Israel sendeth messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me pass over, I pray thee, through thy land, and the king of Edom hearkened not; and also unto the king of Moab hath `Israel' sent, and he hath not been willing; and Israel abideth in Kadesh, 18 and he goeth through the wilderness, and compasseth the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and cometh in at the rising of the sun of the land of Moab, and they encamp beyond Arnon, and have not come into the border of Moab, for Arnon `is' the border of Moab. 19 `And Israel sendeth messengers unto Sihon, king of the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and Israel saith to him, Let us pass over, we pray thee, through thy land, unto my place, 20 and Sihon hath not trusted Israel to pass over through his border, and Sihon gathereth all his people, and they encamp in Jahaz, and fight with Israel; 21 and Jehovah, God of Israel, giveth Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smite them, and Israel possesseth all the land of the Amorite, the inhabitant of that land, 22 and they possess all the border of the Amorite from Arnon, and unto the Jabbok, and from the wilderness, and unto the Jordan. 23 `And now, Jehovah, God of Israel, hath dispossessed the Amorite from the presence of His people Israel, and thou wouldst possess it! 24 That which Chemosh thy god causeth thee to possess -- dost thou not possess it? and all that which Jehovah our God hath dispossessed from our presence, -- it we do possess. 25 `And now, `art' thou at all better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he at all strive with Israel? did he at all fight against them? 26 In Israel's dwelling in Heshbon and in its towns, and in Aroer and in its towns, and in all the cities which `are' by the sides of Arnon three hundred years -- and wherefore have ye not delivered them in that time? 27 And I -- I have not sinned against thee, and thou art doing with me evil -- to fight against me. Jehovah, the Judge, doth judge to-day between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.' 28 And the king of the Bene-Ammon hath not hearkened unto the words of Jephthah which he sent unto him, 29 and the Spirit of Jehovah is on Jephthah, and he passeth over Gilead and Manasseh, and passeth over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he hath passed over to the Bene-Ammon. 30 And Jephthah voweth a vow to Jehovah, and saith, `If Thou dost at all give the Bene-Ammon into my hand -- 31 then it hath been, that which at all cometh out from the doors of my house to meet me in my turning back in peace from the Bene-Ammon -- it hath been to Jehovah, or I have offered up for it -- a burnt-offering.' 32 And Jephthah passeth over unto the Bene-Ammon to fight against them, and Jehovah giveth them into his hand, 33 and he smiteth them from Aroer, and unto thy going in to Minnith, twenty cities, and unto the meadow of the vineyards -- a very great smiting; and the Bene-Ammon are humbled at the presence of the sons of Israel.
• 1 Sam 31:11-13 : 11 And they hear regarding it -- the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead -- that which the Philistines have done to Saul, 12 and all the men of valour arise, and go all the night, and take the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, from the wall of Beth-Shan, and come in to Jabesh, and burn them there, 13 and they take their bones, and bury `them' under the tamarisk in Jabesh, and fast seven days.
• Judg 21:10-25 : 10 And the company send there twelve thousand men of the sons of valour, and command them, saying, `Go -- and ye have smitten the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead by the mouth of the sword, even the women and the infants. 11 And this `is' the thing which ye do; every male, and every woman knowing the lying of a male, ye devote.' 12 And they find out of the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead four hundred young women, virgins, who have not known man by the lying of a male, and they bring them in unto the camp at Shiloh, which `is' in the land of Canaan. 13 And all the company send, and speak, unto the sons of Benjamin who `are' in the rock Rimmon, and proclaim to them peace; 14 and Benjamin turneth back at that time, and they give to them the women whom they have kept alive of the women of Jabesh-Gilead, and they have not found for `all of' them so. 15 And the people repented concerning Benjamin, for Jehovah had made a breach among the tribes of Israel. 16 And the elders of the company say, `What do we do to the remnant for wives -- for the women have been destroyed out of Benjamin?' 17 And they say, `A possession of an escaped party `is' to Benjamin, and a tribe is not blotted out from Israel; 18 and we -- we are not able to give to them wives out of our daughters, for the sons of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed `is' he who is giving a wife to Benjamin.' 19 And they say, `Lo, a festival of Jehovah `is' in Shiloh, from time to time, which `is' on the north of Beth-El, at the rising of the sun, by the highway which is going up from Beth-El to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.' 20 And they command the sons of Benjamin, saying, `Go -- and ye have laid wait in the vineyards, 21 and have seen, and lo, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances -- then ye have gone out from the vineyards, and caught for you each his wife out of the daughters of Shiloh, and gone to the land of Benjamin; 22 and it hath been, when their fathers or their brethren come in to plead unto us, that we have said unto them, Favour us `by' them, for we have not taken `to' each his wife in battle, for ye -- ye have not given to them at this time `that' ye are guilty.' 23 And the sons of Benjamin do so, and take women according to their number, out of the dancers whom they have taken violently away; and they go, and turn back unto their inheritance, and build the cities, and dwell in them. 24 And the sons of Israel go up and down thence at that time, each to his tribe, and to his family; and they go out thence each to his inheritance. 25 In those days there is no king in Israel; each doth that which is right in his own eyes.