1 Chronicles 16:20

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

They went about from nation to nation, From one kingdom to another people.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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וּמִמַּמְלָכָ֖ה

mamlâkâh

H4467

“and · from · kingdom”

Conjunction + Preposition + Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 117× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 10:10

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H4427

TWOT: 1199f

kingdom, dominion, reign, sovereignty - kingdom, realm - sovereignty, dominion - reign

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 →

8: words
6: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Grammatical profile

1 verb
4 nouns
1 adjective
2 prepositions

Verb forms

וַיִּֽתְהַלְּכוּ֙ Hithpael · Sequential Imperfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

מִגּ֣וֹי nation H1471 ×2
אֶל to H413 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 13 words from the Hebrew and 13 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 8 Hebrew tokens and 12 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 1 Chronicles 16:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 46:3 He said, "I am God, the God of your father. Don't be afraid to go down into Egypt; for there I will make of you a great nation.
Genesis 46:6 They took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt-- Jacob, and all his seed with him,
Genesis 12:10 There was a famine in the land. Abram went down into Egypt to live as a foreigner there, for the famine was sore in the land.
Genesis 20:1 Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the South, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a foriegner in Gerar.

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.

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

Hebrew 1 Chronicles 16:20 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיִּֽתְהַלְּכוּ֙ מִגּ֣וֹי אֶל גּ֔וֹי וּמִמַּמְלָכָ֖ה אֶל עַ֥ם אַחֵֽר

They went about from nation to nation, From one kingdom to another people.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Chronicles 16:20 Septuagint · lemma form

καί πορεύομαι ἀπό ἔθνος εἰς ἔθνος καί ἀπό βασιλεία εἰς λαός ἕτερος

and went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people.

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 1 Chronicles 16:20 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 →

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(20) And when they went from nation to nation.—And they went. This shows that the third plural (“when they were”) is original in the last verse. The reference is to the wanderings of the patriarchs.

And from one kingdom.—The conjunction is prosaic, and is not read in Psa_105:13.

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

20. kingdom … people] The “kingdom” is Egypt (Genesis 12); the “people” the Canaanite and Perizzite (Genesis 13).

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.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

And when they walked from nation to nation Abraham went to Egypt and to Gerar, and so did Isaac, and so was Jacob in Laban’s house for twenty years, and now, too, for it does not say: וַיֵּלְכוּ but וַיִּתְהַלְּכוּ (poraler in Old French, to wander about)

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

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.

1 Chronicles, in the Historical, opens this verse with 8 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is mamlâkâh (“kingdom”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “kingdom” (mamlâkâh) shape what this verse is saying?
Genesis 46:3 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
“nation” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «וַיִּֽתְהַלְּכוּ֙» is Hithpael Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
“nation” occurs 2× in this single verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.