1 Kings 15:21

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

It happened, when Baasha heard of it, that he left off building Ramah, and lived in Tirzah.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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בְּתִרְצָֽה

Tirtsâh

H8656

“in/at · Tirzah”

Preposition + Noun, Proper

Appears 18× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Numbers 26:33

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H7521

TWOT: None

Tirzah = "favourable" - one of the 7 daughters of Zelophehad the son of Hepher of the tribe of Manasseh (noun proper feminine) - one of the kingdoms on the west of the Jordan conquered by Joshua and the Israelites (noun proper locative) - a Canaanite city, later capital of the northern kingdom of Israel (noun proper locative)

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 →

9: words
9: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is בְּתִרְצָֽה Tirzah H8656 — appearing just 18 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

בְּתִרְצָֽה Tirzah H8656 occurs in 17 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

5 verbs
3 nouns
1 particle

Verb forms

וַֽיְהִי֙ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
כִּשְׁמֹ֣עַ Qal · Infinitive Construct
וַיֶּחְדַּ֕ל Qal · Sequential Imperfect
מִבְּנ֖וֹת Qal · Infinitive Construct
וַיֵּ֖שֶׁב Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 19 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

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 9 Hebrew tokens and 15 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 Kings 15:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

1 Kings 14:17 Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: [and] as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died.
1 Kings 16:15–18 In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines.
1 Kings 15:17 Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not allow anyone to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
2 Chronicles 16:5 It happened, when Baasha heard of it, that he left off building Ramah, and let his work cease.
Song of Solomon 6:4 You are beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, Lovely as Jerusalem, Awesome as an army with banners.

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 Kings 15:21 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַֽיְהִי֙ כִּשְׁמֹ֣עַ בַּעְשָׁ֔א וַיֶּחְדַּ֕ל מִבְּנ֖וֹת אֶת הָֽרָמָ֑ה וַיֵּ֖שֶׁב בְּתִרְצָֽה

It happened, when Baasha heard of it, that he left off building Ramah, and lived in Tirzah.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Kings 15:21 Septuagint · lemma form

καί γίγνομαι ὡς ἀκούω βαασα καί διαλείπω ὁ οἰκοδομέω ὁ ραμα καί ἀναστρέφω εἰς θερσα

And it came to pass when Baasa heard it, that he left off building Rama, and returned to Thersa.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

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)

וַהֲוָה כַּד שְׁמַע בַּעְשָׁא וְאִתְמְנַע מִלְמִבְנֵי יַת רָמָתָא וִיתֵב בְּתַרְעִיתָא:

(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 1 Kings 15:21 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

1Ki 15:21 And it came to pass, when Baasha heard [thereof], that he left off building of Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah.

Ver. 21. And dwelt.] Seeking no further revenge against Asa.

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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 21. Dwelt in Tirzah.] This seems to have been the royal city; see 1Kg 15:33, and 1Kg 14:17; and in this Baasha was probably obliged to shut himself up.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) Dwelt in Tirzah—that is, returned to his own capital: in the first instance, of course, retiring to meet the new enemy in the north, and then obliged to give up his attempt against Asa. From 1Ki_20:34, it seems as if, till the time of Ahab, Syria retained its conquests and a certain supremacy over Israel. Baasha may have had to buy peace by undertaking to leave unmolested Judah, which might be considered a tributary of Syria.

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

21. he left off building of Ramah] Thus releasing Jerusalem from its blockade, as Asa desired. In Chronicles it is said ‘he let his work cease.’

Tirzah] A royal residence before this time. See on 1Ki_14:17.

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.

John Gill's Exposition

And he did evil in the sight of the Lord,.... Committed idolatry, than which nothing is a greater evil in his sight:

and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin: in making and worshipping of golden calves.

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

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Returned. So the Septuagint. Hebrew, "dwelt." (Calmet) --- He returned to protect his own dominions, (Menochius) and shut himself up in his capital. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Now the royal city of Israel. See 1Ki 14:17. There he abode to defend his own kingdoms, and durst not return to oppose Asa, lest the Syrian king should make a second and worse invasion. So Asa met with success in his ungodly course, as on the other side good men sometimes meet with disappointment in a good cause and course. So there is no judging of causes by events.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

21. He left off building of Ramah — So Asa’s policy had its desired effect, and Baasha feared to have war on so many sides, and be hemmed in by hostile powers.

Tirzah — See note on 1Ki_14:17. Baasha seems to have thought his wisest policy was at present to accept the situation, and quietly retire to his royal city, and provoke not further the wrath of the neighbouring kingdoms.

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

And it came to pasta, when Baaaha heard thereof, that he left off building of Ramah He could not prosecute it when he had enemies on every side. He at once assumes the defensive, and dwelt in Tirzah. Ch. 14:17. He retired to his capital It is not implied that he had entertained the idea of dwelling at Ramah.

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

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Tirzah - Now the royal city of Israel. There he abode to defend his own kingdoms, and durst not return to oppose Asa, lest the Syrian king should make a second invasion. So Asa met with success in this ungodly course as good men sometimes meet with disappointment in a good cause and course. So there is no judging of causes by events.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

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 Kings, in the Historical, opens this verse with 9 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Tirtsâh (“Tirzah”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word Tirtsâh carries the sense “Tirzah.” How does it shape the verse?
Numbers 26:33 shares the word «Tirzah» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «וַֽיְהִי֙» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Adam Clarke's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 15 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 10 words in this verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.