1 Kings 2:43

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Why then have you not kept the oath of Yahweh, and the commandment that I have charged you with?

World English Bible · Public Domain

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שְׁבֻעַ֣ת

shᵉbûwʻâh

H7621

“oath of”

Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct

Appears 30× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 24:8

Full BDB Definition

Origin: pass part of H7650

TWOT: 2319a

oath, curse - oath - attesting of innocence - curse - oath (of Jehovah)

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 →

11: words
10: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

שְׁבֻעַ֣ת oath H7621 occurs in 29 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
3 nouns
1 preposition
5 particles

Verb forms

שָׁמַ֔רְתָּ Qal · Perfect
צִוִּ֥יתִי Piel · Perfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In the original languages it is 11 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 2:43 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

2 Samuel 21:2 The king called the Gibeonites, and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn to them: and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah);
2 Chronicles 30:12 Also on Judah came the hand of God to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the word of Yahweh.
Ecclesiastes 8:2 I say, "Keep the king's command!" because of the oath to God.
Ezekiel 17:18–19 For he has despised the oath by breaking the covenant; and behold, he had given his hand, and yet has done all these things; he shall not escape.
Romans 13:5 Therefore you need to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience' sake.

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 2:43 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וּמַדּ֕וּעַ לֹ֣א שָׁמַ֔רְתָּ אֵ֖ת שְׁבֻעַ֣ת יְהוָ֑ה וְאֶת הַמִּצְוָ֖ה אֲשֶׁר צִוִּ֥יתִי עָלֶֽיךָ

Why then have you not kept the oath of Yahweh, and the commandment that I have charged you with?

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Kings 2:43 Septuagint · lemma form

καί τίς ὅτι οὐ φυλάσσω ὁ ὅρκος κύριος καί ὁ ἐντολή ὅς ἐντέλλομαι κατά σύ

No English rendering of this Greek verse — the small residue in the structurally divergent books.

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from a public-domain English Septuagint. 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)

וּמָא דֵין לָא נְטַרְתָּ יַת שְׁבוּעֲתָא דַייָ וְיַת תַּפְקֵדְתָּא דִי פַקֵדִית עֲלָךְ:

(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 2:43 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 2:43 Why then hast thou not kept the oath of the LORD, and the commandment that I have charged thee with?

Ver. 43. The oath of the Lord.] Made in his name, and to be kept to his glory, whereof he is jealous.

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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

1Ki 2:43-44. Why hast thou not kept the oath of the Lord? — He lay under the guilt of two crimes: of disobeying the king’s express command, and violating his oath to God, which latter Solomon terms the oath of the Lord, because it was taken in the Lord’s presence, and the Lord was called upon as a witness of it, and as the avenger of all such violations, and because the law of the Lord obliged him to the performance of it. The wickedness which thy heart is privy to — For which thine own conscience accuseth thee, and there is no need of other witnesses. The Lord shall return — God hath punished thee for thy former wickedness, by suffering thee to expose thyself to thy deserved death.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

43. the oath of the Lord] i.e. Which was sworn unto the Lord.

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

The king said moreover to Shimei,.... Not as another reason for his putting him to death, but to remind him of his former sins, and to observe to him the providence of God in suffering him to fall into others, that justice might take place upon him for them also:

thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to, that thou didst to David my father; which conscience must bear witness to, and accuse him of, not only of the words and actions themselves uttered and done by him, but of the malice and wickedness from whence they sprung:

therefore the Lord shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head; the punishment of it; which though not directly inflicted for that, yet in providence was brought about as a just retaliation for it.

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

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

He was guilty both of rebellion against the express, and just, and (as himself called it) good command of the king, and of perjury against God; which were two high and heinous crimes. His oath he calls

the oath of the Lord, because it was taken in God’s presence, and he was called upon as a witness of it, and as the avenger of all violations of it, and because the law of God obliged him to the performance of it.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

Why them halt thou not kept the oath of the Lord and the commandment that I have charged Heb. commanded thee with. "Shimei ought to have been warned against trifling with Solomon"s forbearance by the punishment already inflicted on Adonijah and Joab." Wordsworth.

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

General Information:

King Solomon pronounces judgment upon Shimei for leaving Jerusalem.

Why then have you not kept your oath ... you?

Possible meanings are 1) Solomon is asking for an answer or 2) AT: "You have done wrong by breaking your oath ... you." (See: Rhetorical Question)

will return your wickedness on your own head

Here the head represents the person, and wickedness is spoken of as if it were a solid or liquid that could be put on a person's head. AT: "will hold you responsible for all your wickedness" (See: Synecdoche)

translationWords

command

heart

evil

ancestor

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

The oath of Adonoy. Which I made you swear in the name of God.

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 Kings, in the Historical, opens this verse with 11 words (10 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is shᵉbûwʻâh (“oath”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “oath” (shᵉbûwʻâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Genesis 24:8 shares the word «oath» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «שָׁמַ֔רְתָּ» is Qal Perfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 11 Hebrew ↔ 15 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 12 words in this verse.
10 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.