כִּ֠י לֵֽאלֹהֵ֤י אָבִיו֙ דָּרָ֔שׁ וּבְמִצְוֺתָ֖יו הָלָ֑ךְ וְלֹ֖א כְּמַעֲשֵׂ֥ה יִשְׂרָאֵֽל
but sought to the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.
World English Bible · Public Domain
2 Chronicles 17:4
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) 2 Chronicles 17:4 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
English Translation
but sought to the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.
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Compare translations 3
The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.
Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.
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World English Bible Public Domain
but sought to the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.
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King James Version Public Domain
But sought to the Lord God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Instead, the God of his father he sought, and in his commandments he walked and not according to the work of Israel.
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Show all 18 translations
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
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World English Bible Public Domain
but sought to the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
but he sought the God of his father and walked by His commandments rather than the practices of Israel.
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
but he sought the God of his father and walked by His commandments rather than the practices of Israel.
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King James Version Public Domain
But sought to the Lord God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
but sought to the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
but sought to the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
But sought the Lord God of his father, and walked in his commandements, and not after the trade of Israel.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
But in the God of his father, and walk in his commandments, and not according to the sins of Israel.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
for to the God of his father he hath sought, and in His commands he hath walked, and not according to the work of Israel.
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
for he has sought for the God of his father, and he has walked in His commands, and not according to the work of Israel.
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
Instead, he relied on the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, not after the behavior of Israel.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Instead, the God of his father he sought, and in his commandments he walked and not according to the work of Israel.
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Darby Bible Public Domain
but he sought the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
but sought the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not in the ways of Israel.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
But sought to the LORD God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
but worshiped the God of his father and obeyed his commandments, unlike what the kingdom of Israel was doing.
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
But turning to the God of his father and keeping his laws, and not doing as Israel did.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
but sought to the God of his father, and walked in His commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
Word by word
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דָּרָ֔שׁ
dârash
H1875
“to seek”
Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- Appears 165× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Genesis 9:5
- Part of Speech
- Verb
- Stem
- Qal
- Form
- Perfect
- Person
- 3rd Person
- Gender
- Masculine
- Number
- Singular
Full BDB Definition
to resort to, seek, seek with care, enquire, require
- (Qal)
- to resort to, frequent (a place), (tread a place)
- to consult, enquire of, seek
- of God
- of heathen gods, necromancers
- to seek deity in prayer and worship
- God
- heathen deities
- to seek (with a demand), demand, require
- to investigate, enquire
- to ask for, require, demand
- to practice, study, follow, seek with application
- to seek with care, care for
- (Niphal)
- to allow oneself to be enquired of, consulted (only of God)
- to be sought, be sought out
- to be required (of blood)
- כִּ֠י kîy H3588 “that” Conjunction
- לֵֽאלֹהֵ֤י ʼĕlôhîym H430 “to/for · God(s) of” Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct
- אָבִיו֙ ʼâb H1 “father · his” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- דָּרָ֔שׁ dârash H1875 “to seek” Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- וּבְמִצְוֺתָ֖יו mitsvâh H4687 “and · in/at · commandments · his” Conjunction + Preposition + Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- הָלָ֑ךְ hâlak H1980 “to walk” Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- וְלֹ֖א lôʼ H3808 “and · not” Conjunction + Particle, Negative
- כְּמַעֲשֵׂ֥ה maʻăseh H4639 “like/as · work of” Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct
- יִשְׂרָאֵֽל Yisrâʼêl H3478 “Israel” Noun, Proper
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
Grammatical profile
- 2 verbs
- 5 nouns
- 1 conjunction
- 1 particle
Verb forms
- דָּרָ֔שׁ Qal · Perfect
- הָלָ֑ךְ Qal · Perfect
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 20 words from the Hebrew and 26 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.
Cross-references
12Topical passages linked to 2 Chronicles 17:4 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 12:28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: see your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
- Luke 1:6 They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.
- 1 Thessalonians 2:12 to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory.
- 2 Kings 8:18 He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab: for he had the daughter of Ahab as wife; and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh.
- 2 Kings 17:19 Also Judah didn't keep the commandments of Yahweh their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
- Hosea 4:15 "Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, Yet don't let Judah offend; And don't come to Gilgal, Neither go up to Beth Aven, Nor swear, 'As Yahweh lives.'
- 1 Thessalonians 4:1 Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more.
- 1 Kings 12:30 This thing became a sin; for the people went [to worship] before the one, even to Dan.
- 1 Kings 12:33 He went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart: and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and went up to the altar, to burn incense.
- 1 Kings 13:33–34 After this thing Jeroboam didn't return from his evil way, but made again from among all the people priests of the high places: whoever would, he consecrated him, that there might be priests of the high places.
- 1 Kings 16:31–33 It happened, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him.
- Jeremiah 3:7–8 I said after she had done all these things, She will return to me; but she didn't return: and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
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.
ἀλλά κύριος ὁ θεός ὁ πατήρ αὐτός ἐκζητέω καί ἐν ὁ ἐντολή ὁ πατήρ αὐτός πορεύομαι καί οὐ ὡς ὁ ἰσραήλ ὁ ἔργον
but he sought to the Lord God of his father, and walked in the commandments of his father, and not according to the works of Israel.
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 →
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.
2 Chronicles, in the Historical, opens this verse with 9 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is dârash (“to seek”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- What does “to seek” (dârash) contribute to the verse as a whole?
- 1 Kings 12:28 shares this passage’s theme. 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 «דָּרָ֔שׁ» is Qal Perfect. How does its form color the action?
- Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?
Things to notice
- These translations choose different wording for 6 words in this verse.
- 9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on 2 Chronicles 17:4 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
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.
Geneva Bible (1599)
Geneva Bible translators
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne
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
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations
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
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
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Scofield Reference Notes
C. I. Scofield
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.