2 Chronicles 34:20

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

The king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,

World English Bible · Public Domain

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עַבְדּ֨וֹן

ʻAbdôwn

H5658

“Abdon”

Noun, Proper

Appears 8× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Joshua 21:30

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H5647

TWOT: None

Abdon = "servile" - a judge of Israel in the time of the judges; perhaps the same as 'Bedan' (noun proper masculine) - a Benjamite, son of Shashak (noun proper masculine) - a Gibeonite, son of Jehiel and a grandson of Gideon (noun proper masculine) - son of Micah in the time of king Josiah of Judah; also 'Achbor' (noun proper masculine) - a city in Asher allotted to the Gershonite Levites; located 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Accho; modern 'Abdeh' (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 →

20: words
13: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is עַבְדּ֨וֹן Abdon H5658 — appearing just 8 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

עַבְדּ֨וֹן Abdon H5658 occurs in 8 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
13 nouns
5 particles

Verb forms

וַיְצַ֣ו Piel · Sequential Imperfect
לֵאמֹֽר Qal · Infinitive Construct

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

הַמֶּ֡לֶךְ king H4428 ×2
בֶּן son H1121 ×2
שָׁ֠פָן rock badger H8227 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 26 words from the Hebrew and 29 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 20 Hebrew tokens and 28 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 2 Chronicles 34:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

2 Kings 22:12 The king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,
2 Kings 25:22 As for the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, governor.
Jeremiah 26:22 and Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, [namely], Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him, into Egypt;
Jeremiah 26:24 But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.
Jeremiah 40:6 Then went Jeremiah to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah, and lived with him among the people who were left in the land.
Jeremiah 40:9 Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan swore to them and to their men, saying, Don't be afraid to serve the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.
Jeremiah 40:14 and said to him, Do you know that Baalis the king of the children of Ammon has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your life? But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam didn't believe them.

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 2 Chronicles 34:20 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיְצַ֣ו הַמֶּ֡לֶךְ אֶת חִלְקִיָּ֡הוּ וְאֶת אֲחִיקָ֣ם בֶּן שָׁ֠פָן וְאֶת עַבְדּ֨וֹן בֶּן מִיכָ֜ה וְאֵ֣ת שָׁפָ֣ן הַסּוֹפֵ֗ר וְאֵ֛ת עֲשָׂיָ֥ה עֶֽבֶד הַמֶּ֖לֶךְ לֵאמֹֽר

The king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Chronicles 34:20 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἐντέλλω ὁ βασιλεύς ὁ χελκιας καί ὁ αχικαμ υἱός σαφαν καί ὁ αβδων υἱός μιχαια καί ὁ σαφαν ὁ γραμματεύς καί ὁ ασαια παῖς ὁ βασιλεύς λέγω

And the king commanded Chelcias, and Achicam the son of Saphan, and Abdom the son of Michaias, and Saphan the scribe, and Asia the servant of the king, saying,

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 2 Chronicles 34:20 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

(20-28) The royal message to the prophetess Huldah, and her reply. Comp. 2Ki_22:12-20.

Abdon the son of Micah.—Kings, “Achbor the son of Micaiah,” which appears right. The Syriac has Abachûr. (See Jer_26:22; Jer_36:12.)

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. Ahikam the son of Shaphan] Cp. Jer_26:24; Jer_40:5.

Abdon the son of Micah] In 2 Kin. “Achbor the son of Micaiah.”

a servant of the king’s] R.V. the king’s servant.

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.

The Pulpit Commentary

Ahikam the son of Shaphan. (see Jer_26:24 Jer_40:5) Abdon the son of Micah. The parallel (2Ki_22:12) and the Syriac Version have "Achbor the son of Michaiah". (see also Jer_26:22 Jer_36:12)

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

Ahikam son of Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah, Shaphan ... Asaiah

These are the names of men. (See:How to Translate Names)

ask Yahweh's will for me

The word "will" can be translated as a verb. Also, it is made clear in 2 Chronicles 34:22 that the king means for the men to go to the prophetess of Yahweh to determine Yahweh's will. AT: "Ask Yahweh what he wants me to do" (See: Abstract Nouns)

because of the words

"concerning the words"

the words of the book that has been found

Here "words" represents the laws. This can be stated in active form. AT: "the laws in the book that Hilkiah has found" (See: Metonymy and Active or Passive)

For it is great, the anger of Yahweh that has been poured out on us. It is great

Emotions such as anger are often spoken of in Scripture as if they were liquids. AT: "For Yahweh's anger towards us is great, like water that could totally wash us away" or "For great is Yahweh's anger with which he has punished us" (See: Metaphor)

all that was written in it

This can be stated in active form. AT: "all that is written in it" or "all that is in this book" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

kingdom of Israel

kingdom of Judah

anger

obey

written

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

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 20 words (13 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʻAbdôwn (“Abdon”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Abdon” (ʻAbdôwn) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Joshua 21:30, which shares the word «Abdon», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “king” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«וַיְצַ֣ו» is a Piel Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 20 Hebrew ↔ 28 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 1 word in this verse.
“king” occurs 2× in this single verse.
13 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 20 words in this verse.