2 Chronicles 4:21

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

and the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, of gold, and that perfect gold;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 hapax legomenon — only here in the Hebrew Bible
1 first appearance in the Hebrew Bible
Septuagint runs longer here — compare

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מִכְל֥וֹת

miklâh

H4357

“perfection of”

Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct

Appears 1× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H3615

TWOT: 982d

completeness, perfection

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 →

7: words
6: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

1 hapax legomenon — a word that appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible:

מִכְל֥וֹת perfection H4357

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

מִכְל֥וֹת perfection H4357

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וְהַמֶּלְקַחַ֖יִם snuffers H4457 occurs in 6 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

6 nouns
1 pronoun

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

זָהָ֑ב gold H2091 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 15 words from the Hebrew and 22 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably longer here. See the side-by-side →

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

Topical passages linked to 2 Chronicles 4:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 25:31–40 "You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. Of hammered work shall the lampstand be made, even its base, its shaft, its cups, its buds, and its flowers, shall be of one piece with it.
Exodus 37:20 In the lampstand were four cups made like almond-blossoms, its buds and its flowers;
1 Kings 6:18 There was cedar on the house within, carved with buds and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen.
1 Kings 6:29 He carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, inside and outside.
1 Kings 6:35 He carved [thereon] cherubim and palm trees and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold fitted on the engraved work.
2 Chronicles 4:5 It was a handbreadth thick; and the brim of it was worked like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it received and held three thousand baths.

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.

Here the Septuagint runs noticeably longer than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 22 words vs World English Bible 15. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.

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

Hebrew 2 Chronicles 4:21 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְהַפֶּ֧רַח וְהַנֵּר֛וֹת וְהַמֶּלְקַחַ֖יִם זָהָ֑ב ה֖וּא מִכְל֥וֹת זָהָֽב

and the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, of gold, and that perfect gold;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Chronicles 4:21 Septuagint · lemma form

καί λαβίς αὐτός καί ὁ λύχνος αὐτός καί ὁ φιάλη καί ὁ θυΐσκη καί ὁ πυρεῖον χρυσίον καθαρός

And their snuffers, and their lamps were made, and he made the bowls, and the censers, and the fire-pans, of pure gold.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 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 →

Commentary

Notes on 2 Chronicles 4:21 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 →

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 21. And the flowers, and the lamps] Probably each branch of the chandelier was made like a plant in flower, and the opening of the flower was either the lamp, or served to support it.

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) And the flowers . . . gold.—See 1Ki_7:49.

And that perfect gold.—It was perfection of gold. The word miklôth, “perfections” (intensive plural) occurs nowhere else. It is derived from kâlâh, “to be finished,” not kâlal (Bishop Wordsworth). The LXX. omits the clause; not so the Vulg., which renders “all were made of purest gold.” This little touch, added to heighten the effect, is quite in the manner of the chronicler, and is certainly not to be suspected, as Zöckler asserts. Perhaps we should read miklôl, “perfection” (Eze_23:12), instead of the isolated miklôth.

And the snuffers.—Before this expression, and the basons (1Ki_7:50) has probably fallen out.

Snuffers.—Shears or scissors, for trimming the lamps.

The spoons, and the censers.—Or, trays and snuff-dishes.—See 1Ki_7:50; Exo_25:38.

And the entry of the house.—Including both the doors of the nave or holy place, and those of the chancel or holiest. The words are explained by those which follow: “viz., its inner doors to the holy of holies and the doors of the house—viz., to the nave (hêhâl, great hall).” In 1Ki_7:50 we read, “And the hinges to the doors of the inner house—viz., the holy of holies, (and) to the doors of the house—viz., to the nave, were of gold.” The word rendered hinges (pôthôth) resembles that rendered entry (pethah); and some have supposed that the latter is a corruption of the former, and would alter our text accordingly. Two reasons seem to be decisive against such a change. (1) Pôthôth, “hinges,” occurs nowhere else in the Bible; and may not be genuine. It is likely enough that the doors of the Temple were plated with gold (1Ki_6:32; 1Ki_6:35), but hardly that their hinges were made of gold.

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. the flowers] These were ornaments on the golden candlesticks; cp. Exo_37:19.

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.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Flowers. They represented lilies or other flowers (Tirinus) full-blown, when the lamps were burning. All the branches were of pure gold. (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).

The Pulpit Commentary

The flowers; Hebrew, hrp, occurring sixteen times, of which number it is translated" flowers "thirteen times, "buds" twice, and "blossom" once. The flower was a part of the ornamentation of the branches of the candelabrum. (Exo_25:31, Exo_25:33) The tongs; Hebrew, occurring six times, of which number it is translated five times "tongs," but once "snuffers". (Exo_37:23) This latter is the correcter translation, perhaps. The instrument, at any rate, was to trim the lamp-wicks. (Exo_25:38)

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

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

And the flower Our Rabbis explained that this corresponds to the flower that Moses added in the section, “Behaalothecha”: (Num. 8:4) “to its rootstock, to its flower, etc.,” which is not mentioned in “Terumah.”

and the tongs were gold with which they would lift up the wick from the lamp containing oil.

it was fine gold Refined and purified gold, fin in Old French, refined, pure, and in Menahoth (29a) it is explained: out of all the gold that Solomon had, out of the abundance of gold that entered the candelabrum to refine it and purify it and to fulfill the commandment of making a candelabrum of pure gold.

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.

2 Chronicles, in the Historical, opens this verse with 7 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is miklâh (“perfection”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word miklâh carries the sense “perfection.” How does it shape the verse?
1 word here appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Why might the author reach for such rare wording?
This is the first place “perfection” appears in Scripture (first appears here). What does its debut here establish?
How does Exodus 25:38, which shares the word «snuffers», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “gold” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
The Septuagint runs longer here than the Hebrew. What might account for the difference?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
Compare how Adam Clarke's Commentary and Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.
1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
“gold” occurs 2× in this single verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.