2 Chronicles 5:4

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

All the elders of Israel came: and the Levites took up the ark;

World English Bible · Public Domain

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זִקְנֵ֣י

zâqên

H2205

“old of”

Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Construct

Appears 179× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 18:11

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H2204

TWOT: 574b

old - old (of humans) - elder (of those having authority)

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 →

8: words
8: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
4 nouns
1 adjective
1 particle

Verb forms

וַיָּבֹ֕אוּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיִּשְׂא֥וּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 13 words from the Hebrew and 15 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 8 Hebrew tokens and 13 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 5:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Joshua 3:6 Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. They took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.
1 Kings 8:3 All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.
Numbers 4:15 "When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary, and all the furniture of the sanctuary, as the camp moves forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to carry it: but they shall not touch the sanctuary, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the Tent of Meeting.
Joshua 6:6 Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of Yahweh.
1 Chronicles 15:2 Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them has Yahweh chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister to him forever.
1 Chronicles 15:12–14 and said to them, You are the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both you and your brothers, that you may bring up the ark of Yahweh, the God of Israel, to [the place] that I have prepared for it.
2 Chronicles 5:7 The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim.

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 5:4 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיָּבֹ֕אוּ כֹּ֖ל זִקְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַיִּשְׂא֥וּ הַלְוִיִּ֖ם אֶת הָאָרֽוֹן

All the elders of Israel came: and the Levites took up the ark;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Chronicles 5:4 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἔρχομαι πᾶς ὁ πρεσβύτερος ἰσραήλ καί λαμβάνω πᾶς ὁ λευείτης ὁ κιβωτός

And all the elders of Israel came; and all the Levites took up the ark,

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 5:4 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 →

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) The Levites.—Kings has the priests; and so Syr. and Arab, here; but LXX. and Vulg., Levites. The latter term, as the tribal name, may of course be used to include the priests or Aaronites, as well as their inferior brethren. 2Ch_5:7 shows that the priests are intended here.

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

4. the Levites took up the ark] According to 1 Kings the, priests performed this duty. Cp. 1Ch_15:2; 1Ch_15:12-13. It is clear from these passages that the Chronicler believed that in the days of David and Solomon, as in his own, the Levites were regarded as a class subordinate to the priests, having special duties distinct from those of the true “priests.” It is however more probable that in these early days all Levites were possible priests, Levi being the name of the priestly clan, and not of a lower order of priests.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Levites took up the ark - i. e., such of the Levites as were also priests (compare 2Ch 5:7; 1Ki 8:3).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Levites, with the priests alternately; (3 Kings viii. 2.) or the latter were all Levites, (Calmet) though higher in dignity, in the same manner as our bishops are priests.

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 Levites. So see Num_4:15, Num_4:19, Num_4:20, which, with our vers. 5, 7, throw this statement into sufficient harmony with that of the parallel, (1Ki_8:3) which purports to say that the priests only, unaided by the Kohathite Levites, performed the service.

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

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

Instead of הלויּם, we have in 2 Kings הכּהנים, the priests bare the ark; and since even according to the Chronicle (Ch2 5:7) the priests bare the ark into the holy place, we must understand by הלויּם such Levites were also priests. - In Ch2 5:5, too the words הלויּם הכּהנים are inexact, and are to be corrected by Kg1 8:4, והלויּם הכּהנים. For even if the Levitic priests bare the ark and the sacred utensils of the tabernacle into the temple, yet the tabernacle itself (the planks, hangings, and coverings of it) was borne into the temple, to be preserved as a holy relic, not by priests, but only by Levites. The conj. ו before הלוים has probably been omitted only by a copyist, who was thinking of הלוים הכהנים (Jos 3:3; Deu 17:9, Deu 17:18, etc.). - In Ch2 5:8 ויכסּוּ is an orthographical error for ויּסכּוּ, Kg1 8:7; cf. Ch1 28:18; Exo 25:20. - In Ch2 5:9, too, מן־הארון has probably come into our text only by a copyist's mistake instead of מן־הקּדשׁ (Kg1 8:8).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

furnishings

This refers to all of the bowls and tools that were used in the house of God. See how you translated this in 2 Chronicles 4:19

all the assembly of Israel

Here "all" is a generalization meaning very many Israelites. (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)

sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted

This is an exaggeration that emphasizes the great number of animals that were sacrificed. This can be stated in active form. AT: "sacrificing more sheep and oxen than anyone could count" or "sacrificing very many sheep and oxen" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization and Active or Passive)

translationWords

Levi

tent of meeting

holy

priest

sacrifice

ewe

cow

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 8 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is zâqên (“old”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word zâqên carries the sense “old.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Joshua 3:6, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
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?
«וַיָּבֹ֕אוּ» is a Qal 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 8 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.