2 Chronicles 9:17

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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וַיְצַפֵּ֖הוּ

tsâphâh

H6823

“and · to overlay · him”

Conjunction + Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 47× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 25:11

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root [probably identical with H6822 through the idea of expansion in outlook, transferring to action]

TWOT: 1951

to lay out, lay over, overlay, cover - (Piel) to overlay, plate, stud - (Pual) to be laid over

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

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וַיְצַפֵּ֖הוּ to overlay H6823 occurs in 40 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
4 nouns
2 adjectives

Verb forms

וַיַּ֧עַשׂ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיְצַפֵּ֖הוּ Piel · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 15 words from the Hebrew and 16 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 9:17 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 10:18–20 Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the finest gold.
Psalms 45:8 All your garments smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia. Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad.
Revelation 20:11 I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for 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 9:17 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיַּ֧עַשׂ הַמֶּ֛לֶךְ כִּסֵּא שֵׁ֖ן גָּד֑וֹל וַיְצַפֵּ֖הוּ זָהָ֥ב טָהֽוֹר

Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Chronicles 9:17 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ποιέω ὁ βασιλεύς θρόνος ἐλεφάντινος ὀδούς μέγας καί καταχρυσόω αὐτός χρυσίον δόκιμος

And the king made a great throne of ivory, and he gilded it with pure gold.

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 9:17 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

2Ch 9:17 Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold.

Ver. 17. Moreover the king made.] See on 1Ki 10:18.

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.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

9:17-19 Solomon’s throne was very grand. There were six steps, and the throne might have stood on a platform that made a seventh step; similar Babylonian temple towers were built in seven stages to represent the entire cosmos.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 17. Made a great throne of ivory] For a very curious description of the throne of Solomon, see at the end of the chapter. 2Ch 9:29.

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

(17) Pure.—Tahôr, a common word, for the once occurring mûphaz of Kings.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Vers. 17-19. It is not necessary to suppose that the throne was made of solid ivory (Psa_45:9; Amo_3:15 Amo_6:4) or that the overlaying gold concealed the ivory, whether more or less of it. The parallel adds that "the top of the throne was round behind". (1Ki_10:19) Comparing also the two accounts, it would appear that there were twelve lions on each side of the throne, i.e. two to each step. When it is said that there were two lions standing by the stays (or, arms) on each side of the sitting-place, we may easily imagine, from ancient modelled thrones, that of them the arms were themselves "no small part." It is remarkable that the parallel does not take cognizance of the footstool. The lion is, of course, as natural a symbol as it is an old one of sovereign power and place; and the use of the lion and the number of them, reminding of the tribes of Israel, were specifically justified to the people, whose oracles contained such words as those in Gen_49:9; Num_23:24 Num_24:9. Josephus tells us that a golden bull supported the seat of the throne. If so, it is remarkable that the statement should be omitted in both of our Old Testament narrations. The dimensions of the throne we might have looked for, but they are not given. That they were well proportioned to the height, marked by six steps, may be taken for granted.

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

the king made a great throne

The author speaks of commanding his workers to build the throne as if he himself had built it. AT: "the king had his workers make a great throne" or "the king's workers made" (See: Metonymy)

a great throne of ivory

"a great throne decorated with ivory"

ivory

Ivory is the hard, white substance from the tusks or teeth of large animals, such as the elephant, walrus, or hippopotamus. (See: Translate Unknowns)

two lions

These were statues. AT: "two statues of lions" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

translationWords

king

throne

footstool

lions

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)

ivory throne the ivory of elephants.

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

Discussion questions

The word tsâphâh carries the sense “to overlay.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Exodus 25:11, which shares the word «to overlay», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«וַיַּ֧עַשׂ» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Tyndale Open Study Notes 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 1 word in this verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.