וַיְזַבֵּ֧חַ וַיְקַטֵּ֛ר בַּבָּמ֖וֹת וְעַל הַגְּבָע֑וֹת וְתַ֖חַת כָּל עֵ֥ץ רַעֲנָֽן
He sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
World English Bible · Public Domain
2 Kings 16:4
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) 2 Kings 16:4 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
He sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
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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
He sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
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King James Version Public Domain
And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places and on hills and under every green tree.
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
He sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.
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King James Version Public Domain
And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
Also he offred and burnt incense in the hie places and on the hilles, and vnder euery greene tree.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places and on the hills, and under every green tree.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
and he sacrificeth and maketh perfume in high places, and on the heights, and under every green tree.
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
and he sacrifices and makes incense in high places, and on the heights, and under every green tree.
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops, and under every green tree.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places and on hills and under every green tree.
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Darby Bible Public Domain
And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
He sacrificed and burned incense in the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
He sacrificed and presented burnt offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
And he made offerings, burning them in the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
And he sacrificed and offered in the high places, and on the hills, and under every leafy tree.
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
More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →
Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →
רַעֲנָֽן
raʻănân
H7488
“luxuriant”
Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- Appears 20× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Deuteronomy 12:2
- Part of Speech
- Adjective
- Type
- Adjective
- Gender
- Masculine
- Number
- Singular
- State
- Absolute
Full BDB Definition
(Palel) to be or grow luxuriant or fresh or green (verb)
- luxuriant, fresh (adjective)
- וַיְזַבֵּ֧חַ zâbach H2076 “and · to sacrifice” Conjunction + Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- וַיְקַטֵּ֛ר qâṭar H6999 “and · to burn incense” Conjunction + Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- בַּבָּמ֖וֹת bâmâh H1116 “in/at the · high places” Preposition, Determined + Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute
- וְעַל ʻal H5921 “and · upon” Conjunction + Preposition
- הַגְּבָע֑וֹת gibʻâh H1389 “the · hills” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute
- וְתַ֖חַת tachath H8478 “and · under” Conjunction + Preposition
- כָּל kôl H3605 “all of” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct
- עֵ֥ץ ʻêts H6086 “tree” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- רַעֲנָֽן raʻănân H7488 “luxuriant” Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
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
Notable vocabulary
The rarest word here is רַעֲנָֽן luxuriant H7488 — appearing just 20 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
Shared distinctive vocabulary
רַעֲנָֽן luxuriant H7488 occurs in 20 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
- 2 verbs
- 4 nouns
- 1 adjective
- 2 prepositions
Verb forms
- וַיְזַבֵּ֧חַ Piel · Sequential Imperfect
- וַיְקַטֵּ֛ר Piel · Sequential Imperfect
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 18 words from the Hebrew and 19 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 9 Hebrew tokens and 16 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
8Topical passages linked to 2 Kings 16:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 12:2 You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree:
- 1 Kings 14:23 For they also built them high places, and pillars, and Asherim, on every high hill, and under every green tree;
- 2 Kings 14:4 However the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.
- Isaiah 57:5–7 you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?
- Isaiah 65:4 who sit among the graves, and lodge in the secret places; who eat pig's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
- Isaiah 66:17 Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves [to go] to the gardens, behind one in the midst, eating pig's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together, says Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 17:2 while their children remember their altars and their Asherim by the green trees on the high hills.
- Ezekiel 20:28–29 For when I had brought them into the land, which I swore to give to them, then they saw every high hill, and every thick tree, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering; there also they made their sweet savor, and they poured out there their drink-offerings.
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.
καί θυσιάζω καί θυμιάζω ἐν ὁ ὑψηλός καί ἐπί ὁ βουνός καί ὑποκάτω πᾶς ξύλον ἀλσώδης
And he sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places, and upon the hills, and under every shady tree.
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 →
Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)
The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.
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Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)
וּדְבַח וְאַסֵיק בּוּסְמִין עַל בָּמָתָא וְעַל רָמָתָא וּתְחוֹת כָּל אִילָן עַבּוּף:
(no public-domain English translation for this verse)
Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). 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 Kings, in the Historical, opens this verse with 9 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is raʻănân (“luxuriant”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- The word raʻănân carries the sense “luxuriant.” How does it shape the verse?
- How does Deuteronomy 12:2, which shares the word «luxuriant», 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?
- «וַיְזַבֵּ֧חַ» is a Piel Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
- Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?
Things to notice
- This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 16 Greek words.
- These translations choose different wording for 2 words in this verse.
- 9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on 2 Kings 16:4 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.
Joseph Benson's Commentary
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
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
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.