וַיַּֽעַבְד֖וּ הַגִּלֻּלִ֑ים אֲשֶׁ֨ר אָמַ֤ר יְהוָה֙ לָהֶ֔ם לֹ֥א תַעֲשׂ֖וּ אֶת הַדָּבָ֥ר הַזֶּֽה
and they served idols, of which Yahweh had said to them, You shall not do this thing.
World English Bible · Public Domain
2 Kings 17:12
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) 2 Kings 17:12 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
and they served idols, of which Yahweh had said to them, You shall not do this thing.
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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
and they served idols, of which Yahweh had said to them, You shall not do this thing.
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King James Version Public Domain
For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And they served idols, which Yahweh had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”
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
and they served idols, of which Yahweh had said to them, You shall not do this thing.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
They served idols, although the LORD had told them, “You shall not do this thing.”
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
They served idols, although the LORD had told them, “You shall not do this thing.”
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King James Version Public Domain
For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
and they served idols, whereof Jehovah had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
and they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
And serued idoles: whereof the Lord had sayd vnto them, Ye shall do no such thing,
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
And they worshipped abominations, concerning which the Lord had commanded them that they should not do this thing.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
and serve the idols, of which Jehovah said to them, `Ye do not do this thing;'
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
and serve the idols, of which YHWH said to them, “You do not do this thing.”
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
they worshiped idols, about which Yahweh had said to them, “You will not do this thing.”
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And they served idols, which Yahweh had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”
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Darby Bible Public Domain
and they served idols, as to which Jehovah had said to them, Ye shall not do this thing.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
For they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, Ye shall not do this thing.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
They worshiped idols, even though the Lord had told them, “You are not to do this.”
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
And they made themselves servants of disgusting things, though the Lord had said, You are not to do this.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
and they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them: 'Ye shall not do this thing';
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 →
הַגִּלֻּלִ֑ים
gillûwl
H1544
“the · idols”
Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute
- Appears 48× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Leviticus 26:30
- Part of Speech
- Particle + Noun
- Type
- Common
- Gender
- Masculine
- Number
- Plural
- State
- Absolute
Full BDB Definition
idols
- וַיַּֽעַבְד֖וּ ʻâbad H5647 “and · to serve” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
- הַגִּלֻּלִ֑ים gillûwl H1544 “the · idols” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute
- אֲשֶׁ֨ר ʼăsher H834 “which” Particle, Relative
- אָמַ֤ר ʼâmar H559 “to say” Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- יְהוָה֙ Yᵉhôvâh H3068 “LORD” Noun, Proper
- לֹ֥א lôʼ H3808 “not” Particle, Negative
- תַעֲשׂ֖וּ ʻâsâh H6213 “to do” Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural
- אֶת ʼêth H853 “-” Particle, Direct Object
- הַדָּבָ֥ר dâbâr H1697 “the · word” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- הַזֶּֽה zeh H2088 “the · this” Particle, Definite Article + Pronoun, Demonstrative, Masculine, Singular
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 →
- 11
- words
- 10
- distinct lemmas
- Historical
- section
Shared distinctive vocabulary
הַגִּלֻּלִ֑ים idols H1544 occurs in 45 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
- 3 verbs
- 3 nouns
- 1 pronoun
- 1 preposition
- 3 particles
Verb forms
- וַיַּֽעַבְד֖וּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
- אָמַ֤ר Qal · Perfect
- תַעֲשׂ֖וּ Qal · Imperfect
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 21 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 11 Hebrew tokens and 14 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
7Topical passages linked to 2 Kings 17:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Exodus 20:3–5 You shall have no other gods before me.
- Exodus 34:14 for you shall worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
- Leviticus 26:1 "'You shall make for yourselves no idols, neither shall you raise up an engraved image or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it: for I am Yahweh your God.
- Deuteronomy 4:15–19 Take therefore good heed to yourselves; for you saw no manner of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire.
- Deuteronomy 4:23–25 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make you an engraved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you.
- Deuteronomy 5:7–9 You shall have no other gods before me.
- Deuteronomy 12:4 You shall not do so to Yahweh your God.
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 λατρεύω ὁ εἴδωλον ὅς εἶπον κύριος αὐτός οὐ ποιέω ὁ ῥῆμα οὗτος κύριος
And they served the idols, of which the Lord said to them, You⌃ shall not do this thing against the Lord.
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
On this verse, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 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 →
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)
וּפְלָחוּ יַת בְּעָלַיָא דִי אֲמַר יְיָ לְהוֹן לָא תַעַבְדוּן יַת פִּתְגָמָא הָדֵין:
(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 11 words (10 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is gillûwl (“idols”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- How does “idols” (gillûwl) shape what this verse is saying?
- How does Leviticus 26:30, which shares the word «idols», 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?
- «וַיַּֽעַבְד֖וּ» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
- Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?
Things to notice
- This verse counts 11 Hebrew ↔ 14 Greek words.
- These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
- 10 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on 2 Kings 17:12 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.
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.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
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 Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.