וַיַּעֲזֹ֕ב אֶת יְהוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵ֣י אֲבֹתָ֑יו וְלֹ֥א הָלַ֖ךְ בְּדֶ֥רֶךְ יְהוָֽה
and he forsook Yahweh, the God of his fathers, and didn't walk in the way of Yahweh.
World English Bible · Public Domain
2 Kings 21:22
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) 2 Kings 21:22 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 he forsook Yahweh, the God of his fathers, and didn't walk in the way of Yahweh.
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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 he forsook Yahweh, the God of his fathers, and didn't walk in the way of Yahweh.
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King James Version Public Domain
And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And he abandoned Yahweh, the God of his fathers, and he did not walk in the way of Yahweh.
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 he forsook Yahweh, the God of his fathers, and didn't walk in the way of Yahweh.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
He abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD.
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
He abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD.
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King James Version Public Domain
And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
and he forsook Jehovah, the God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of Jehovah.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
and he forsook the LORD, the God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
And he forsooke the Lord God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the Lord.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
And forsook the Lord the God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the Lord.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
and forsaketh Jehovah, God of his fathers, and hath not walked in the way of Jehovah.
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
and forsakes YHWH, God of his fathers, and has not walked in the way of YHWH.
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
He abandoned Yahweh, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of Yahweh.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And he abandoned Yahweh, the God of his fathers, and he did not walk in the way of Yahweh.
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Darby Bible Public Domain
and he forsook Jehovah the God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of Jehovah.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
and he abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and didn’t walk in the way of the LORD.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
He rejected the Lord, the God of his forefathers, and did not follow the way of the Lord.
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
Turning away from the Lord, the God of his fathers, and not walking in his ways.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
And he forsook the LORD, the God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.
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 →
וַיַּעֲזֹ֕ב
ʻâzab
H5800
“and · to leave”
Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- Appears 215× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Genesis 2:24
- Part of Speech
- Conjunction + Verb
- Stem
- Qal
- Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- Person
- 3rd Person
- Gender
- Masculine
- Number
- Singular
Full BDB Definition
to leave, loose, forsake
- (Qal) to leave
- to depart from, leave behind, leave, let alone
- to leave, abandon, forsake, neglect, apostatise
- to let loose, set free, let go, free
- (Niphal)
- to be left to
- to be forsaken
- (Pual) to be deserted
- to restore, repair
- (Qal) to repair
- וַיַּעֲזֹ֕ב ʻâzab H5800 “and · to leave” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- אֶת ʼêth H853 “-” Particle, Direct Object
- יְהוָ֖ה Yᵉhôvâh H3068 “LORD” Noun, Proper
- אֱלֹהֵ֣י ʼĕlôhîym H430 “God(s) of” Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct
- אֲבֹתָ֑יו ʼâb H1 “fathers · his” Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- וְלֹ֥א lôʼ H3808 “and · not” Conjunction + Particle, Negative
- הָלַ֖ךְ hâlak H1980 “to walk” Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- בְּדֶ֥רֶךְ derek H1870 “in/at · way of” Preposition + Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct
- יְהוָֽה Yᵉhôvâh H3068 “LORD” Noun, Proper
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
- 8
- distinct lemmas
- Historical
- section
Grammatical profile
- 2 verbs
- 5 nouns
- 2 particles
Verb forms
- וַיַּעֲזֹ֕ב Qal · Sequential Imperfect
- הָלַ֖ךְ Qal · Perfect
Repetition
A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
- יְהוָ֖ה LORD H3068 ×2
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 18 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 15 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
6Topical passages linked to 2 Kings 21:22 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 11:33 because that they have forsaken me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon; and they have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in my eyes, and [to keep] my statutes and my ordinances, as did David his father.
- 2 Kings 22:17 Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and it shall not be quenched.
- 1 Chronicles 28:9 You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts: if you seek him, he will be found of you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.
- Deuteronomy 32:15 But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked: You have grown fat, you are grown thick, you are become sleek; Then he forsook God who made him, Lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
- Jeremiah 2:13 For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
- Jonah 2:8 Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
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 ἐν καταλείπω ὁ κύριος θεός ὁ πατήρ αὐτός καί οὐ πορεύομαι ἐν ὁδός κύριος
And he forsook the Lord God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the Lord.
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)
וּשְׁבַק יַת פּוּלְחָנָא דַייָ אֱלָהָא דַאֲבָהָתוֹהִי וְלָא הַלֵיךְ בְּאוֹרְחָא דְתַקְנָא קֳדָם יְיָ:
(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 (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʻâzab (“to leave”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- How does “to leave” (ʻâzab) shape what this verse is saying?
- How does 1 Kings 11:33, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
- What does the repetition of “LORD” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
- These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
- «וַיַּעֲזֹ֕ב» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
- Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?
Things to notice
- This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 15 Greek words.
- These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
- “LORD” occurs 2× in this single verse.
- 8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on 2 Kings 21:22 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.
Geneva Bible (1599)
Geneva Bible translators
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.
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.
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.