2 Kings 23:32

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his fathers had done.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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הָרַ֖ע

raʻ

H7451

“the · evil”

Particle, Definite Article + Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 666× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 2:9

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H7489

TWOT: 2191a , 2191c

bad, evil (adjective) - bad, disagreeable, malignant - bad, unpleasant, evil (giving pain, unhappiness, misery) - evil, displeasing - bad (of its kind - land, water, etc) - bad (of value) - worse than, worst (comparison) - sad, unhappy - evil (hurtful) - bad, unkind (vicious in disposition) - bad, evil, wicked (ethically) - in general, of persons, of thoughts - deeds, actions - evil, distress, misery, injury, calamity (noun masculine) - evil, distress, adversity - evil, injury, wrong - evil (ethical) - evil, misery, distress, injury (noun feminine) - evil, misery, distress - evil, injury, wrong - evil (ethical)

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
7: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
4 nouns
1 adjective
1 particle

Verb forms

וַיַּ֥עַשׂ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
עָשׂ֖וּ Qal · Perfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וַיַּ֥עַשׂ to do H6213 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 19 words from the Hebrew and 20 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 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

Topical passages linked to 2 Kings 23:32 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

2 Kings 21:2–7 He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, after the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel.
2 Kings 21:21–22 He walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshiped 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 Kings 23:32 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיַּ֥עַשׂ הָרַ֖ע בְּעֵינֵ֣י יְהוָ֑ה כְּכֹ֥ל אֲשֶׁר עָשׂ֖וּ אֲבֹתָֽיו

He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his fathers had done.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Kings 23:32 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ποιέω ὁ πονηρός ἐν ὀφθαλμός κύριος κατά πᾶς ὅσος ποιέω ὁ πατήρ αὐτός

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers did.

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.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וַעֲבַד דְבִישׁ קֳדָם יְיָ כְּכָל דַעֲבָדוּ אֲבָהָתוֹהִי:

(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.

Commentary

Notes on 2 Kings 23:32 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

2Ki 23:32 And he did [that which was] evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.

Ver. 32. And he did evil.] See Eze 19:2-9.

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

2Ki 23:32. He did evil, according to all that his fathers had done — That is, his grand-parents, Manasseh and Amon. He restored that idolatry which his father had destroyed. Jerusalem saw not a good day after Josiah was laid in his grave; but one trouble came after another, till, within two and twenty years, it was destroyed.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

23:32 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight: The entrenched wickedness and apostasy of the times surfaced even in Josiah’s own sons (23:32, 37; 24:9, 19). The Lord’s intention to judge Judah (23:26-27) was justified and would soon be fulfilled.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Meaning, the wicked kings before.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(32) And he did that which was evil . . .—Comp. Ezekiel’s lamentation for the princes of Judah,” where Jehoahaz is called a young lion that “devoureth men,” alluding to his oppressive rapacity and shameless abuse of power (Eze_19:1-4).

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

John Gill's Exposition

And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father,.... Not in the room of Jehoahaz; for he did not allow him to be a king, and to have any lawful right to the throne; but, deposing him, set up his elder brother:

and turned his name to Jehoiakim; to show his subjection to him, and that he held his government by him:

and took Jehoahaz away: with him, from Jerusalem, when he departed thence:

and he came to Egypt, and died there: and never returned to Jerusalem, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah, Jer 22:11.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

i.e. His grandparents, Manasseh and Amon. He restored that idolatry which his father had destroyed, partly to gratify the generality of the people, who had made him king, and who were inclined to their old superstitions even in Josiah’s time, as was observed before, though restrained from the outward acts by fear; and partly to sweeten the king of Egypt, who possibly was a zealous idolater, by his compliance with him in the worship of idols.

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

32. He did that which was evil — His short rule evinced his character for evil. It was during that short period that the high places and images were restored in many parts of the land. This shows that Josiah’s reformation had not changed the nation’s heart.

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

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord (see the comment on vers. 31-33). Josephus says that he was ajsebhv kai miarov topon (l. s. c. ) and of impure habits." Ezekiel (19:3) seems to call him a persecutor. According to all that his fathers had done. As idolatry was the chief sin of his "fathers," Jehoahaz must have been an idolater.

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

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

His fathers - His grand-parents, Manasseh, and Amon. He restored that idolatry which his father had destroyed. Jerusalem saw not a good day, after Josiah was laid in his grave; but one trouble came after another, 'till within two and twenty years it was destroyed.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

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 8 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is raʻ (“evil”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word raʻ carries the sense “evil.” How does it shape the verse?
2 Kings 21:2–7 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
“to do” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
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?
The verb «וַיַּ֥עַשׂ» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 14 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 7 words in this verse.
“to do” occurs 2× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.