2 Kings 3:5

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

But it happened, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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וַיִּפְשַׁ֥ע

pâshaʻ

H6586

“and · to rebel”

Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 41× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at 1 Kings 8:50

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root [identical with H6585 through the idea of expansion]

TWOT: TWOT - 1846

to rebel, transgress, revolt - (Qal) - to rebel, revolt - to transgress - (Niphal) to be rebelled against

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

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וַיִּפְשַׁ֥ע to rebel H6586 occurs in 37 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
6 nouns

Verb forms

וַיְהִ֖י Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיִּפְשַׁ֥ע Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Repetition

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

מֶֽלֶךְ king H4428 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 18 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 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 Kings 3:5 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 1:1 Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.
2 Kings 8:20 In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves.
2 Chronicles 21:8–10 In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves.

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 3:5 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיְהִ֖י כְּמ֣וֹת אַחְאָ֑ב וַיִּפְשַׁ֥ע מֶֽלֶךְ מוֹאָ֖ב בְּמֶ֥לֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל

But it happened, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Kings 3:5 Septuagint · lemma form

καί γίγνομαι μετά ὁ ἀποθνήσκω αχααβ καί ἀθετέω βασιλεύς μωαβ ἐν βασιλεύς ἰσραήλ

And it came to pass, after the death of Achaab, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

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)

וַהֲוָה כַּד מִית אַחְאָב וּמְרִיד מַלְכָּא דְמוֹאָב בְּמַלְכָּא דְיִשְׂרָאֵל:

(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 3:5 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 3:5 But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

Ver. 5. When Ahab was dead.] Elephanti mortuo vel mus insultat. But besides the death of Ahab, Ahaziah his son and successor was weak; and hence this revolt of Moab from him.

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.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

king of Moab rebelled--This is a repetition of Kg2 1:1, in order to introduce an account of the confederate expedition for crushing this revolt, which had been allowed to continue unchecked during the short reign of Ahaziah.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) But.—And.

When.—So some MSS. The ordinary text has, “about the time of Ahab’s death” (ke for be).

Rebelled—i.e., refused payment of the annual tribute.

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

5. when Ahab was dead] The sickness of Ahaziah had no doubt prevented him from taking any step during his brief reign to suppress the revolt of Moab. It is probable that during Ahaziah’s time all those reconquests, that are mentioned in the Mesha tablet, were made by the Moabites, the king of Israel being able to offer no resistance.

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

And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, the king of Moab hath rebelled against me,.... By refusing to pay him tribute:

wilt thou go up with me against Moab to battle? and he said, I will go up; which he agreed to, partly to encourage in the reformation of religion which he had begun, and partly to chastise the Moabites for their invasion of his country, Ch2 20:1.

I am as thou art, my people as thy people, and my horses as thy horses; the same answer he returned to Ahab; see Gill on Kg1 22:4.

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

See of this 2Ki 1:1. It is here repeated to make way for the following story. Ahaziah did not attempt the recovery of Moab, either because he was a man of a low spirit and courage; or because his sickness, or the shortness of his reign, gave not opportunity for it.

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

5. When Ahab was dead — Immediately after the death of Ahab Mesha had thrown off the yoke, but not until the reign of Jehoram was an effort made to subdue the revolt. Ahaziah’s sickness was the cause of this delay. See note on 2Ki_1:1.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 pâshaʻ (“to rebel”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “to rebel” (pâshaʻ) contribute to the verse as a whole?
1 Kings 8:50 shares the word «to rebel» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“king” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «וַיְהִ֖י» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 7 words in this verse.
“king” occurs 2× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.