Then he said, Go, borrow you vessels abroad of all your neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
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The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
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Then he said, Go, borrow you vessels abroad of all your neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
And he said, “Go, ask for yourself vessels from outside, from all of your neighbors, empty vessels. Do not get few.
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
Then he said, Go, borrow you vessels abroad of all your neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
“Go,” said Elisha, “borrow jars, even empty ones, from all your neighbors. Do not gather just a few.
“Go,” said Elisha, “borrow empty jars from all your neighbors. Do not gather just a few.
Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
And he sayde, Goe, and borowe thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, emptie vessels, and spare not.
And he said to her: Go, borrow of all thy neighbours empty vessels not a few.
And he saith, `Go, ask for thee vessels from without, from all thy neighbours -- empty vessels -- let `them' not be few;
And he says, “Go, ask [for] vessels for yourself from outside, from all your neighbors—empty vessels—let [them] not be few;
Then Elisha said, “Go out to borrow jars from your neighbors, empty jars. Borrow as many as possible.
And he said, “Go, ask for yourself vessels from outside, from all of your neighbors, empty vessels. Do not get few.
And he said, Go, borrow for thyself vessels abroad from all thy neighbours, empty vessels; let it not be few;
Then he said, “Go, borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Don’t borrow just a few containers.
Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
“Go and borrow empty jars from your neighbors—as many as possible, not just a few,” Elisha told her.
Then he said, Go out to all your neighbours and get vessels, a very great number of them.
Then he said: 'Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
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).
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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 →
Notable vocabulary
The rarest word here is רֵקִ֖ים empty H7386 — appearing just 14 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
Shared distinctive vocabulary
רֵקִ֖ים empty H7386 occurs in 14 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Repetition
Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 19 words from the Hebrew and 22 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 15 Hebrew tokens and 18 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.
Topical passages linked to 2 Kings 4:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
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.
וַיֹּ֗אמֶר לְכִ֨י שַׁאֲלִי לָ֤ךְ כֵּלִים֙ מִן הַח֔וּץ מֵאֵ֖ת כָּל שכנכי שְׁכֵנָ֑יִךְ כֵּלִ֥ים רֵקִ֖ים אַל תַּמְעִֽיטִי
Then he said, Go, borrow you vessels abroad of all your neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
World English Bible · Public Domain
καί εἶπον πρός αὐτός δεῦρο αἰτέω σεαυτοῦ σκεῦος ἔξωθεν παρά πᾶς ὁ γείτων σύ σκεῦος κενός μή ὀλιγόω
And he said to her, Go, borrow for yourself vessels without of all your neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
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 →
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.
וַאֲמַר אֱזִילִי שְׁאִילִי לִיךְ מָנִין מִן בָּרָא מִן כָּל שְׁבַבַיְכִי מָנִין רֵיקָנִין לָא תַזְעִירִין:
(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.
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 15 words (12 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is rêyq (“empty”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on 2 Kings 4:3 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.
The Biblical Illustrator
Joseph S. Exell
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — 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.
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.
unfoldingWord translationNotes
Door43 World Missions Community
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.