2 Kings 7:20

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

it happened even so to him; for the people trod on him in the gate, and he died.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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וַיִּרְמְס֨וּ

râmaç

H7429

“and · to trample”

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

Appears 19× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at 2 Kings 7:17

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 2176

to trample - (Qal) - to trample - trampler (participle) - (Niphal) to be trampled

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

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is וַיִּרְמְס֨וּ to trample H7429 — appearing just 19 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וַיִּרְמְס֨וּ to trample H7429 occurs in 19 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
2 nouns
1 preposition
2 particles

Verb forms

וַיְהִי Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיִּרְמְס֨וּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיָּמֹֽת Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 18 words from the Hebrew and 16 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 7:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Numbers 20:12 Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, Because you didn't believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.
2 Chronicles 20:20 They rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: believe in Yahweh your God, so shall you be established; believe his prophets, so shall you prosper.
Job 20:23 When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating.
Isaiah 7:9 and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.'"
Jeremiah 17:5–6 Thus says Yahweh: Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Yahweh.
Hebrews 3:18–19 To whom did he swear that they wouldn't enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

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 7:20 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיְהִי ל֖וֹ כֵּ֑ן וַיִּרְמְס֨וּ אֹת֥וֹ הָעָ֛ם בַּשַּׁ֖עַר וַיָּמֹֽת

it happened even so to him; for the people trod on him in the gate, and he died.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Kings 7:20 Septuagint · lemma form

καί γίγνομαι οὕτως καί συνπατέω αὐτός ὁ λαός ἐν ὁ πύλη καί ἀποθνήσκω

And it was so: for the people trampled on him in the gate, and he died.

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 לֵיהּ כֵּן וְדָשׁוּ יָתֵיהּ עַמָא בְּתַרְעָא וּמִית:

(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 7:20 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 7:20 And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.

Ver. 20. For the people trode upon him.] See 2Ki 7:17.

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

(20) For the people trode upon him.—And the people trampled him down, or under foot.

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

20. the people trode upon him] The excitement was no doubt intense. The crowd had been in the camp, had eaten and drunk abundantly, and were carrying home spoils, and probably thinking how soon they could return for another load. There would be but little consideration given to the captain at the gate. The excited mob had lost respect for greatness, and so he is borne down in the throng, and killed, having seen the plenty, but had no share of it.

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.

The Pulpit Commentary

And so it fell out unto him; i.e. the prophecy was exactly fulfilled. The lord, being appointed to keep order in the gate where the corn was sold, "saw with his eyes" (ver. 2) the wonderful fall of prices within the short space of twenty-four hours, which Elisha had prophesied; hut "did not eat thereof did not, in his own person, obtain any benefit from the sudden plenty, since he perished before he could profit by it. For the people trod upon him in the gate, and he died (see the comment on ver. 17).

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

And so it fell out, &c. - See how heinously God resents our distrust of his power, providence and promise! Whenever God promises the end, he knows where to provide the means.

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

Discussion questions

How does “to trample” (râmaç) shape what this verse is saying?
How does 2 Kings 7:17, which shares the word «to trample», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«וַיְהִי» 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 8 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.