1
When all this had ended, the Israelites in attendance went out to the cities of Judah and broke up the sacred pillars, chopped down the Asherah poles, and tore down the high places and altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the Israelites returned to their cities, each to his own property.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kāl- zōṯ ū·ḵə·ḵal·lō·wṯ kāl- yiś·rā·’êl han·nim·ṣə·’îm yā·ṣə·’ū lə·‘ā·rê yə·hū·ḏāh way·šab·bə·rū ham·maṣ·ṣê·ḇō·wṯ way·ḡad·də·‘ū hā·’ă·šê·rîm way·nat·tə·ṣū ’eṯ- hab·bā·mō·wṯ wə·’eṯ- ham·miz·bə·ḥōṯ mik·kāl yə·hū·ḏāh ū·ḇin·yā·min ū·ḇə·’ep̄·ra·yim ū·mə·naš·šeh ‘aḏ- lə·ḵal·lêh kāl- bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl way·yā·šū·ḇū lə·‘ā·rê·hem ’îš la·’ă·ḥuz·zā·ṯōw
Word by word32 · parsed
√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct
√ zôʼth — this (often used adverb)Pronounfeminine singular
√ kâlâh — to end, whether intransitive (to cease, be finished, perish) or transitived (to complete, prepare, consume)Conjunctive waw, Preposition-kVerbPielInfinitive construct
kâlâh: to end, to finish, to complete or consume A Piel infinitive with the preposition kᵉ, so: and as the completing of all this. The chronicler uses one root twice to fuse two acts that look unrelated: the festival is completed (v. 1a) and the idols are completed, in the sense of finished off (v. 1c). Henry draws the pastoral edge of that grammar: worship that terminates in itself has not finished.
√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
√ mâtsâʼ — properly, to come forth to, iArticleVerbNifalParticiplemasculine plural
mâtsâʼ: to come forth to, to find Nifal participle, those found. The verb does not describe office, tribe or invitation; it describes presence. Whoever was there is who went out. K&D equate the phrase with 2 Chronicles 30:21. Ellicott's name for the resulting company, "The band of Jewish and Israelite zealots," is the point of the participle: the crew is defined by attendance rather than by passport, which is why the jurisdiction question of v. 1b arises at all.
√ yâtsâʼ — to go (causatively, bring) out, in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively, direct and proximVerbQalPerfectthird person common plural
yâtsâʼ: to go or bring out Qal perfect, third plural: they went out. The one non-consecutive finite verb heading the sequence, so it carries the initiative; the three demolition verbs follow as consecutive imperfects hanging on it. The movement is centrifugal: out from the sanctuary into the cities.
√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Preposition-lNounfeminine plural construct
√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
√ shâbar — to burst (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
shâbar: to burst, to break Piel consecutive imperfect, so intensive and plural in effect: not one break but a shattering. The Verifier records this lexeme shared with the Torah demolition commands of Deuteronomy 7:5, Deuteronomy 12:3 and Exodus 34:13. Geneva says the deed was done "According to the commandment of the Lord," and the vocabulary is the commandment's own.
√ matstsêbâh — something stationed, iArticleNounfeminine plural
matstsêbâh: something stationed A comparatively rare noun (31 verses). What is stationed is what claims permanence; the standing stone is the idol's argument that it will outlast you. Pairing it with shâbar answers the claim in kind.
√ gâdaʻ — to fell a treeConjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
gâdaʻ: to fell a tree Piel consecutive imperfect. The rarest of the three demolition verbs (22 verses), and the only one whose root sense is arboreal, which is why it governs the Asherim: they are cut down the way timber is. Ellicott calls them "The sacred trunks, emblematic of physical fertility," citing Hosea 4:13. Felling a fertility emblem is a wager that life comes from elsewhere.
√ ʼăshêrâh — Asherah (or Astarte) a Phoenician goddessArticleNounfeminine plural
ʼăshêrâh: Asherah, a Phoenician goddess The noun names both the goddess and her wooden emblem, so the Hebrew plural הָאֲשֵׁרִ֡ים can be rendered either "groves" (AV) or, with Cambridge and the R.V., "the Asherim." Ellicott identifies the object concretely as "The sacred trunks, emblematic of physical fertility," comparing Hosea 4:13; the ambiguity between deity and artifact is in the Hebrew noun itself, not in the translators. The Verifier counts 40 verses for the lexeme, and every single thread candidate it returns for this passage that shares H842 is a text about Asherim being set up or being cut down; on this evidence the word never sits still in the canon.
√ nâthats — to tear downConjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
nâthats: to tear down Piel consecutive imperfect, the demolition verb proper to built structures, hence its objects here: the high places and the altars. Cambridge notes the R.V. prefers "brake down." Three verbs, three kinds of object, one motion: nothing raised for a rival is left standing.
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
Direct object marker; untranslated.
√ bâmâh — an elevationArticleNounfeminine plural
bâmâh: an elevation Not in itself a foreign shrine but a height, and there lies the difficulty. Barnes is careful about it: this was a movement "directed as much against the 'high places' which had been maintained since the times of the patriarchs, as against the remnants of the Baal-worship, or the innovations of Ahaz." Hezekiah's reform therefore cuts into tolerated ancestral practice, not only into imported idolatry.
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Conjunctive wawDirect object marker
√ mizbêach — an altarArticleNounmasculine plural
mizbêach: an altar A common word (338 verses), and that commonness is the point: an altar is the ordinary furniture of worship. What the reform destroys is not altars as such but altars anywhere but one place, which is why v. 2 immediately reorganizes the service at the one place.
√ kôl — properly, the wholePreposition-mNounmasculine singular construct
√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
√ Binyâmîyn — Binjamin, youngest son of JacobConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
√ ʼEphrayim — Ephrajim, a son of JosephConjunctive waw, Preposition-bNounpropermasculine singular
ʼEphrayim: Ephraim, a son of Joseph With Manasseh, the shorthand for the northern kingdom, and the verse's hardest clause, since Hezekiah had no crown there. The commentators split: Benson and Poole plead the law of God binding all Israel, or a special impulse of the Spirit; Barnes, JFB and Pulpit plead the political collapse of the north; Gill adds Assyrian indifference or Hoshea's connivance; Cambridge thinks the northern kingdom had simply ceased to exist.
√ Mᵉnashsheh — Menashsheh, a grandson of Jacob, also the tribe descended from him, and its territoryConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
√ ʻad — as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with)Preposition
Preposition of extent, as far as; it sets a limit of completion, not of time.
√ kâlâh — to end, whether intransitive (to cease, be finished, perish) or transitived (to complete, prepare, consume)Preposition-lVerbPielInfinitive construct
kâlâh: to end, to finish, to consume The second appearance of the root that opened the verse, now Piel infinitive with lᵉ. The feast's completion and the idols' completion are the same word, and the second is the proof of the first. Ellicott renders it flatly: "so far as to finishing."
√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural construct
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
√ shûwb — to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
shûwb: to turn back, to return Qal consecutive imperfect. The reform narrative ends not in occupation of the shrines but in dispersal homeward; and the same root is the prophets' word for repentance, so the going home is itself the turning. Gill fixes the order with care: "and not till then, when all monuments of idolatry were removed."
√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Preposition-lNounfeminine plural constructthird person masculine plural
√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personNounmasculine singular
ʼîysh: a man as an individual Distributive: each man. The corporate act resolves into individual responsibility, which is exactly Henry's application of the verse to hearts, houses and shops.
√ ʼăchuzzâh — something seized, iPreposition-lNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular
ʼăchuzzâh: something seized (a holding) The land-tenure noun, a holding received rather than earned; Strong's gloss arrives truncated in this brief, so only "something seized" is quotable from it. That the verse closes on each man's holding is not sentiment: the tribes' inheritance is the very ground the Torah ordered cleansed, so the clean land and the granted land are the same acreage.