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2 Kings 8:21

in 2 Kings 8

So Jehoram crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. When the Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, he rose up and attacked by night. His troops, however, fled to their homes.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Then Joram passed over to Zair, and all his chariots with him: and he rose up by night, and smote the Edomites that compassed him about, and the captains of the chariots; and the people fled to their tents.

KJV

So Joram went over to Zair, and all the chariots with him: and he rose by night, and smote the Edomites which compassed him about, and the captains of the chariots: and the people fled into their tents.

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This verse in 2 Kings 8

Commentary

4 notes on this verse
Zair - Perhaps Seir, the famous mountain of Edom Gen 14:6. The people - i. e., The Edomites. Yet, notwithstanding his success, Joram was forced to withdraw from the country, and to leave the natives to enjoy that independence 2Ki 8:22, which continued until the time of John Hyrcanus, who once more reduced them.

This site's exposition

made a king over themselves

on 2 Kings 8:20-22

Edom throws off Judah's rule and sets its own king, undoing the subjugation David had imposed generations earlier. Joram crosses to Zair by night and strikes down the Edomites who surround him, a tactical win the text records without calling it a victory, because the next verse says Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. Libnah revolts in the same breath, a town of Judah itself turning away from its own king, and the chapter lets both losses stand as plain fact.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

So Joram went over to Zair,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Joram went over to Zair - This is the same as Seir, a chief city of Idumea. So Isa 21:11: The burden of Dumah (Idumea). He calleth to me out of Seir. Smote the Edomites - It appears that the Israelites were surrounded by the Idumeans; and that in the night Joram and his men cut their way through them, and so got every man to his tent, for they were not able to make any farther head against these enemies; and therefore it is said, that Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day.

The words behind it

21 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיַּעֲבֹ֤רand he passed over

    vaiyaavorH5674 →556 times

  • יוֹרָם֙Joram

    yoramH3141 →20 times

  • צָעִ֔ירָהZair towards

    tzairahH6811 →

  • וְכָל־and all

    vekholH3605 →5413 times

  • הָרֶ֖כֶבthe chariotry

    harekhevH7393 →119 times

  • עִמּ֑וֹ[was] with him

    imoH5973 →1050 times

  • וַֽיְהִי־and it was

    vayhi-H1961 →3559 times

  • ה֞וּאhe

    hu'H1931 →1879 times

  • קָ֣םhe arose

    kamH6965 →628 times

  • לַ֗יְלָהnight

    laylahH3915 →233 times

  • וַיַּכֶּ֨הand he struck down

    vaiyakehH5221 →499 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • אֱד֜וֹםEdom

    ʾedomH123 →99 times

  • הַסֹּבֵ֤יבwhich was surrounding

    hasoveivH5437 →161 times

  • אֵלָיו֙<to> him

    ʾelavH413 →5510 times

  • וְאֵת֙and <obj.>

    veetH853 →10935 times

  • שָׂרֵ֣י[the] commanders of

    sareiH8269 →421 times

  • הָרֶ֔כֶבthe chariotry

    harekhevH7393 →119 times

  • וַיָּ֥נָסand it fled

    vaiyanosH5127 →159 times

  • הָעָ֖םthe people

    haamH5971 →1873 times

  • לְאֹהָלָֽיו׃to tents its

    leohalavH168 →345 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

1 in all, six open

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    2 Samuel 18:17

    They took Absalom, cast him into a large pit in the forest, and piled a huge mound of stones over him. Meanwhile, all the Israelites fled, each to his home.

    it leads to

    • Joshua 8:29

      He hung the king of Ai on a tree until evening, and at sunset Joshua commanded that they take down the body from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the…

    • Joshua 7:26

      And they heaped over Achan a large pile of rocks that remains to this day. So the LORD turned from His burning anger. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Achor to this…

    • Joshua 10:27

      At sunset Joshua ordered that they be taken down from the trees and thrown into the cave in which they had hidden. Then large stones were placed against the mouth of the cave, and…

    • 2 Samuel 20:1

      Now a worthless man named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there, and he blew the ram’s horn and shouted: “We have no share in David, no inheritance in Jesse’s son.…

    • 2 Samuel 19:8

      So the king got up and sat in the gate, and all the people were told: “Behold, the king is sitting in the gate.” So they all came before the king. Meanwhile, the Israelites…

About 2 Kings

Elijah Ascends to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Elijah Ascends to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
2 Kings: the study guide →Read 2 Kings 8 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).

Read on in 2 Kings 8 →