1 Kings 16:31

Bible in Basic English (1941)

And as if copying the evil ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, was a small thing for him, he took as his wife Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Zidon, and became a servant and worshipper of Baal.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וַיְהִי֙ הֲנָקֵ֣ל לֶכְתּ֔וֹ בְּחַטֹּ֖אות יָרָבְעָ֣ם בֶּן־נְבָ֑ט וַיִּקַּ֨ח אִשָּׁ֜ה אֶת־אִיזֶ֗בֶל בַּת־אֶתְבַּ֙עַל֙ מֶ֣לֶךְ צִידֹנִ֔ים וַיֵּ֙לֶךְ֙ וַֽיַּעֲבֹ֣ד אֶת־הַבַּ֔עַל וַיִּשְׁתַּ֖חוּ לֽוֹ׃

Transliteration

And wayəhî to-be-hānāqēl lekəttô in-ḥaṭṭōʾwt yārāḇəʿām son-of-nəḇāṭ and-wayyiqqaḥ woman ʾet-ʾîzeḇel daughter-of-ʾetbaʿal melek of-ṣîḏōnîm and-wayyēlek and-wayyaʿăḇōḏ ʾet-the-baʿal and-wayyištaḥû to-him

Grammar Details

• *wayəhî*: waw-consecutive + qal imperfect 3rd masculine singular - and it was/became
• *hānāqēl*: hiphil infinitive construct + interrogative particle - was it light/easy thing
• *lekəttô*: preposition + qal infinitive construct + 3rd masculine singular suffix - for his walking/going
• *ḥaṭṭōʾwt*: noun feminine plural construct - sins of
• *yārāḇəʿām*: proper name - Jeroboam
• *nəḇāṭ*: proper name - Nebat
• *wayyiqqaḥ*: waw-consecutive + qal imperfect 3rd masculine singular - and he took
• *ʾîzeḇel*: proper name - Jezebel
• *ʾetbaʿal*: proper name - Ethbaal
• *melek*: noun masculine singular construct - king of
• *ṣîḏōnîm*: proper name - Sidonians
• *wayyēlek*: waw-consecutive + qal imperfect 3rd masculine singular - and he went
• *wayyaʿăḇōḏ*: waw-consecutive + qal imperfect 3rd masculine singular - and he served
• *baʿal*: proper name - Baal
• *wayyištaḥû*: waw-consecutive + hishtaphel imperfect 3rd masculine singular - and he bowed down/worshipped

Word Meanings

• *wayəhî*: and it happened/came to pass/was
• *hānāqēl*: was it a trivial thing/light matter
• *lekəttô*: his walking/going
• *ḥaṭṭōʾwt*: sins/offenses
• *baʿal*: lord/master/Baal [deity]

Referenced Verses

• 2 Kgs 10:18 : 18 Then Jehu got all the people together and said to them, Ahab was Baal's servant in a small way, but Jehu will be his servant on a great scale.
• 2 Kgs 17:16 : 16 And turning their backs on all the orders which the Lord had given them, they made for themselves images of metal, and the image of Asherah, worshipping all the stars of heaven and becoming servants to Baal.
• Judg 18:7 : 7 Then the five men went on their way and came to Laish and saw the people who were there, living without thought of danger, like the Zidonians, quiet and safe; for they had everything on earth for their needs, and they were far from the Zidonians and had no business with Aram.
• 1 Kgs 21:25-26 : 25 (There was no one like Ahab, who gave himself up to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, moved to it by Jezebel his wife. 26 He did a very disgusting thing in going after false gods, doing all the things the Amorites did, whom the Lord sent out before the children of Israel.)
• Deut 7:3-4 : 3 Do not take wives or husbands from among them; do not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons. 4 For through them your sons will be turned from me to the worship of other gods: and the Lord will be moved to wrath against you and send destruction on you quickly.
• Judg 2:11 : 11 And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord and became servants to the Baals;
• Judg 3:7 : 7 And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and put out of their minds the Lord their God, and became servants to the Baals and the Astartes.
• Judg 10:6 : 6 And again the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, worshipping the Baals and Astartes, and the gods of Aram and the gods of Zidon and the gods of Moab and the gods of the children of Ammon and the gods of the Philistines; they gave up the Lord and were servants to him no longer.
• Judg 10:12 : 12 And the Zidonians and Amalek and Midian crushing you down, and in answer to your cry did I not give you salvation from their hands?
• Josh 23:12-13 : 12 For if you go back, joining yourselves to the rest of these nations who are still among you, getting married to them and living with them and they with you: 13 Then you may be certain that the Lord your God will not go on driving these nations out from before you; but they will become a danger and a cause of sin to you, a whip for your sides and thorns in your eyes, till you are cut off from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.
• Gen 6:2 : 2 The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took wives for themselves from those who were pleasing to them.
• Gen 30:15 : 15 But Leah said to her, Is it a small thing that you have taken my husband from me? and now would you take my son's love-fruits? Then Rachel said, You may have him tonight in exchange for your son's love-fruits.
• Num 16:9 : 9 Does it seem only a small thing to you that the God of Israel has made you separate from the rest of Israel, letting you come near himself to do the work of the House of the Lord, and to take your place before the people to do what has to be done for them;
• Neh 13:23-29 : 23 And in those days I saw the Jews who were married to women of Ashdod and Ammon and Moab: 24 And their children were talking half in the language of Ashdod; they had no knowledge of the Jews' language, but made use of the language of the two peoples. 25 And I took up the cause against them, cursing them and giving blows to some of them and pulling out their hair; and I made them take an oath by God, saying, You are not to give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Was it not in these things that Solomon, king of Israel, did wrong? among a number of nations there was no king like him, and he was dear to his God, and God made him king over all Israel: but even he was made to do evil by strange women. 27 Are we then without protest to let you do all this great evil, sinning against our God by taking strange women for your wives? 28 And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib, the chief priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite: so I sent him away from me. 29 Keep them in mind, O my God, because they have put shame on the priests' name and on the agreement of the priests and the Levites.
• Isa 7:13 : 13 And he said, Give ear now, O family of David: is it not enough that you are driving men to disgust? will you do the same to my God?
• Ezek 8:17 : 17 Then he said to me, Have you seen this, O son of man? is it a small thing to the children of Judah that they do the disgusting things which they are doing here? for they have made the land full of violent behaviour, making me angry again and again: and see, they put the branch to my nose.
• Ezek 16:20 : 20 And you took your sons and your daughters whom I had by you, offering even these to them to be their food. Was your loose behaviour so small a thing,
• Ezek 16:47 : 47 Still you have not gone in their ways or done the disgusting things which they have done; but, as if that was only a little thing, you have gone deeper in evil than they in all your ways.
• Ezek 34:18 : 18 Does it seem a small thing to you to have taken your food on good grass-land while the rest of your grass-land is stamped down under your feet? and that after drinking from clear waters you make the rest of the waters dirty with your feet?
• Rev 2:20 : 20 But I have this against you, that you let the woman Jezebel say she is a prophet and give false teaching, making my servants go after the desires of the flesh and take food offered to false gods.
• 2 Kgs 9:30-37 : 30 And when Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel had news of it; and, painting her eyes and dressing her hair with ornaments, she put her head out of the window. 31 And when Jehu was coming into the town, she said, Is all well, O Zimri, taker of your master's life? 32 Then, looking up to the window, he said, Who is on my side, who? and two or three unsexed servants put out their heads. 33 And he said, Take her and put her out of the window. So they sent her down with force, and her blood went in a shower on the wall and on the horses; and she was crushed under their feet. 34 And he came in, and took food and drink; then he said, Now see to this cursed woman, and put her body into the earth, for she is a king's daughter. 35 And they went out to put her body into the earth, but nothing of her was to be seen, only the bones of her head, and her feet, and parts of her hands. 36 So they came back and gave him word of it. And he said, This is what the Lord said by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the heritage of Jezreel the flesh of Jezebel will become food for dogs; 37 And the dead body of Jezebel will be like waste dropped on the face of the earth in the heritage of Jezreel; so that they will not be able to say, This is Jezebel.
• 1 Kgs 11:1-2 : 1 Now a number of strange women were loved by Solomon, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites: 2 The nations of which the Lord had said to the children of Israel, You are not to take wives from them and they are not to take wives from you; or they will certainly make you go after their gods: to these Solomon was united in love.
• 1 Kgs 11:4-8 : 4 For it came about that when Solomon was old, his heart was turned away to other gods by his wives; and his heart was no longer true to the Lord his God as the heart of his father David had been. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and Milcom, the disgusting god of the Ammonites. 6 And Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not walking in the Lord's ways with all his heart as David his father did. 7 Then Solomon put up a high place for Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, in the mountain before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the disgusting god worshipped by the children of Ammon. 8 And so he did for all his strange wives, who made offerings with burning of perfumes to their gods.
• 1 Kgs 18:4 : 4 For when Jezebel was cutting off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred of them, and kept them secretly in a hole in the rock, fifty at a time, and gave them bread and water.)
• 1 Kgs 18:19 : 19 Now send, and get Israel together before me at Mount Carmel, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal who get their food at Jezebel's table.
• 1 Kgs 19:1-2 : 1 Ahab gave Jezebel news of all Elijah had done, and how he had put all the prophets to death with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a servant to Elijah, saying, May the gods' punishment be on me if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.
• 1 Kgs 21:5-9 : 5 But Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said, Why is your spirit so bitter that you have no desire for food? 6 And he said to her, Because I was talking to Naboth the Jezreelite, and I said to him, Let me have your vine-garden for a price, or, if it is pleasing to you, I will give you another vine-garden for it: and he said, I will not give you my vine-garden. 7 Then Jezebel, his wife, said, Are you now the ruler of Israel? Get up, take food, and let your heart be glad; I will give you the vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite. 8 So she sent a letter in Ahab's name, stamped with his stamp, to the responsible men and the chiefs who were in authority with Naboth. 9 And in the letter she said, Let a time of public sorrow be fixed, and put Naboth at the head of the people; 10 And get two good-for-nothing persons to come before him and give witness that he has been cursing God and the king. Then take him out and have him stoned to death. 11 So the responsible men and the chiefs who were in authority in his town, did as Jezebel had said in the letter she sent them. 12 They gave orders for a day of public sorrow, and put Naboth at the head of the people. 13 And the two good-for-nothing persons came in and took their seats before him and gave witness against Naboth, in front of the people, saying, Naboth has been cursing God and the king. Then they took him outside the town and had him stoned to death. 14 And they sent word to Jezebel, saying, Naboth has been stoned and is dead.