2 Chronicles 26:21 - Exposition

And dwelt in a several house. The Hebrew for "several house" is הַחָפְשׁוֹת : the parallel ( 2 Kings 15:5 ) showing yod instead of van in the last syllable. The verbal root is חָפַשׁ , and occurs once (Le 19:20, with the Authorized Version rendering "was free;" in the same verse is also found a feminine noun derived from it, and rendered in the Authorized Version "freedom''). The adjective חָפְשִׁי occurs sixteen times, and is always rendered in the Authorized Version "free," except once "at liberty" ( Jeremiah 34:16 ). The "freedom" conveyed by the word is that of separation, in the use of it as found here. The leper and the house in which he lived were kept free from contact with others (Le 13:46). Gesenius appears, however, to prefer the idea of "infirmity," "sickness," as determining the cast of the meaning of the word in our text, and goes so far as to translate it an "hospital," quoting the word of Suidas, τὸ νοσοκομεῖον .