So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. They sacrificed to Yahweh in that day, of the plunder which they had brought, seven hundred head of cattle and seven thousand sheep. They entered into the covenant to seek Yahweh, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul;
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2 Chronicles 15:10-12 sits inside this longer paragraph.
When Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from the hill country of Ephraim; and he renewed Yahweh’s altar that was before Yahweh’s porch. He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who lived with them out of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon; for they came to him out of Israel in abundance when they saw that Yahweh his God was with him. So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. They sacrificed to Yahweh in that day, of the plunder which they had brought, seven hundred head of cattle and seven thousand sheep. They entered into the covenant to seek Yahweh, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul; and that whoever would not seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. They swore to Yahweh with a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with cornets. All Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found by them. Then Yahweh gave them rest all around.
Parallel Translations
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So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign.
They sacrificed to Yahweh in that day, of the plunder which they had brought, seven hundred head of cattle and seven thousand sheep.
They entered into the covenant to seek Yahweh, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul;
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So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.
And they offered unto the LORD the same time, of the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep.
And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul;
Show all 3 translations
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So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.
And they sacrificed unto the LORD in that day, of the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep.
And they entered into the covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul;
Cross-references (25)
- Acts 24:14 (v12) But this I confess to you, that after the Way, which they call a sect, so I serve the God of our fathers, believing all things which are…
- Deuteronomy 10:12 (v12) Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve…
- 2 Chronicles 14:13-15 (v11) Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar: and so many of the Ethiopians fell that they could not recover themselves; for…
- 2 Chronicles 23:16 (v12) Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, all the people, and the king, that they should be Yahweh’s people.
- 2 Chronicles 29:10 (v12) Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us.
Show all 25 cross-references
- Numbers 31:28-29 (v11) Levy a tribute to Yahweh of the men of war who went out to battle: one soul of five hundred; of the persons, of the cattle, of the donkeys,…
- Numbers 31:50 (v11) We have brought Yahweh’s offering, what every man found: gold ornaments, armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and necklaces, to make…
- Deuteronomy 4:29 (v12) But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
- Deuteronomy 29:1 (v12) These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to…
- Deuteronomy 29:12 (v12) that you may enter into the covenant of Yahweh your God, and into his oath, which Yahweh your God makes with you today,
- 1 Samuel 15:15 (v11) Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the cattle, to sacrifice to…
- 1 Samuel 15:21 (v11) But the people took of the plunder, sheep and cattle, the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God in Gilgal.”
- 1 Kings 8:48 (v12) if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you…
- 2 Kings 23:3 (v12) The king stood by the pillar, and made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh, and to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and…
- 1 Chronicles 26:26-27 (v11) This Shelomoth and his brothers were over all the treasures of the dedicated things, which David the king, and the heads of the fathers’…
- 2 Chronicles 1:6 (v11) Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before Yahweh, which was at the Tent of Meeting, and offered one thousand burnt offerings on it.
- 2 Chronicles 7:5 (v11) King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand head of cattle and a hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people…
- 2 Chronicles 15:4 (v12) But when in their distress they turned to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them.
- 2 Chronicles 34:31-32 (v12) The king stood in his place, and made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies,…
- Nehemiah 9:38 (v12) Yet for all this, we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, our Levites, and our priests, seal it.”
- Nehemiah 10:29 (v12) joined with their brothers, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the…
- Esther 8:9 (v10) Then the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which is the month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of the month; and…
- Jeremiah 29:12-13 (v12) You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You shall seek me, and find me, when you search for me…
- Jeremiah 50:5 (v12) They will inquire concerning Zion with their faces turned toward it, saying, ‘Come, and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting…
- 2 Corinthians 8:5 (v12) This was not as we had expected, but first they gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us through the will of God.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv10–11 Called Sivan, containing part of May, and part of…
Called Sivan, containing part of May, and part of June.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv10–12 2Ch 15:10 So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem…
2Ch 15:10 So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.
Ver. 10. In. the third month.] At the feast of Pentecost, at which time of the year Constantinople was taken by the Turks, because the Greek Church denied the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son, as Estius {a} hath observed, Pentecost being a feast anciently dedicated to the memorial of the same Holy Spirit.
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{a} In lib. sent. distinc, xi., cap. 2.
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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv10–12 In the third month, to wit, of the sacred…
In the third month, to wit, of the sacred year, in which the feast of weeks or of pentecost fell; of which see Exo 23:16; Deu 16:9.
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. Asa had peace but ten years, 2Ch 14:1; after which probably there were some bickerings and skirmishes, which seem to have been composed; and after that Zerah comes against him, and is discomfited. Upon this great success many of the Israelites fall to him, and in his fifteenth year he calls this assembly.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv10–12 So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem,.... By the…
So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem,.... By the order of Asa, Ch2 15:9,
in the third month; of the ecclesiastical year, the month Sivan, in which month was the day of Pentecost; and that very probably was the time of their gathering:
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in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa; and which seems to be the year in which he fought the Ethiopians.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v12 Into covenant - The matter of this covenant was…
Into covenant - The matter of this covenant was nothing but what they were before obliged to. And tho' no promise could lay any higher obligation upon them, than they were already under, yet it would help to increase their sense of the obligation, and to arm them against temptations. And by joining all together in this, they strengthened the hands of each other
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Verse 10. The third month] At the feast of…
Verse 10. The third month] At the feast of pentecost which was held on the third month.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv10–11 2Ch 15:10. They gathered themselves at Jerusalem, in the…
2Ch 15:10. They gathered themselves at Jerusalem, in the third month — Namely, of the sacred year, in which month the feast of weeks, or of pentecost fell; in the fifteenth year of Asa — Asa had peace ten years, (2Ch 14:1,) after which, probably, there were some bickerings and skirmishes, which seem to have been composed; and after that, Zerah came against him and was discomfited. Upon this great success, many of the Israelites fell to him, and in the fifteenth year he called this assembly.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv10–12 In the third month - i. e. the month…
In the third month - i. e. the month Sivan Est 8:9, corresponding with our June.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Month, Sivan, or May, when the feast of Pentecost…
Month, Sivan, or May, when the feast of Pentecost occurs. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v10 the third month--when was held the feast of pentecost.…
the third month--when was held the feast of pentecost. On this occasion, it was celebrated at Jerusalem by an extraordinary sacrifice of seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep, the spoil of the Ethiopians being offered. The assembled worshippers entered with great and holy enthusiasm into a national covenant "to seek the Lord their God . . . with all their heart and with all their soul;" and, at the same time, to execute with rigor the laws which made idolatry punishable with death (Ch2 15:13; Deu 17:2-5; Heb 10:28). The people testified unbounded satisfaction with this important religious movement, and its moral influence was seen in the promotion of piety, order, and tranquillity throughout the land.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v12 12. They entered into a covenant — Compare a…
12. They entered into a covenant — Compare a like event in the time of Josiah, 2Ch_34:31; 2Ki_23:3; and in the time of Nehemiah, Neh_10:28-29.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv10–12 10. in the third month] In this month the…
10. in the third month] In this month the Feast of Weeks (i.e. of wheat harvest) was held; Deu_16:9.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–12 (11) The same time.—On that day; viz., the day…
(11) The same time.—On that day; viz., the day appointed for the festival, in the third month, i.e., Sivan, corresponding to part of May and June.
Of the spoil which they had brought.—The spoil of Zerah, the cities round Gerar, and the nomadic tribes (2Ch_14:13-15).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv10–12 In the third month. The "Feast of Weeks" began…
In the third month. The "Feast of Weeks" began about the sixth of this third month Sivan (June). In the fifteenth year. It has been conjectured from 2Ch_14:1 that Zerah the Ethiopian, or Cushite, invaded Judah in Asa"s eleventh year. The present sacrificial festival, in his fifteenth year, evidently was held very shortly after the close of Asa"s victory over Zerah This infers a rather longer duration of the war than is otherwise to be gathered from the face of the history. The interval, it is true, may be explained by supposing that Ass lingered long to restore the state of things where Zerah"s vast host had unsettled it.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v12 And they entered into a covenant to seek the…
2Ch_15:12-15
And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers.
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The covenant renewed
Entering into a covenant is what we name a revival; they made it a national act, we separate it entirely from political affairs.
I. The preparations for revival.
1. The persons who led. A faithful prophet and an obedient king. Of Azariah we know nothing beyond the short record of this chapter. This suggests that a man is important to the world only for the work he does. The king was ready to learn from this obscure prophet and to lead the people to consecration. Happy the pastor who finds the wealth, authority, and zeal of his Church willing to receive the sacred message humbly from his lips and faithfully lead where he points the way.
2. The truths they used. The same that inspire every true revival (verse 2). Divine faithfulness, human responsibility, mercy for the penitent, punishment for the hardened.
II. The revival. In this blessed work there was--
1. Repentance.
2. Atonement (verse 11).
3. Consecration.
III. The joy of reconciliation (verse 15). Lessons:
1. The reformer must begin at his own house.
2. Service for God may cost pain.
3. The true leader is called of God.
4. Every true leader is a rallying-point for others (verse 9). (Monday Club Sermons.)
A revival
I. We see here that the heart of a revival lies in a renewal of the covenant of the Church with God. An awakened Church is the pioneer of an awakened world,
2. A second feature in this ancient revival of religion was a public proclamtion of a revived faith before the world. Religious men are too much in earnest to be still about it. They are moved by a great power. It will express itself as becomes a great power. It is the instinct of religious faith to bear its witness to the world.
III. The old Jewish revival was attended with a great influx of converts from without. So commonly works a pure revival upon the world. Very rare is the exception in which the heart of the world does not respond to the heart of the Church.
IV. A fourth feature of a true revival of religion is a thorough reformation of public and private morals. To put away idolatrous worship was what we should call a reformation in morals. Idolatry was immorality concentrated in its most hideous forms. No religious zeal could have been genuine in a monarch which did not sweep the land clean of them.
V. Such awakenings are often followed by periods of temporal prosperity. The Lord gave them rest round about. No other civilising power equals that of true religion. It never hurts a man for any of the right uses of this world to make a Christian of him. (A. Phelps.)
A revival: an imperious necessity
The text gives an account of the ancient revival of religion under King Asa. Other revivals are portrayed by the sacred writers. From these we learn--
I. That revivals are by no means new things. Nor are they things of modern invention.
II. That the progress of religion is not in a uniform steady line.
III. That revivals of religion ordinarily commence in humble and obscure ways, and are ordinarily helped on by the humblest instrumentality.
IV. That they are ordinarily accompanied by a great deal of what people are pleased to term excitement.
V. That true revival of religion are marked by marvellous transformations of character and reformations in the life. (G. E. Reed.)
And all Judah rejoiced at the oath.
Judahs solemn engagement
I. The solemn engagement into which they entered, and the temper they manifested therein.
1. They bound themselves to nothing new. It was to seek the Lord God of their fathers.
2. They swore to do this.
3. They entered into this engagement with great sincerity and with great cheerfulness.
II. The happy consequence of judahs solemn engagement. The Lord was found of them. (Job Orton.)
And He was found of them.--The search that always finds:--
I. The seeking. The highest bliss is to find God, the next highest is to seek Him.
1. Our text lays emphasis on the whole-heartedness of the peoples seeking after God. One reason why the great mass of professing Christians make so little of their religion is because they are only half-hearted in it. If you divide a river into two streams the force of each is less than half the power of the original current; and the chances are that you will make a stagnant marsh where there used to be a flowing stream. All in all or not at all is the rule for life in all departments.
2. They sought; Him with all their heart. That does not mean that there are to be no other desires, for it is a great mistake to pit religion against other things which are meant to be its instruments and its helps.
3. The one token of seeking God is casting out idols. There must be detachment if there is to be attachment. If some climbing plant, for instance, has twisted itself round the unprofitable thorns in the hedge, the gardener, before he can get it to go up the support that it is meant to encircle, has carefully to detach it from the stays to which it has wantonly clung, taking care that in the process he does not break its tendrils and destroy its power of growth. The heart must be emptied of base liquors if the new wine of the kingdom is to be poured into it.
II. The finding which crowns such seeking.
1. Anything is possible rather than that a whole-hearted search after God should be a vain search. For there are in that search two seekers--God is seeking for us more truly than we are seeking for Him.
2. This is the only direction for a mans desires and aims in which disappointment is an impossibility.
3. Our wisdom is to make this search. What would you think of a company of gold-seekers, hunting about in some exhausted claim for hypothetical grains--ragged, starving--and all the while in the next gully were lying lumps of gold for the picking up? And that figure fairly represents what people do and suffer who seek for good and do not seek after God.
II. The rest which ensues on finding God. We have no immunity from toil and conflict, but disturbance around is a very small matter if there be a better thing--rest within. A vessel with an outer casing and a layer of air between may be kept at a temperature above that of the external atmosphere. So we may have conflict and strife, and yet a better rest than that of my text may be ours. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Happy earnestness
This verse represents well the happy combination of sacrament and life. It brings before us whole-heartedness for God, with special regard to two of its features.
I. Joy. And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, etc. A wholeness of devotedness to God is consistent with every department of activity and every form of interest which is not in itself sinful. It is as a soul to the body of all secular occupation, however absorbing. The wide onward lift of the tidal wave in mid-ocean does not more interfere with the commerce of the countries, the heightening sun of the springtime does not more embarrass the progress of the land over which it smiles, than the full-hearted service of God breaks in upon the lawful interests of a man among the engagements of his every-day existence. This joy implies--
1. Enthusiasm. This may be reckoned the atmosphere which surrounds the joy of whole-heartedness for God.
2. Willingness. A wide compliance with a competent and kindly force that presses on us from without. Predominant willingness contributes largely to a Christian mans joy.
3. Rightness. The approval of conscience.
4. Undividedness of affection.
II. Prosperousness. And He was found of them: and Jehovah gave them rest round about. This signifies--
1. That we find what we seek. There are neighbourhoods where the mists lie so often and so long upon the grand outlines of the landscape, that a clear day is in some sense a day of discovery, of finding, though nothing is there then which was not there always. There have been those who for years have looked through a filmy dimness of eyesight upon those they loved, whose movements were to them like the movements of featureless shades; when the films were one day purged from the eyes was it not almost more than a figure of speech they spoke when they said they had found those loved faces and forms again? So this energising of the heart for God restores vision, and vision restores reality. God in Christ becomes near.
2. That we miss much that we had hitherto found. Hostile movements from around are comparatively allayed, and the hush that has fallen upon these reflects itself upon the soul in restfulness. (J. A. Kerr Bain, M.A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v10 third month
third month
i.e. June.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v10 The True Worship Restored
The True Worship Restored
v. 10. So they, all those mentioned as having been gained by Asa’s reformatory measures, gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa, for a great festival of confession and thanksgiving.
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v. 11. And they offered unto the Lord the same time, in the course of that festival, of the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep, the thanksgiving festival most likely being combined with the great Feast of Pentecost.
v. 12. And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul, to be united with Him in the bonds of the closest love and service and loyalty,
v. 13. that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, possessing influence and power or not, whether man or woman, as the Law of the Lord required, Deu 13:5 to Deu 9:15.
v. 14. And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice and with shouting, in a solemn chant, and with trumpets and with cornets, instruments used for the Temple music.
v. 15. And all Judah, in a solemn enthusiasm amounting almost to ecstasy, rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, it was not a mere confession of the lips, and sought Him with their whole desire; and He was found of them. And the Lord gave them rest round about, he rewarded their piety by granting the blessing of peace.
v. 16. And also concerning Maachah, the mother, that is, the grandmother, of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, she no longer could hold the position as dowager, because she had made an idol in a grove, erected a statue to the heathen goddess Astarte. And Asa cut down her idol, the wooden post consecrated to the female goddess, and stamped it, or crushed it, probably by cutting it up into little pieces, and burned it at the brook Kidron.
v. 17. But the high places were not taken away out of Israel, that is, the buildings which had been erected as houses of worship on the hills; nevertheless, the heart of Asa was perfect all his days, devoted to the Lord in true loyalty.
v. 18. And he brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated, set apart as votive gifts, and that he himself had dedicated, silver and gold and vessels, of the booty taken from the Ethiopians.
v. 19. And there was no more war unto the five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa. The fact that peace in the land is a gift of God’s goodness often is overlooked by men; nevertheless, it is He who alone controls the hearts of men for peace or war.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv10, 12 So they gathered together
So they gathered together
"They" here refers to the tribes of Judah and Israel that were with Asa.
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the third month
This is the third month of the Hebrew calendar. It is during the last part of May and the first part of June on Western calendars. (See: Hebrew Months)
third ... fifteenth
(See: Ordinal Numbers)
some of the plunder that they had brought
This refers to the plunder that they had taken from the villages around Gerar in 2 Chronicles 14:14.
seven hundred ... seven thousand
"700 ... 7,000" (See: Numbers)
translationWords
Jerusalem
year
reign
sacrifice
cow
ewe
goat
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v10 15:10-15 The ceremony of covenant renewal in the third…
15:10-15 The ceremony of covenant renewal in the third month was probably during the Festival of Harvest (Pentecost). This great festival brought crowds to the Temple from all the surrounding regions. Disloyalty to the covenant was regarded as treason and carried the ultimate penalty (Deut 17:2-7). The sacrifices were dedicated offerings from the victory over Zerah (2 Chr 14:15).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.