“If your people Israel are struck down before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn again and confess your name, and pray and make supplication before you in this house; then hear from heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers.
“When the sky is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you; if they pray toward this place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin, when you afflict them; then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.
“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who will each know his own plague and his own sorrow, and shall spread out his hands toward this house; then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know (for you, even you only, know the hearts of the children of men) that they may fear you, to walk in your ways, so long as they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv24, 26, 28, 30 Or, praise.
Or, praise.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v27 2Ch 6:27. When thou hast taught them the good…
2Ch 6:27. When thou hast taught them the good way — Or, seeing thou hast taught them the good way, or instructed them in the knowledge of thyself, and of the worship and service in which thou delightest.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv28, 29, 31 Blasting, or mildew, (ærugo & aurugo.) The first has…
Blasting, or mildew, (ærugo & aurugo.) The first has the colour of brass, the other of gold. both have nearly the same import. (Menochius) --- One of the terms is rendered, corrupt air; (3 Kings viii. 37.; Calmet) as this is one of the great causes why both plants and animals do not thrive. Septuagint, "corruption of the air and king’s evil, or yellow jaundice:" Greek: ikteros. (Haydock)
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).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30 24. be put to the worse] R.V. be smitten…
24. be put to the worse] R.V. be smitten down (as in 1 Kings).
and shall return] R.V. and shall turn again (as in 1 Kings) i.e. repent.
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 vv24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 (24) And if thy people Israel be put to…
(24) And if thy people Israel be put to the worse.—See margin. Kings has a different construction, “when thy people Israel are smitten.” (Comp. 2Ch_6:26.)
Because they have sinned.—When or if they sin (so also in 2Ch_6:26). LXX., ἐὰν ἁμάρτωσίν. Vuig., “peccabunt enim tibi,” as a parenthesis. Syriac and Arabic, “when.” Kings, if (’asher) they sin, a rarer usage.
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 vv24, 26, 27, 28, 29 Vers. 24, 25. (see Lev_26:3, Lev_26:17, Lev_26:33, Lev_26:40; Deu_27:7,…
Vers. 24, 25. (see Lev_26:3, Lev_26:17, Lev_26:33, Lev_26:40; Deu_27:7, Deu_27:25; also 4:27, 29-31; 28:64-68; 30:1-50)
Vers. 24-28, 34, 35.
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God and the nation.
Solomon takes his place and his part on this great occasion as the sovereign of the nation; he prays for the people of the land in the double sense of representing them and of interceding for them. It is the Hebrew nation that was then "before God," and is now before us. We therefore think of
I NATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY. That is assumed throughout. It is not stated in so many words, but the idea of it pervades the whole prayer. The people of Israel were not at liberty to choose their own deity, nor their own ecclesiastical polity, nor even their own forms of worship; nor might they determine how they should be related to one another. In all the important relationships in which they stood, of every kind, they owed a direct obedience to God. And this rested upon the bases of
II NATIONAL INHERITANCE. Their land was that which God had "given his people for an inheritance" (ver. 27). So very distinctly and remarkably had God bestowed their land upon them, that they might well realize their national obligation. But when we take all things into account, we shall see that every nation owes all that it has and is to the creative, formative, providential goodness of Almighty God; and it is, therefore, responsible to him for its creed, its religious worship, its laws and statutes, its habits of life; for there is no nation anywhere that has not derived its inheritance from him. Even that which may, at first sight, seem to disconnect it from him, viz. the element of national courage, energy, industry, struggle, suffering, this also is "of the Lord.
III NATIONAL ACTIVITY. Solomon prayed (ver. 34) that, when God"s people "went out to war," their prayers for victory might be heard, and that God would "maintain their cause." He could offer this supplication with a perfectly clear conscience. Neither as a spirit nor as a sentiment, much less as a religious conviction, had peace entered into the minds of men as it has now. Be had not been born who came to be the Prince of peace, and whose advent was to be the beginning of the era of "peace on earth." War was then regarded as a rightful, honourable, commendable activity a field of enterprise and capacity which any one might desire to enter. There may still be found a place for it, as a sad and deplorable necessity. Under the sway of Jesus Christ, it can hold no larger or higher position among national activities than that. But as it was right that prayer should be offered for God"s blessing on national wars, more certainly is it right that his Divine blessing should be continually sought on all peaceful industries; that is to say, on all those peaceful industries which make for the comfort, the enrichment, the well-being of the world. There are activities on which the pure or kind heart must shrink from invoking the blessing of God. And what we cannot conscientiously ask him to bless we should refuse to promote or to entertain. Surely, however, it is a very large part of national piety that prayer should be made continually, in the church and in the home, that, in every path of honourable and estimable industry, the people of the land may walk before God, and fulfil in this respect his holy will; that they may also receive his sanction and his blessing.
IV NATIONAL MISFORTUNE (Vers. 24, 26-28.) Solomon anticipates the hour of national misfortune defeat in battle, drought, pestilence, locusts, etc. He regards this conceivable calamity as the consequence of national sin and the sign of Divine displeasure (vers. 24, 26), "because they have sinned against thee," and he prays for mercy and for the removal of the stroke of penalty. It is a question of great importance whether this view is to be taken under all circumstances whatever. We must remember that the way in which the favour of God was manifested in Old Testament times was the way of temporal prosperity, and (conversely) the form of Divine disapproval was that of temporal adversity. But we are living in a period when the spiritual and the future are the prevailing elements; and what was a certain conclusion then may be only a possibility or a probability now.
1. It may be true that national calamity speaks of national delinquency, and calls for national repentance. It is not only possible, but even probable, that this is the case. For national sin is commonly showing itself in guilty indulgence, and that leads to weakness, to exposure to the enemy, to misfortune of many kinds.
2. It may be that national calamity is Divine discipline. It is quite possible that God is testing, is purifying, is refining the nation as he does the individual, is intervening to save it from sin and shame, is working thus for its moral elevation and enlargement, And therefore it may be that the question to be asked is What have we to learn? what is the peril to be shunned? which is the way God desires should be taken? C.
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 v26 When the heaven is shut up, and there is…
2Ch_6:26-31
When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain.
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Perils to agriculture
I. A rebuke to rationalism in natural evils. All meteorological phenomena are under Gods control. In all afflictive events God speaks to cities and nations.
II. A moral design in the infliction of natural evils.
1. To requite justice.
2. To lead to God.
III. A place for prayer in the removing natural evils. This denied by many. Prayer may be necessary for mans highest culture. We do not classify with powers in physical nature. It is not a natural but a moral power. The ordination of God leaves room for prayer. Prayer may be one of the laws of the universe as certain in its sphere as the laws of heat or of gravitation in their peculiar realms. Neither history, Scripture, nor experience forbid us to pray in times of national distress. (J. Wolfendale.)
Pardon and punishment
(2Ch_6:27, with 2Sa_7:14 and 1Co_11:32):--I take these passages in a group because they all set forth a similar view of a great subject. They all take a natural and what we may can an untechnical view of the subject of Divine forgiveness. The prophet Nathan and Solomon and the apostle Paul all saw that sin produced its natural consequences of pain and penalty in good men and bad men alike, and though all believed in the reality and triumph of mercy, and were quite sure of Gods readiness to forgive, yet they perceived that Divine forgiveness did not remove those consequences, at least in this life. Pardon does not mean immunity from punishment.
I. What is punishment?
1. Behold, says the apostle Paul, the goodness and severity of God. That there is an element of righteous indignation in God the whole frame of Nature testifies; the Scriptures frequently declare; and our own moral sense demands that it should be so. We cannot conceive of a perfect Being without the capacity of such indignation. The very methods of the Divine rule absolutely involve pain. But there are things in the world more to be dreaded than pain. There are evils so great--so great in themselves--that it is worth while enduring all the pain we can conceive in order to get rid of them. Righteousness is the one ruling principle of all life. In the interests of righteousness the universe is governed. Character, now and always, owes all its moral worth to the acknowledgment of the supreme majesty of the law of righteousness.
2. Now perhaps we can understand something of the meaning of punishment. It is--
(1) The expression of the indignation of a perfectly holy God. It is not an act of vengeance, nor anger which is excited by the thwarting of the Divine will. To God there is nothing so dear as justice, truth, love; and when men, from selfish love of pleasure, or equally selfish wilfulness, violate these, and become cruel, unjust, false, the holy indignation of the holiest of all beings springs forth in punishment, and God becomes a consuming fire.
(2) Punishment is the very guardian of life. If a man takes poison, or if he thrusts his hand into the fire, he suffers pain. Pain is not the evil to be feared, but the effect of the act upon the whole frame. The poison saps the life--the pain is the mere symptom of the fact. The fire is destroying the tissues of the body--the pain is the evidence of it. Pain is like the beacon which warns the mariner of the dangerous reef or the sunken rock.
(3) Punishment and pain are the means of healing. To any one ignorant of medical science, a surgeon performing an operation would seem cruel and unfeeling. But he cuts down into the living flesh with his keen knife and inflicts the sharpest pain because he knows that in no other way can the life be saved. In the hands of a benevolent God suffering is surgical.
II. When we have sought pardon and found mercy we may still have to suffer the consequences of past sin. Pardon consists of two parts--
1. The cessation of resentment.
2. The removal of consequences. These two parts are not always united in time. I may cease from anger, cease to feel resentment against my erring, disobedient child when he repents, and yet may allow him to suffer the natural consequences of his wrong doing. My love may be so deep and tender that I suffer in his suffering, and even more poignantly than he, but I let it go on. And God does so. Our duty is to bow submissively, to recognise Divine love, and to endure patiently the chastisement that seeks to cure us of our faults. (Philip W. Darnton, B.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 v31 (See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
fear
(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv24, 26, 28 When your people Israel are defeated by an enemy
When your people Israel are defeated by an enemy
This can be stated in active form. AT: "When an enemy defeats your people Israel" (See: Active or Passive)
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because they have sinned against you
"because your people Israel have sinned against you"
if they turn back to you
Here "turn back to you" represents submitting again to God. AT: "if they submit to you again" (See: Metaphor)
confess your name
Possible meanings are 1) "confess that they have sinned against you" or 2) "praise you" or 3) "say that they will obey you from now on."
request forgiveness before you
The abstract noun "forgiveness" can be translated as a verb. AT: "ask you to forgive them" (See: Abstract Nouns)
please listen from the heavens
To "listen" is an idiom for responding to prayer. AT: "please honor their prayer" or "please answer their prayer" (See: Idiom)
bring them back to the land that you gave to them and to their ancestors
This implies that when their enemies defeated them, God's people will have gone to live in other lands. AT: "bring them back to their own land" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
people group
adversary
turn
confess
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 vv24, 26, 28 6:24-25 Petition 2: Solomon asked God to grant relief…
6:24-25 Petition 2: Solomon asked God to grant relief in response to repentance when sin causes misfortune. Prayer provides an opportunity for redemption, and God’s people experience his pardon through restoration.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.