2 Chronicleschapter 15
19 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a priest to instruct them, and without the law.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 2 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for a people who held covenant renewal assemblies of their own. Tradition gives the book to Ezra. A prophet meets the king returning from victory, and the chapter moves from his word to a national oath. Listen for the prophet's picture of a time without God, a priest or the law, and what it did to ordinary life. Watch who crosses the border to join the assembly. The chapter ends with a reform that reaches into the king's own family, and it states plainly what was left undone.
Context
- Who
- People who held covenant renewal assemblies of their own
- What
- The prophet Azariah's message to Asa, the reform that followed, the covenant sworn in Jerusalem, and the removal of the queen mother.
- Where
- A national assembly in Jerusalem, and the Kidron valley where the idol was burned.
- When
- The third month of Asa's fifteenth year, about 896 BC, at the feast of Weeks.
- Why
- To show that the LORD is found by those who seek Him with the whole heart, and that renewal is a public act of the whole people.
Historical context
Azariah's opening description is a portrait of the judges era, and it is worth reading slowly. For many years Israel was without the true God, without a priest to instruct them and without the law. Then he adds a detail that is pure ancient reality. There was no safety for travellers, and the residents of the lands had many conflicts. When central authority failed the roads became unsafe, and unsafe roads meant no trade, no pilgrimage and no news.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The assembly is held in the third month, which is the feast of Weeks, and it is funded from the spoil of the recent victory. Seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep are offered at once. People came from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon, northerners who had crossed over when they saw that the LORD was with Asa.
The oath is taken out loud, with shouting, trumpets and rams' horns. Covenant renewal in Israel was a public and witnessed act rather than a private decision.
Then Asa removes his own grandmother from her position because she had made an obscene image for Asherah. The queen mother held a recognised office at court with real influence, the senior woman of the palace and often a power behind the throne, so deposing her was a constitutional act. The image was crushed and burned in the Kidron valley.
The chapter is honest at the end. The high places were not removed from Israel, and Asa's heart was fully devoted all his days. The reform was real and incomplete at the same time.
Significance
Ezra and Nehemiah staged assemblies exactly like this one. The whole people gathered, the law read, the oath taken aloud, and the offenders' idols and compromises removed.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The chapter told them the pattern was already their own history rather than something imported. Covenant renewal had a precedent in Judah, and it had once brought a long quiet.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
2 Chronicles is not read in the synagogue. Chronicles stands among the Writings in the Hebrew canon rather than among the Prophets the Haftarah is drawn from. The division into two books came in through the Greek. The book therefore carries neither a weekly Torah portion nor a Haftarah, and this site's own reading table records the same for all thirty-six chapters. Azariah's oracle and Asa's covenant are met in the commentary and the midrash instead, and the rest of this card is drawn from them.
How it is read
The verse numbers used below are the ones the corpus prints, and they are the Hebrew ones. They differ from the numbers many English Bibles carry through this stretch of the book.
The oracle's description of the days without a true God Rashi reads as a statement about teaching. The many days lasted "until you came" (Rashi on II Chronicles 15:3:1, the Judaica Press Tanach with Rashi, CC-BY). A land without an instructing priest he explains from the other side. "Since no one asks them words of Torah, the priests will not instruct you" (Rashi on II Chronicles 15:3:2). The absence on this reading begins with a people who stop asking rather than with priests who stop speaking.
The return in distress he reads as the pattern the oracle is built on. When they were beset with troubles they sought the LORD, and He was found by them and saved them wherever they went (Rashi on II Chronicles 15:4:1). The unrest of those days he anchors in the two reigns just told. Shishak marched against Jerusalem in Rehoboam's day because they had betrayed the LORD, and Abijah also had many turmoils (Rashi on II Chronicles 15:5:1). The verb for nation crushed by nation he sets beside its use in Numbers (Rashi on II Chronicles 15:6:1). The charge to Asa he glosses in four words, to be strong to seek God (Rashi on II Chronicles 15:7:1).
The sacrifice after the victory he reads two ways, and both keep the count of the plunder. On the first, the seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep came from the spoil taken in the Cushite war. On the second, the sacrifice was made on the day they came home in peace to Jerusalem (Rashi on II Chronicles 15:11:1).
The deposing of the king's mother Rashi explains from the word used for her idol. He reads it as a word for lewdness carried to an extreme, and he describes the image she made in terms this card leaves in the source (Rashi on II Chronicles 15:16:1). The high places left standing he distinguishes from the shrines Asa removed. These were private high places, used for sacrifice to Heaven in the years between the destruction of Shiloh and the building of the house. Those who worshipped there were liable to the punishment of being cut off (Rashi on II Chronicles 15:17:1).
The last note is the chapter's hardest, and it is chronology again. The thirty-sixth year of Asa in the next chapter cannot be his own thirty-sixth year, because Baasha was already dead by Asa's twenty-sixth. Rashi brings the answer from Seder Olam. The thirty-six years are counted from Solomon's marriage to Pharaoh's daughter, and they match the years decreed upon the kings of Aram to be adversaries to Israel before falling to David's sons. He traces the decree forward to its end, through Asa's treaty with Ben Hadad and down to Ahaz, when both kings fell to Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria (Rashi on II Chronicles 15:19:1). The regnal years in this book are read here as a count inside a decree rather than as a simple tally of one king's reign.
Radak, Metzudat David and Malbim comment across this chapter as well, and one note of Rashi himself is carried without text. The corpus gives the reason in each case, that Sefaria holds no English version of the ref, so they stand here cited and unquoted. Metzudat David on II Chronicles 15:2:1, 15:4:1, 15:6:1, 15:7:1, 15:8:1, 15:11:1, 15:14:1, 15:15:1 and 15:18:1. Malbim on II Chronicles 15:2:1, 15:12:1 and 15:14:1. Radak on II Chronicles 15:8:1. Rashi on II Chronicles 15:5:2.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries thirteen rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none. Each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. The days without a true God draw the heaviest run, and they draw the tractate on foreign worship. The third verse carries five. They are Avodah Zarah 17b:6, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Avodah Zarah 1:21, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 2:23:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Metzora 6:1 and Vayikra Rabbah 19:5.
The same tractate returns at the queen mother's idol. The sixteenth verse carries Avodah Zarah 44a:3 and Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 3:3:5. The eleventh, the sacrifice from the spoil, carries Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 2:1:4.
The rest are single. The first verse, where the Spirit of God comes on Azariah, carries Seder Olam Rabbah 20:2. The sixth carries Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 9:4, and the eighth, where Asa puts away the abominations and renews the altar, carries Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 33:4. The ninth, where the strangers from Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon come over to him, carries Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 14:7. The twentieth carries Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:2:20. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on II Chronicles 15:3:1 to 15:19:1, ten kept notes, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, CC-BY; Seder Olam, Seder Olam chapter 16 on the thirty-sixth year of Asa, quoted and worked through inside Rashi on II Chronicles 15:19:1; Radak, Radak on II Chronicles 15:8:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on II Chronicles 15:2:1 to 15:18:1, nine refs cited because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on II Chronicles 15:2:1, 15:12:1 and 15:14:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/2-chronicles/15.json, the 13 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; This site's reading table, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed in this lane: 2-chronicles parashot total 0, haftarah uses total 0, hasSynagogueReading true for 0 of 36 chapters, festivalReadingForBook null.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Azariah's word: the LORD is with you while you are with Him
the Spirit of God came upon Azariah: Azariah son of Oded appears nowhere else in Scripture. The Spirit of God comes upon him as Asa returns from the rout of the Cushites. Some read Oded as another name for Iddo, the seer who wrote of the two reigns before Asa's, though the text gives only the name.
2 Chronicles 15:1
“Azariah the son of Oded--This prophet, who is mentioned nowhere else, appears at this stage of the sacred story in the discharge of an interesting mission. He went to meet Asa, as he was returning from his victorious pursuit of the Ethiopians, and the congratulatory address here recorded was publicly made to the king in presence of his army.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
2 Chronicles 15:1
“Oded is by some identified with Iddo, the prophet and historian of the two preceding reigns. In the Hebrew the two names differ very slightly.”
He will be found by you: Azariah states the rule the book applies to every later reign: “The LORD is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you”. Later notices of seeking stand under it.
2 Chronicles 15:2
When we have been baptized we are told, "Behold, you are made whole; sin no more lest a worse thing happen to you." And again, "Don't you know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone profanes the temple of God, God shall destroy him." And in another place, "The Lord is with you so long as you are with him: if you forsake him, he will also forsake you."
Jerome · written before 420 · Against the Pelagians 3.1patristic
2 Chronicles 15:3-6
without a priest to instruct them: Azariah looks back to a long season when Israel was “without the true God, without a priest to instruct them, and without the law”. Henry and Gill set the reference in the days of the judges. Barnes reads it more broadly, of the people's many falls and deliverances.
2 Chronicles 15:3
“Israel” here is used generally for the whole people of God; and the reference is especially to the many apostasies in the days of the Judges, which were followed by repentance and deliverance.
in their distress they turned: Gill reads the distress as the oppression Israel suffered under neighbouring nations in the time of the judges. The people repented, prayed, and found the LORD ready to deliver them. The book of Judges tells that cycle many times.
2 Chronicles 15:4
“But when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel,.... When being carried captive by neighbouring nations, and oppressed; and they cried unto the Lord, and repented of their sins, and turned from them to him: and sought him; by prayer and supplication: he was found of them; and appeared for their help and deliverance, of which there are many instances in the book of Judges.”
no safety for travelers: In those days travelers had no safety amid the many conflicts of the residents of the lands. Gill describes roads held by robbers and country villages emptied by raids, as in Judges 5:6. Clarke asks whether Jesus alludes to this verse in Matthew 24.
2 Chronicles 15:5
“And in those times there was no peace to him that went out nor to him that came in,.... There was no safety in going abroad for travellers from one part to another on account of trade and business, the highways being infested with thieves and robbers: but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries; of the country villages, which were deserted, because of the plunders and depredations of them, Jdg 5:6.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 15:5
“But great vexations - Does not our Lord allude to this and the following verse in Mat 24:6, Mat 24:7, Mat 24:9, Mat 24:13?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Nation was crushed by nation: Gill reads nation and city as tribe against tribe: Gilead against Ephraim, the other tribes against Benjamin, and Abimelech against Shechem at Judges 9:45. God sent both foreign enemies and civil war. Azariah holds that history up as a warning to Asa's Judah.
2 Chronicles 15:6
“And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city,.... Or one tribe of another; as the Ephraimites by the Gileadites, and the tribe of Benjamin by the other tribes; and Shechem by Abimelech, Jdg 9:45, for God did vex them with all adversity; both with foreign enemies and civil wars; and now it is intimated that this would be their case again, should they not keep close to the Lord their God.”
2 Chronicles 15:7-8
be strong; do not be discouraged: Azariah ends, “be strong; do not be discouraged, for your work will be rewarded”, and Asa takes courage from the prophecy. He restores the altar, and Chronicles ties the reform to the prophet's word. Clarke reads the restoring as a fresh dedication, since the altar had stood since Solomon's day.
2 Chronicles 15:7
“Be ye strong--Great resolution and indomitable energy would be required to persevere in the face of the opposition your reforming measures will encounter. your work shall be rewarded--What you do in the cause and for the glory of God will assuredly be followed by the happiest results both to yourself and your subjects.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
2 Chronicles 15:7
“Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak,.... Be hearty, earnest, and vigorous, and not languid and remiss in reforming the worship of God, which Asa had begun: for your work shall be rewarded; with peace and prosperity at home, and success against enemies abroad, of which they had had a recent instance.”
2 Chronicles 15:7
“Now he ventured to destroy all the abominable idols (and all idolatries are abominable, 1 Pet. iv. 3 ) as far as ever his power went. He also renewed the altar of the Lord, which, it seems, had gone out of repair, though it was not above thirty-five years since Solomon's head was laid, who erected it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
A covenant sworn with trumpets and shouting
restored the altar of the LORD: Clarke reads the restored altar as a fresh dedication or an enlargement, so that more sacrifices could be offered on it. Asa had kept the worship of God long before his fifteenth year. Courage came first, and reform followed it.
2 Chronicles 15:8
“Renewed the altar - Dedicated it afresh, or perhaps enlarged it, that more sacrifices might be offered on it than ever before; for it cannot be supposed that this altar had no victims offered on it till the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa, who had previously been so zealous in restoring the Divine worship.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 15:9-11
tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon: Asa gathers Judah and Benjamin with settlers from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon. The assembly meets in the third month of Asa's fifteenth year and offers “seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep” from the plunder. Barnes notes that seven is seldom prominent at Israel's larger sacrifices.
in the third month: Barnes identifies the third month as Sivan, named at Esther 8:9, which corresponds to June. Henry notes that the people gathered themselves in Jerusalem, making the assembly their own act in their eagerness to obey the king. Gill puts the Ethiopian war in this fifteenth year of Asa.
2 Chronicles 15:10
“So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem,.... By the order of Asa, 2Ch 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: in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa; and which seems to be the year in which he fought the Ethiopians.”
seven hundred oxen: Gill divides the animals sacrificed to the LORD from the plunder brought back between burnt offerings and peace offerings. Barnes finds seven common in smaller offerings, such as seven young bulls and seven rams, and seldom prominent at the great sacrifices. Here it governs both the oxen and the sheep.
2 Chronicles 15:11
“And they offered unto the Lord the same time,.... The Targum adds, on the feast of weeks, or Pentecost: of the spoil which they had brought; from the camp of the Ethiopians, and the cities of the Philistines: seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep; partly for burnt offerings, and partly for peace offerings, by way of thankfulness to the Lord for the victory he had given them, and for a feast at the making of the following covenant with him.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 15:11
“The prevalence of the number “seven” in the religious system of the Jews has been noticed often. Seven bullocks and seven rams were a common offering Num 29:32; 1Ch 15:26; 2Ch 29:21; Job 42:8; Eze 14:23. At the larger sacrifices, however, it is seldom that we find the number seven at all prominent (compare 2Ch 30:24; 2Ch 35:7-9; 1Ki 8:63).”
2 Chronicles 15:12-13
covenant to seek the LORD: The assembly makes a covenant “to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul”. Clarke divides it into the vow to seek and the penalty for refusal. Henry and Gill read the penalty as the law of Deuteronomy 17 restored.
2 Chronicles 15:12
“And they entered into a covenant,.... Asa and all his people; that is, as Piscator remarks, they went between the pieces of the calf cut asunder, for the confirmation of the covenant, see Jer 34:18, to seek the Lord God of their fathers, with all their heart, and with all their soul; to serve and worship him most truly, sincerely, and cordially.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 15:12
“They entered into a covenant - The covenant consisted of two parts: 1. We will seek the God of our fathers with all our heart, and with all our soul. 2. Whosoever, great or small, man or woman, will not worship the true God, and serve him alone, shall be put to death. Thus no toleration was given to idolatry, so that it must be rooted out: and that this covenant might be properly binding, they confirmed it with an oath; and God accepted them and their services.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
would be put to death: The penalty reached young and old, and Henry aims it at the obstinate idolater and atheist, who worshiped other gods or refused the true God. He questions whether the gospel allows such compulsion. The weapons of Christian warfare, he writes, are of another kind, and yet mighty.
2 Chronicles 15:13
“They agreed that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel (that is, would either worship other gods or refuse to join with them in the worship of the true God, that was either an obstinate idolater or an obstinate atheist) he should be put to death. This was no new law of their own making, but an order to put in execution that law of God to this purport, Deut. xvii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Chronicles 15:14-15
with shouting, trumpets, and rams’ horns: The oath is sworn aloud, “with shouting, trumpets, and rams’ horns”. Judah rejoices “for they had sworn it with all their heart”, and verse 15 answers Azariah's promise of verse 2 in its own terms. Gill allows that some in the crowd may have sworn without meaning it.
2 Chronicles 15:14
“And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice,.... As not being ashamed of the oath they took, and that there might be witnesses of it, and that it might be clear they did not equivocate in but expressed themselves in plain words: and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets; showing that the oath was not extorted from them unwillingly, but that they took it with the utmost cheerfulness, and with all the demonstrations of joy and gladness imaginable.”
all Judah rejoiced over the oath: The joy came from the oath itself, sworn with the whole heart. Henry holds that times of renewing a covenant should be times of rejoicing, and he calls it an honour to be in bonds to God. Gill reads the rest as rest from all their enemies.
2 Chronicles 15:15
“And all Judah rejoiced at the oath,.... The greater part of them; for some there might be who were dissemblers: for they had sworn with all their heart; in the sincerity and uprightness of their souls: and sought him with their whole desire; none being more or so desirable as he: and he was found of them: and favoured them with his presence: and the Lord gave them rest round about; from all their enemies.”
Even the king's mother deposed and her idol burned
his grandmother Maacah from her position: Asa removes “his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made a detestable Asherah pole”. The parallel at 1 Kings 15:13 places the act in Asa's regnal summary. Gill and Clarke both explain her title as the rank Judah's court gave its senior royal woman.
2 Chronicles 15:16
“And also concerning Maachah the mother of Asa the king,.... Or rather his grandmother, 1Ki 15:10, he removed her from being queen; the Septuagint version is, "that she should not minister to Astarte"; which was the goddess of the Zidonians; of this and the two next verses; see Gill on 1Ki 15:13, 1Ki 15:14, 1Ki 15:15.”
Asa’s heart was fully devoted: Verse 17 sets two clauses side by side: “The high places were not removed from Israel, but Asa’s heart was fully devoted all his days”. Barnes reads the tension as the gap between the king's own intent, stated at 14:3 and 14:5, and the worship the people kept up.
2 Chronicles 15:17
“These he connived at, and yet his heart was perfect. There may be defects in some particular duties where yet the heart, in the man, is upright with God. Sincerity is something less than sinless perfection.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Chronicles 15:18-19
the silver and gold articles: Asa brings “the silver and gold articles that he and his father had dedicated”, a treasury he will empty in chapter 16. The chapter closes on peace “until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign”. Barnes finds that date hard to square with Baasha's war in the thirty-sixth year at 16:1.
2 Chronicles 15:18
“The things that his father had dedicated - As it was a custom to dedicate a part of the spoils taken from an enemy to the service and honor of God, it is natural to suppose that Abijah, having so signally overthrown Jeroboam, (2Ch 13:15-19), had dedicated a part of the spoils to the Lord; but they had not been brought into the temple till this time. Silver, and gold, and vessels - The word כלים kelim, which we translate vessels, signifies instruments, utensils, ornaments, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
no war until the thirty-fifth year: Barnes proposes the thirty-fifth year and the year at 16:1 were miscopied, with twentieth standing in place of thirtieth, which gives ten years of peace. Gill reads no war as no foreign war, while there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel, as 1 Kings 15:16 records.
2 Chronicles 15:19
“And there was no more war unto the thirty fifth year of the reign of Asa. That is, from the Ethiopian war to that time; after that there was no war with any foreign enemy; there were animosities and discords, bickerings and hostilities of some sort continually between Asa and Baasha king of Israel, as long as he lived, see 1Ki 15:16.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 15:19
“The five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa - This cannot be reconciled with the chronqlogy of Kings 1Ki 16:8: and the suggestion in the marg. implies the adoption of a mode of marking time unknown either to himself or any other Scriptural writer. It is supposed that the figures here and in 2Ch 16:1 are corrupt, and that in both verses “twentieth” should replace “thirtieth.” The attack of Baasha would then have been made in the last year of Asa’s reign; and ten years of peace would have followed Asa’s victory over Zerah.”
How this psalm is built
The form: Prophetic oracle followed by a covenant renewal assembly, material found in this book alone except for three verses, as Chronicles classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Seek, and be found, and forsake | Verse 2 states the rule in three clauses, and the chapter then plays each of them out. Verse 4 gives the historical case, distress followed by seeking followed by finding. Verse 12 makes the seeking an oath. Verse 15 closes with the promise kept in the oracle's own words, that He was found by them. Matthew Henry treats verse 2 as the clause every later seeking notice in Chronicles stands under.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Chronicles 15:2. | 2 Chronicles 15:2, 2 Chronicles 15:4, 2 Chronicles 15:12, 2 Chronicles 15:15 |
| The oracle's history lesson | Verses 3 to 6 reach back past the king's own lifetime to a long season with no true God, no teaching priest and no law, when nation was crushed by nation. Matthew Henry and John Gill set the reference in the days of the judges. Albert Barnes reads it more broadly, of the whole people across their apostasies and deliverances. The prophet names a precedent rather than inventing a danger.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, 1832 to 1869, on 2 Chronicles 15:3. | 2 Chronicles 15:3, 2 Chronicles 15:4, 2 Chronicles 15:5, 2 Chronicles 15:6 |
| The oath taken aloud | Verse 14 gives the sound of the covenant in a list: a loud voice, shouting, trumpets, rams' horns. Covenant renewal in Israel was a public and witnessed act, and the chapter keeps the noise of it. John Gill reads the rejoicing of verse 15 as sincere in the main, allowing that some in a crowd that size may have been dissembling.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 2 Chronicles 15:15. | 2 Chronicles 15:14, 2 Chronicles 15:15 |
| The promise and its answer around the assembly | The oracle promises at verse 2 that God will be found by those who seek Him. The assembly closes at verse 15 with the statement that they had sought Him earnestly and He was found by them. Everything between the two is the seeking: the idols removed, the altar restored, the tribes gathered, the oath sworn.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Chronicles 15:15. | 2 Chronicles 15:2, 2 Chronicles 15:15 |
The historical value
13 more paragraphs on the patterns
The date of the assembly is given by month and year, and the month carries a festival. The third month is the season of the Feast of Weeks, so the covenant was sworn when Jerusalem was already full.
The queen mother whom verse 16 deposes held a real office. The senior royal woman of the court had recognised standing and often real influence, so removing Maacah was a constitutional act rather than a family quarrel. John Gill and Adam Clarke both note that she was more precisely Asa's grandmother, holding the title by the standing Judah's court gave the office.
The Kidron Valley, where the pole was crushed and burned, is the ravine on the east side of Jerusalem, which is where such things were destroyed and their remains carried away.
The treasury note at verse 18 matters for what follows. The silver, gold and vessels Asa and his father had dedicated reach the house of God here. The next chapter has him taking silver and gold out of the same treasuries to buy a foreign alliance.
The debated concept
Verse 19 says there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign. 2 Chronicles 16:1 dates Baasha's move against Judah to the thirty-sixth year. Baasha was dead before the thirty-sixth year of Asa's own reign, so the two dates raise a real question and the commentators answer it two ways.
Albert Barnes flags the difficulty plainly and records that some readers take one of the two figures as damaged in copying, which is the ordinary way a numeral problem is handled.
John Gill and Adam Clarke record the other solution, that the years are reckoned from the division of the kingdom rather than from Asa's own accession. On that reckoning the events fall in the mid 890s and the conflict with the reigns in Kings disappears. The approach is the same one Edwin R. Thiele works out in detail for the divided-kingdom figures generally.
Either reading leaves the same historical shape, a long peace broken late by the Baasha war, and this row keeps both without a verdict.
The divine connection
Verse 2 is the charter clause of the whole book and it occurs nowhere else in Scripture in this form. The LORD is with you while you are with Him, He will be found if He is sought, and He will forsake those who forsake Him.
Every later seeking notice in Chronicles stands under it. Rehoboam's failure to set his heart to seek at 12:14 is judged by it. Asa's own failure to seek at 16:12 is judged by it. Jehoshaphat's fast at chapter 20 and Uzziah's prosperity at chapter 26 are measured by it.
Adam Clarke reads the verse against any doctrine of standing before God that ignores the warning half. The promise is real, and the clause attached to it is real in the same sentence.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Chronicles 15:2; the compiler of Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 15:1 to 15 and 15:19, with only 15:16 to 18 running beside 1 Kings 15:13 to 15 and the site's own guide to this book, src/components/book/guides/2-chronicles/Book2ChroniclesGuide.tsx, the LEDGER table, Asa at 14:1 to 16:14.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.