2 Chronicleschapter 15
19 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Key verse
And there was no more war unto the five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa.
It stands in Even the king's mother deposed and her idol burned, verses 16 to 19.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Azariah the son of Oded meets the returning army with the Spirit of God upon him and states the principle that governs the book: 'Jehovah is with you, while ye are with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.' Asa takes courage, puts away the abominations, and renews the altar. In the third month a great assembly gathers, with defectors from Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon, sacrifices seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep, and enters a covenant to seek Jehovah with all their heart, swearing with a loud voice and trumpets. Asa even removes his grandmother Maacah from being queen for her abominable image.
Context
History · Ezra · 2 Chronicles overview
The world behind this chapter
2 Chronicles 15The history
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.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Chronicles
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
Where the chapter sits
2 Chronicles 15 falls in Kings of Judah: Rehoboam to Ahaz (chapters 10–28). The divided kingdom narrated from Judah's side only; reform kings (Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Uzziah, Jotham) and evil kings; prophetic interventions unique to Chronicles (Azariah, Hanani, Zechariah son of Jehoiada).
Before it: Solomon's reign, chapters 1–9. After it: Hezekiah to the exile, chapters 29–36.
The whole shape of 2 Chronicles→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Azariah's word: the LORD is with you while you are with Him
1. (v. 1)
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.”
the Spirit of God came upon Azariah: Azariah son of Oded appears nowhere else in Scripture, one name in the Chronicles-only gallery of prophets who meet a king at the hinge of a reign. The Spirit of God comes upon him as Asa returns from the rout of the Ethiopians in chapter 14, and he meets the army in the field rather than waiting for the king to come to him. Some read Oded as another name for Iddo, the seer who wrote of the two reigns before Asa's, though the text itself gives no more than the name.
2. (v. 2)
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
if ye seek him, he will be found of you: Verse 2 states the book's test in its own words before the narrator ever applies it to a reign: the Lord is with you, while ye be with him, and if ye seek him, he will be found of you, a clause that occurs nowhere else in Scripture. Every later seeking notice in Chronicles, Rehoboam's failure to prepare his heart to seek the Lord, Asa's own contrast at 16:12, Jehoshaphat's fast in chapter 20, Uzziah's prosperity in chapter 26, stands under the rule Azariah names here. Adam Clarke reads the verse against any doctrine of unconditional standing before God: the promise is real, and so is the warning that answers it.
3. (vv. 3-6)
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.
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.”
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
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.”
without the true God, and without a teaching priest: The oracle's history lesson reaches back past Asa's own lifetime to the era of the judges, a long season with no true God worshipped, no teaching priest, and no law kept, the very words a remnant returned from Babylon would hear about their own recent captivity. Nation broke against nation and city against city because, the text says plainly, God vexed them with all adversity, the same pattern of covenant curse and covenant return that Judges narrates in its cycles. Henry and Gill both set the reference in the days of the judges; Barnes reads it more broadly, of the whole people of God across their many apostasies and deliverances. Azariah does not invent Israel's danger; he names its long precedent.
4. (v. 7)
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 more voices on this verse
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 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
2 Chronicles 15:7-8
let not your hands be weak: Be strong, Azariah tells the king, your work shall be rewarded, and Asa takes courage on the word of a prophet rather than on the momentum of his own victory. He puts away the abominable idols from Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had taken out of mount Ephraim, and renews the altar of the Lord before the porch, work Chronicles credits directly to the oracle rather than to royal initiative alone. Clarke reads the renewing of the altar as a fresh dedication after neglect, not a first use, since the altar had stood since Solomon's day. The prophetic word turns a returning general into a reforming king in two verses.
B. A covenant sworn with trumpets and shouting
1. (v. 8)
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. (vv. 9-11)
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.”
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).”
the strangers with them out of Ephraim: Asa gathers Judah and Benjamin and calls in strangers from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon, northern Israelites who cross into Judah because they see that the Lord his God was with him, a detail with no parallel in Kings and one the Chronicler keeps because a remnant assembly drawing outsiders in is exactly his subject. The gathering falls in the third month of Asa's fifteenth year, the season of Pentecost by the Jewish calendar, and the offering is drawn from the very spoil of the Ethiopian war, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. Barnes notes the number seven is the common pattern for Israel's larger sacrifices. The northern strangers turn a national reform into an all-Israel one before a single word of covenant is spoken.
3. (vv. 12-13)
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
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
to seek the Lord God of their fathers: The assembly enters a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul, sworn language that repeats the seeking refrain the Chronicler tracks across every reign he measures. Clarke divides the covenant into its two clauses, the vow to seek and the penalty attached to refusal, whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel put to death, small or great, man or woman. Henry and Gill both read the death penalty as the Mosaic law of Deuteronomy 17 put back into force rather than a new statute Asa invents. The oath binds the whole nation to the one verb the book keeps testing every king by.
4. (vv. 14-15)
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.”
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.”
with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets: The oath is sworn aloud, with shouting and with trumpets and with cornets, the noise of the covenant matching the noise Chronicles gives every true act of worship. Judah rejoices at the oath because they had sworn with all their heart and sought him with their whole desire, and the chapter answers Azariah's own conditional promise from verse 2 in its own terms: he was found of them, and the Lord gave them rest round about. Gill and Henry both read the sincerity as total, though Gill allows that some in the crowd may have been dissemblers.
C. Even the king's mother deposed and her idol burned
1. (v. 16)
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.”
he removed her from being queen: The reform reaches the king's own household: Maachah, named the mother of Asa, loses her standing as queen for an idol she made in a grove, and Asa himself cuts it down, grinds it to powder, and burns it at the brook Kidron. The parallel at 1 Kings 15:13 tells the same act at the front of Asa's regnal summary; Chronicles places it inside the covenant renewal, so the reform that binds the nation is shown reaching the throne's own mother. Gill and Clarke both note that Maachah is more precisely Asa's grandmother, holding the title by the standing Judah's court gave the senior royal woman rather than by direct descent.
2. (v. 17)
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
the heart of Asa was perfect all his days: The howbeit that follows undercuts nothing: the high places were not taken away out of Israel, yet the heart of Asa was perfect all his days, and Chronicles lets both clauses stand. Barnes reads the tension as the difference between the king's own intention, already stated at 14:3 and 14:5, and what the ordinary worship of the people in fact continued to be, the same gap the book states again at 17:6 against 20:33 in Jehoshaphat's reign. A reformed altar and an unreformed countryside travel together for more than one king in this book.
3. (vv. 18-19)
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
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.”
1 more voice on this verse
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.”
the things that his father had dedicated: The silver, gold and vessels Asa and his father before him had dedicated finally reach the house of God, restoring a treasury Chronicles will later show him emptying to buy off a foreign king in chapter 16. The chapter closes on peace, no more war unto the five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, a date Barnes flags as difficult to square with the war Baasha brings in chapter 16's own thirty sixth year; some read a scribal error in one of the two figures, others count the years from the division of the kingdom rather than from Asa's own accession. The positions are named without a verdict, and either reading leaves the same historical shape: a long peace before the Baasha war breaks it.
This page carries no textual note on 2 Chronicles 15. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
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 exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.