2 Chronicles 20:7

2Ch 20:7 [Art] not thou our God, [who] didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?

Ver. 7. Art not thou our God?] God’s might and his mercy are faith’s Jachin and Boaz, whereon it resteth.

And gavest it to the seed of Abraham.] So that we are thy tenants, thy vassals; and wilt not thou see to us? Sure thou wilt.

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.

He groundeth his prayer upon God’s power, whereby he is able to help, and also on his mercy, which he will continue toward his, forasmuch as he hath once chosen them and began to show his graces toward them.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 7. Art not thou our God] "Hast not thou, by thy WORD, driven out." - Targum.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(7) Art not thou our God?—Didst not Thou, our God, drive out, &c. (Comp. Jos_23:5; Jos_23:9; Deu_4:38; Deu_11:23; and for the form of appeal, Isa. Ii. 9, 10. Comp. also Psa_47:3-4.)

And gavest it to the seed of Abraham.—According to the Promise, Gen_13:15-16; Gen_15:18.

For ever.—Gen_17:8, “for an everlasting possession.”

Thy friend.—Or, lover. So Isa_41:8, “seed of Abraham, my friend.” This title of Abraham is mentioned again by St. James (Jas_2:23). Hebron, the patriarch’s burial-place, is at this day known to the Muslim world as el-Khalil, “the Friend.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7. Art not thou our God, who didst drive out] R.V. Didst not thou, O our God, drive out. Cp. Deu_9:5.

thy friend] Cp. Isa_41:8.

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.

Art not thou our God,.... In a peculiar sense, not merely as the Creator and Governor of men, but in a covenant relation their covenant God and Father:

who didst drive out the inhabitants of the land before thy people Israel; the seven nations of Canaan, to make way and room for Israel:

and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever? made a deed of gift of it to them, and settled it on them till the coming of the Messiah, and that as an instance of love and friendship to Abraham; and wilt thou therefore suffer it to be taken from his seed?

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

All, or the greatest part. Heb. "drive out the inhabitants." H.

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).

i.e. To whom thou hast engaged thyself by covenant to be his friend, and the friend of his seed for ever, and therefore we trust thou wilt not forsake us his posterity.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Friendship with God.

"Abraham thy friend.

1. Before Jesus came to reveal God to our race as he did reveal him, theEternal One was known and worshipped chiefly as the Almighty One, or as the Creator of all things, or as the Divine Sovereign, whose rule we are bound to obey. Not exclusively; for he was known as the Father of men (Deu_32:6; 1Ch_29:10; Isa_63:16 Isa_64:8; Psa_103:13) Here also he is spoken of as a Friend (and see (Isa_41:8; Jam_2:23) But it is evident that it was only in a restricted sense, and by a very limited number, that God was thus apprehended.

2. It was Jesus Christ that revealed the Father as the Father of souls; it washe who taught us to address him as such, to think and speak of him as such, to approach him and to live before him as such.

3. It is Jesus Christ also who has enabled us to think and to feel towardGod as our Friend. "I have called you friends," he said to his disciples. (Joh_15:15) And he has so related himself to us that in him we can recognize God as our Divine Friend; as One of whom we may rightly speak, and toward whom we may venture to feel and to act as our Friend indeed. But on what ground and in what respects? On the ground of

I RECIPROCATED LOVE; including, what all true love must include, both affection and trust. God loves us. He loves us with parental affection, as his children who were once indeed estranged from him, but are now reconciled unto him; as those who have become endeared to him, both by his great sacrifice for their sake, and by their seeking after him and surrender of themselves to him. And God trusts us. He does not treat us as slaves, but as sons; he does not lay down a strict and severe code of rules by which our daily conduct is to be regulated; he gives us a few broad principles, and he trusts us to apply them to our own circumstances. We, in return, love and trust him. Not having seen him, but having understood his character and his disposition toward us in Jesus Christ, having realized how great and all-surpassing was his kindness toward us in him, (Tit_3:4) we love him in response. (1Jn_4:19) And in him, in his faithfulness and in his wisdom and in his goodness, we have an unfaltering trust. Thus we have the reciprocal love of friendship.

II CLOSE RESEMBLANCE OF CHARACTER AND SYMPATHY. There cannot be friendship worthy of the name where there is not this. Our character and our sympathies must be essentially alike, must be substantially the same. And so it is with the Divine Lord and those who worthily bear his Name. His character is theirs; his principles are theirs; his sympathies are theirs. What he loves and what he hates, they love and they hate. Towards all that to which (and towards all those to whom) he is drawn, they are drawn; that which repels him repels them. Here is the true basis of friendship, and even that distance of nature that separates the Divine from the human is no barrier in the way. Being so essentially like Christ as his true followers are, they are his friends and he is theirs.

III ONENESS OF AIM AND ACTION. Friendship is established and nourished by a common aim and by fellow-labouring. They who join heart and hand in any noble enterprise become united together in strong bonds of true companionship. It is so with our Master and ourselves. He is engaged in the sublime task of recovering a lost world to the knowledge, the love, the likeness of God; so are we. He has laboured and suffered to achieve that most glorious end; so do we. We are "workers together with him." His cause is ours; he and we are bent on the fulfilment of the same great purpose; and while he works through us and in us, he also works with us in this greatest and noblest of all earthly aims. "We are labourers together with God"; (1Co_3:9) "We then, as workers together with. (2Co_6:1) We are his friends. Let us:

1. Realize how high is the honour he has thus conferred upon us.

2. See that we walk worthily of such a lofty estate.

3. Take care that we never do that or become that which will make usforfeit so great a heritage. Let us be found faithful as the friends of God. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Abraham - To whom thou hast engaged thyself by covenant to be his friend, and the friend of his seed forever. 9. The sword - Or rather, the sword of judgement or of vengeance, that is, war, whereby thou punisheth thy people for their sins.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

and given it to the seed of Abraham Therefore, it is incumbent upon You to preserve it in their hands and to drive these peoples out. Even a flesh and blood king, and even an ordinary man, when he gives a present to his friend and someone comes to rob him of it, he exerts himself to preserve it in his hand. How much more so [should] You [do so]! Perhaps You will say, “I gave it to them only temporarily.” Therefore, it says, “forever.” You gave it to us for an eternal inheritance.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.