2 Chronicles 34:32

2Ch 34:32-33. He caused all present to stand to it — He caused them to engage by an oath or covenant, that they would observe the laws of God, as his predecessors had formerly done, and which indeed they were before obliged to do. The inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant, &c. — They complied with God’s and the king’s command, as to the outward acts of God’s worship, though not with an upright and renewed heart, as appears by the history. To serve, even to serve the Lord their God — The repetition shows, that this was the only thing his heart was set upon. He aimed at nothing, in all he did, but to engage them to God and their duty.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 32. To stand to it.] It is likely that he caused them all to arise when he read the terms of the covenant, and thus testify their approbation of the covenant itself, and their resolution to observe it faithfully and perseveringly.

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

(32) And he caused . . . stand to it.—Kings, “and all the people stood into (i.e., came into) the covenant.” So Syriac: “And everyone that was found in Jerusalem and in Benjamin rose, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem entered into the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers.” (The chronicler’s reading may be accounted for by the fact that the verbs “he stood and” he caused to stand “differ only in the vowels, which anciently were not written at all. “All that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin” is an unusual phrase; and it is likely that “and Benjamin” is really a corruption of “into the covenant” which is required by the context here as much as in Kings.)

And the inhabitants . . . fathers—i.e., after they had thus solemnly taken it upon them to do so. The statement is not read in Kings.

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

32. he caused all that were found … to stand to it] In 2 Kin., “all the people stood to the covenant.”

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.

And Benjamin - It is scarcely possible that the text here can be sound. “Benjamin” is never put in contrast with “Jerusalem,” but always with Judah. The reading may be corrected from the parallel passage 2Ki 23:3; “And he caused all those that were present in Jerusalem to stand to the covenant.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

To stand to it; to own or maintain it, or persist in it, as this phrase is used, Deu 25:1. He caused them to engage themselves by an oath or covenant, that they would observe and obey the laws of God, as his godly predecessors had formerly done, and which indeed they were before obliged to do. They complied with God’s and the king’s command, as to the outward acts of God’s worship, though not with an upright heart, as appears by the history.

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

Some think the text hero corrupt, both for the presence of the words, and in Benjamin, and the absence of the words, "in the covenant." Their case, however, is scarcely conclusive. (see 2Ki_23:3)

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

To stand to it - He caused them to engage by an oath or covenant, that they would observe the laws of God, as his predecessors had formerly done, and which indeed they were before obliged to do.

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

according to the covenant of God, the God of their forefathers According to all that which is written there: “the God of their forefathers.” Therefore, it is written here, “the God of their forefathers,” which He enacted for their forefathers in the desert. And every covenant that is there concerns idolatry, as it is written (Deut. 29:16f.): “And you saw their abominations and their depravities, etc....turns away today from the Lord.” Therefore, Josiah “removed all the abominations, etc.”

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.