2 Chronicles 6:24

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.

Or, praise.

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

(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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

And if Your people...is struck down not because You have no power, but because they will sin against You.

and confess - Heb. וְהוֹדוּ. The meaning is: and they will confess their iniquity, and the latter verse proves this (verse 26): “and confess to Your name and repent of their sin, so that You may answer them.”

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.