Another Bible Commentary: 2 Chronicles

2 Chronicles is a Judah-focused history perhaps written down by Ezra and his followers. We noted things like an early antecedent of the “Lord’s Prayer” in 1 Chronicles, and there are also things to look forward to in the often-skipped 2 Chronicles that illuminate parts of the Gospels. Chapter 20 which could be called “How to Win With Faith” is nice to revisit periodically.

1:12 Wealth is not a bad thing (Deuteronomy 8:18).

1:14-17 See Deuteronomy 17:16-17 and Deuteronomy 7:1-2. Solomon was wise but unregenerate. Pharaoh-like activities and strange bedfellows aside, Solomon the wise arms dealer still had God on his side until the overt idolatry (2 Chronicles 7:19).

2:2 “conscripted” There is a principle of voluntary giving shown in Exodus 35 and 1 Chronicles 29, but there is also a 1 Samuel 8 expectation of the (legitimate Romans 13) use of powers, too. Because of the omission of certain personal sins in Chronicles (because the point of Chronicles was to motivate those returning from exile to rebuild the Temple by emphasizing its original legitimacy), some commentators point to the eventual exile growing from Pharaoh-like leadership. “Empire!”, they cry. Whether it’s an honest mistake or a cynical attempt to support political positions (on either end of the spectrum, it turns out), they are leaving out lots of Scripture.

2:14 Regarding 1 Kings 7:14, the city of Dan was on Naphtali land.

3:1 “Mount Moriah” is the site of Genesis 22 and 1 Chronicles 21.

3:7 This is necessary background information for Ezekiel 8:10.

3:9 Gold is really malleable, so solid gold nails could be awkward. Not to discount the miraculous, but this possibly refers to iron nails overlaid with gold (1 Chronicles 22:3).

4:1 That’s a much bigger altar than the Tabernacle’s version.

4:2 People complain about pi being three in this verse (instead of 3.141…) in a book from the Iron Age, but humanity got better at decimals later. There are places in the world where it’s three o’clock until it’s four.

4:5 The Septuagint lacks the 1 Kings 7:26 sentence about volume, making this the official volume and the official shape cylindrical.

4:7-8 The Tabernacle had one lamp and one table.

5:13 He is good, and His love does endure forever. The Cross proved how far He’d go for us.

6:18 Yep, God’s plan all along was to live with us – Jesus. Also, the “highest heavens” in the Hebrew are the “Heaven of Heavens”, so Paul mentions the Third Heaven where God lives (another metaphorical layer upward) in 2 Corinthians 12:2.

6:21,25,27, etc. “Hear” in Hebrew is more like “hear and act”. The primary function of the Temple for the original Jewish audience was forgiveness.

6:32-33 “whatever the foreigner asks” including salvation (Romans 9 through Romans 11, to make Abraham’s physical descendants jealous enough to return to God) as well as material blessings as a convincer. We were always part of the plan (Deuteronomy 32:21, Isaiah 56:7, Jeremiah 4:2).

6:36 “There is no one who does not sin…” and law-keeping is an all-or-nothing proposition (James 2:10), so grace is the only way anyone ever got saved. Only Jesus keeps the Law (John 8:46).

6:41 “may your faithful people rejoice in your goodness.” Amen.

7:1 Fire came down to show God’s approval of the new Temple (as it did for David in 1 Chronicles 21:26), just like at Pentecost (Acts 2) since believers are the Temple now.

7:14 This Old Covenant verse is commonly quoted out of context. His people who are called by His name are Israel (“Wrestles With God” Genesis 32). There was so, so, so much animal sacrifice earlier in this chapter, which is a clue we’re not dealing with the New Covenant here. God settled accounts at the Cross. God alone is trustworthy, and not only did He promise to remember our sins no more (Hebrews 8:12) but He even destroyed the record where such things could be recorded (Colossians 2:13-14). Christians are totally forgiven people (Hebrews 10:14). It would be unjust to punish the same sins twice. He’s not sending locusts and plagues (verse 13); we live in a fallen world subject to misfortune, demonic activity (2 Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 2:2, 1 John 5:19) (demons can lie to us, but they cannot touch us per 1 John 5:18), other misguided humans, etc. Yes, turn from sin because it’s not consistent with who you are now in Christ; it will never satisfy you. Yes, sin is regrettable and a learning opportunity. However, don’t insult the work of Jesus by saying He didn’t finish it.

7:18-19 Having the eternal Christ in the bloodline fixes any gaps retroactively. Also, the conditional “if” meant all bets were off. Humans are bad at keeping laws. Christ fulfilled the Law for us.

8:2 Hiram called the towns Solomon gave him (1 Kings 9:11) worthless, so I guess he gave them back.

8:3 Solomon fought wars too. The Temple waited for peaceful times rather than peaceful kings.

8:11 Ancient royal weddings were often ways to make political alliances.

8:18 Phoenician ships plus Solomon’s network of friendly harbors (controlled by many fathers-in-law) added up to a very lucrative trade network reaching around Arabia to as far as northern India.

9:1 “Sheba” or the Sabeans of Genesis 10:28 and Genesis 25:3 (of Abrahamic descent); allegedly modern-day Yemen.

9:13 A memorable number for later.

9:24-28 See Deuteronomy 17:16-17.

9:29-31 The Books of Chronicles are agenda-driven history written long after the events had transpired, but what agenda? The Chronicler skipped Solomon’s idolatry and the specifics of God’s offer to Jeroboam. This leads some commentators to read this as an alternative explanation of the exile, blaming it on God’s people acting like an empire. I see Chronicles more as an encouragement to the exiles to rebuild the Temple system. They already had the Deuteronomic History books and the prophets to read about how their ancestors were all cold-hearted unhelpful dirty idol-worshiping perverts; I see an agenda of encouragement in Chronicles. For all of the first book and the first nine chapters of the second book, the Chronicler presented the Temple and its builders in the best light.

10:4 Here’s a “let my people go” Exodus 5:1 moment. They’re about to opt for the former slavedriver (1 King 11:28).

10:6 Solomon had been smart enough to delegate.

10:8 Hiring some guy you’ve known since junior high to be your accountant instead of an actual accountant leads to things like race horses as an investment, etc.

10:10 “little finger” is a colloquialism for penis.

10:11 “scorpions” were likely barbed whips.

10:15 “the word the LORD had spoken to Jeroboam” was 1 Kings 11:29-39 about Solomon losing most of the kingdom due to idolatry. Solomon’s conscription of labor for Temple-building has been presented as legitimate in the text. The Books of Kings highlight the religious errors. Someone who had never read those might think the secession happened solely due to Rehoboam being a worse oppressor (especially since it was for his own whims instead of for God) and that the exile flowed from God’s people acting like their old Pharaoh. If they kept reading Chronicles they would see idolatry as a culprit again as well (2 Chronicles 11:15, 2 Chronicles 13:9, 2 Chronicles 15:8, 2 Chronicles 19:3, etc.).

10:18 See 1 Kings 4:6 and 1 Kings 5:14

11:13-17 Judah (distinct from Jerusalem) was rural and had about one-tenth the population of Israel, but grew with the northern refugees fleeing the idolatrous North. Therefore, even in the New Testament long after the Assyrians had destroyed/bred out Israel, there are representatives of “lost” tribes like Anna of Asher in Luke 2:36.

12:1 “he and all Israel” This instance can be interpreted as Judah got onto the idolatry train that the northern kingdom of Israel had already been riding, but throughout the rest of the book sometimes the text says “Israel” where a historian would have written “Judah”. This fits the perspective of the book’s original audience, which was a bunch of exiles coming back to start the country over.

13:1 Abijah gets a bad grade in 1 Kings 15:3 involving the same sins as Rehoboam’s from 2 Chronicles 12:1.

13:3 Again, “thousand” could also mean “military unit”.

13:5 Not only is salt a preservative signifying a lasting deal, but they couldn’t unmingle grains of salt once they were mixed together. No backsies.

13:10-11 This whole speech is a sort of priestly commercial break in the history lesson. Looking at all Scripture, it seems that Abijah was a bad king who gave a good speech once when he fought a bad king.

13:13 “had sent troops around to the rear” during the lengthy speech.

13:22 Another history book that we don’t have. Redactions can be inspired.

14:2-5 The unauthorized YHWH worship sites remained (2 Chronicles 15:17).

14:9 Some translate this as a thousand thousands, or a million.

15:8 Was 2 Chronicles 14:2-7 a summary or an introduction perhaps?

15:13 like Deuteronomy 13 and Deuteronomy 17:1-7.

16:2 “Ben-Hadad” means “Son of Hadad” which also means Son of Baal. This was a common regnal name for rulers of Aram. Even though protecting the rights of pilgrims to the Temple was a noble aim, his method here is not. Asa’s prayer about a vast Ethiopian army got answered in 2 Chronicles 14:12, so this forfeiture is particularly galling (Galatians 3:3). Did he not think God would help him similarly against fellow descendants of Abraham perhaps?

16:6 “all” includes the elderly, disabled, newlywed, Torah students, etc., usually exempted from this sort of thing.

16:10-13 He’s blessed to have only gotten gout and died (Deuteronomy 17:20, 2 Kings 2:23-24). Seeking help from physicians wasn’t a problem, but seeking help “only” from them was: Paul advised Timothy to use the remedies that were available back then (1 Timothy 5:23) rather than just telling him to pray harder, Luke was a physician, etc.

17:6 Asa lost his grip later on, so more reform was needed again.

17:9-11 The live-piously-get-blessed worldview of the Deuteronomic History books still applies in the Chronicles.

18:1 He knew he was compromising with evil by marrying into the idolatrous northern royal family.

18:5 These guys were either talking about Baal or a golden calf, so Jehoshaphat reiterates his request for a prophet of the LORD in the next verse.

18:7 He didn’t want truth, so God let him have it his way.

18:13 “only what my God says” to say to this idolatrous king, which would be demonic lies from verse 21.The things God Himself speaks in this passage are true. The Old Testament believers thought God’s Sovereignty meant He was to be credited with all that He allowed to happen. He has been known to give humans their own way in this world (Psalm 115:16), and that comes with consequences (Romans 1 and 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12). We pray for His will to be done because it frequently isn’t. He will set things right eventually. He isn’t sending disasters from the fallen world, other people, demons, etc., to you, but He can use those things for your good (Romans 8:28-29).

18:23-24 “Which way…?” That is, to say, back to Hell. Ahab and the false prophets were soon to be defeated.

19:2 “love” as in marry and make alliances with, etc. See 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. The original audience was about to get several historical examples over the next few chapters about why they should avoid dealings with the Samaritans (Ezra 4:3).

2 Chronicles 20 could be titled “How to Win With Faith”; there is a pattern for victory here.

20:1 Meunites are likely Edomites.

20:3 If you are “alarmed”, then “inquire of the LORD”.

20:5 like 2 Chronicles 6:34-35.

20:6 Jehoshaphat prayed confidently, knowing that God is greater than the problem.

20:7-9 Jehoshaphat prayed confidently, trusting God because of their relationship and God’s track record.

20:10 “Mount Seir” refers to the Edomites.

20:12 See 2 Corinthians 12:9. We are weak, and He is strong.

20:15 Every battle is His. Look to Him. Praise Him, for He is good; His grace endures forever. Be still. He’s got you.

20:20 He said that if you believe you will succeed. Faith saves.

20:21 Keep this refrain going throughout the problem: “Give thanks to the LORD, for His love endures forever” (1 Chronicles 16:34, 2 Chronicles 5:13, 2 Chronicles 7:3-6, Psalm 136). Focusing on hymns, etc., can be helpful. It’s not a magic spell, it’s just a way to exercise faith.

20:22 Things happen when you praise Him. This battle is also referenced in an apocalyptic context in Joel 3:2.

20:23-24 It was over before it started.

20:28 Be grateful.

20:33 Regarding 2 Chronicles 17:6, the unauthorized YHWH worship continued, and the people lacked Jehoshaphat’s zeal even if they weren’t overtly pagan.

20:35-37 explains 1 Kings 22:48. Don’t eat with the false prophet (1 Kings 13).

21:2 “Israel” here meaning Judah.

21:4 Jehoram is the first Davidic king with a totally negative review in Chronicles.

21:6 This is why the negative review is predictable.

21:12 Elijah had already ascended by 2 Kings 8 (which is contemporaneous with this story), so he wrote a letter beforehand to deliver at this point in the story. It must have felt like a moment from Back to the Future; your Bible has prophecies that will be fulfilled later, so you have a similarly eerie document.

21:18-19 Rectal prolapse possibly from constipation; perhaps associated with colorectal carcinoma.

22:1 “all” would have been understood by the original audience as recompense for the “all” in 2 Chronicles 21:4.

22:9 2 Kings 9:27 tells how.

22:10 There is no traditional formula describing the reign because she wasn’t a legitimate ruler.

22:12 similar to the early stories of Moses and Jesus.

23:15 like her mother in 2 Kings 9:33.

24:10 Perhaps they had hesitated because the half-shekel census from Exodus 30:11-16 wasn’t an annual occurrence. Joash’s good intentions in verse 4 have led to behavior similar to well-meaning pastors since the 19th Century trying to convince Christians that they are somehow still required to give the Old Covenant tithe.

24:16 This priest was buried with kings, and the king he served wasn’t (2 Chronicles 24:25).

24:17-18 Yet another life that parallels the history of the Israelites.

24:21 Jehoida cared for the sanctity of the Temple when Athaliah was killed (2 Chronicles 23:14), but his son’s killers did not.

24:22 contrasts with Luke 23:34 and Acts 7:60.

24:25 the very men who had turned him away from God in verses 17-18.

25:14 Did he think the false gods had sided with him instead of the Edomites? God helped him win the battle, but he turned to idols. Yet another life that parallels the history of the Israelites.

26:5 What do you bet that this reign that starts well will end poorly because of violating God’s Law, paralleling the history of the Israelites yet again? God felt every one of these betrayals. Have you ever had your child or spouse betray you? It hurt worse because you trusted them, right? Did you get very angry because, as a person with integrity, you would have never done that to them? Have you ever forgiven someone knowing that they might do the same thing again? It’s easy to focus on the human side of these historical stories, but God is the long-suffering Father and Spouse to these people (Jeremiah 3:14).

26:21 Leviticus 13:46 quarantine led to a coregency.

26:23 Isaiah 6:1 is set here.

28:3 You may have heard of the Valley of Ben Hinnom by the name Gehenna. It was a burning trash heap outside Jerusalem that had been used for child sacrifice. It is mentioned a few times in the Gospels as a way to talk about the judgment of God and/or Hell.

28:5 Isaiah 7 and Isaiah 8 are informative regarding this period of history.

28:6 People from Judah died for idolatry at the hands of even more idolatrous northern Israelites.

28:9-15 Congratulations for making it this far. People who skip Chronicles don’t realize that the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) referenced a true story that Jesus’ listeners had been made to memorize ever since they had learned to talk. The location, the clothing, the healing balm, and the donkey are all there. Oded’s message was “love your neighbor who is as bad as yourself, because you need grace.”

28:20 just like Jannes and Jambres providing more frogs (Exodus 8:7).

29:1-2 Six years into Hezekiah’s reign, the northern kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria. Hezekiah’s mother was the descendant of a righteous man (2 Chronicles 26:5). Godly parents are blessings.

29:3-11 The Chronicler emphasizes this to say, “Hey exiles, re-open the Temple already.”

29:16 The Kidron Valley was used as a burial site and was therefore unclean. Again, the clean/unclean distinction is Old Covenant; being unclean isn’t a sin, but bringing unclean to the worship site was. Christ already cleaned us (1 Corinthians 6:11, Hebrews 10:10). We can mature in our behavior, but “sanctification” as a cleaning process like some denominations teach was actually part of the finished work of Christ. Sinless Jesus, who lives in us, has that Exodus 30:29 holiness that makes other stuff holy on contact rather than being defiled. Jesus touched lepers and corpses (and abided by the offerings and waiting of that time) without hesitation, and Paul approved of behaviors requiring washing-and-waiting under the Old Covenant for believers under the New (1 Corinthians 7); “clean” isn’t an issue for the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

29:21 Sin/purification offering for a new beginning like Genesis 8:20 and Leviticus 4.

29:27 Burnt offerings for total devotion to God (Leviticus 1:1-17).

30:3 like Numbers 9:9-11.

30:5 including the North, too.

30:8 The Chronicler emphasizes this to say, “Hey exiles, re-open the Temple already.”

30:12 like Philippians 2:13.

30:18-20 We see a king interceding like Moses for his people and we see God’s grace (Hebrews 7:25). Those that ran to Jesus during His earthly ministry grew up hearing these stories.

30:27 “heard” like 2 Chronicles 6:21.

32:1 Psalm 44 could fit this scenario. See also Isaiah 36.

32:12 The pagan thinks that a god’s power is proportional to the number of its worship sites and adherents. The Assyrians didn’t comprehend that the true God requires no help and that Hezekiah was obeying Him.

32:19 Their salvation did not depend on their own merit. God dealt with their blasphemous enemy for them.

32:21 The historian Herodotus’ hypothesis about the dead army was a plague carried by rats.

32:24 Herodotus would have blamed the same plague.

32:29 Amidst plenty, remember Hebrews 13:5. However, personal wealth itself is not a problem (Deuteronomy 8:18).

32:31 Jesus passed the test. Under the New Covenant, God knows what is in your new heart that He installed.

33:1-2 The name Manasseh sounds like “forget” in Hebrew. He was an Assyrian vassal like the hated Northern Kingdom of Israel.

33:3-6 Yikes.

33:7 is like Daniel 9:27 and Matthew 24:15. In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus pointed out that when this level of Temple desecration is allowed by God, the end is near. In this case, in three more chapters.

33:9 See also Jeremiah 15:4. Remember when the sins of the Amorites (Genesis 15:16) were finally complete, and they lost the ability to exist in Canaan? Manasseh accomplished that for the Hebrews. Their doom could only be delayed by the actions of “good” men like Josiah, not averted. Conversely, Jesus did what He set out to do so well that our salvation is assured (Romans 5).

33:11 Babylon was just a city within the Neo-Assyrian Empire back then.

33:13 Manasseh’s redemption is symbolic of the Israelites’ exile and return. Look at how great God’s mercy is rather than despairing in sin.

33:17 clarifies what we’ve said about the activities at high places.

33:20 The 2 Kings 21:18 detail about being buried in a garden devoted to a pagan star god is omitted here because of the focus on Manasseh’s repentance (due to the Chronicler’s focus on encouraging the exiles).

34:3 Josiah was sixteen years old when he got religious and twenty when his reforms started (1 Timothy 4:12).

34:4-5 to fulfill prophecy (1 Kings 13:1-2, 2 Kings 23:16). Grave robbery is omitted here.

34:14 Hilkiah is related to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:1). See Deuteronomy 31:24.

34:22 The prophetess taught five guys, which is apparently against the wishes of certain modern groups at the time of this writing.

35:18 To the letter, nationally, without pagans? Hyperbole? Even Hezekiah’s great effort still had issues of timing, purity, etc. Someone may make the case that the last truly national unity without some type of glaring sin among the people and/or leadership, missing Ark, etc., seems to have been in 1 Samuel 3:20-21. This Passover celebrating salvation from Pharaoh was the biggest Godward turn since the Hebrews treasonously asked for a king, and it still wasn’t enough. Repentance from sin isn’t enough when you need a Savior.

35:21 God talked to other pagan kings, too (Genesis 20, Daniel 4).

35:22 is a scenario in which a Pharaoh listened to God and a “Moses” did not. Later, many Gentiles listened to the Holy Spirit about Jesus Christ and were early adopters of Christianity; many of the “firstborn” (Exodus 4:22) still have not.

35:23-24 Compare with 2 Chronicles 18:29-34 and Ecclesiastes 9:1-2. No one is good enough. We all need grace. We all need Jesus.

35:25 Not to be confused with the Book of Lamentations.

36:4 The name change is a show of dominance, like Adam naming an animal.

36:6 and he died (2 Kings 24:6). Josephus said that Nebuchadnezzar took him to Babylon, slew him, and threw the corpse outside the wall like Jeremiah 22 and Jeremiah 36 predicted.

36:9 The Septuagint in 2 Kings 24:8 agrees that he was eighteen.

36:11 Regarding Zedekiah, See Jeremiah 24: 8-10 and Jeremiah 37:2. He was fully warned in Jeremiah 27, Jeremiah 32, and Jeremiah 34:1-5. Ezekiel, already in Babylon, began having his visions four years into Zedekiah’s reign in Judah.

36:13 Emphasis “oath in God’s name”. Also, a “hard-hearted” leader with a kingdom of people doing detestable practices sounds more like Pharaoh than the people Moses was tasked with liberating.

36:18 The Ark appears again in Revelation 11:19.

36:20 In addition to the worship of idols, the prophets repeatedly mention failing to care for the strangers, widows, and orphans as repeatedly commanded in Deuteronomy and demonstrated in object lessons in the lives of Abe, Moses, David, etc. Therefore, the people got a “semester abroad” of sorts (Zechariah 7:14, Hebrews 11:13-16).

36:21 They disobeyed Exodus 23:11 for about five hundred years.

36:23 like Ezra 1:1-4. See Jeremiah 51:11 and Isaiah 44:28-45:13. Isaiah predicted Cyrus two hundred years ahead of time.

There were three deportations and three returns (Zerubabbel, Ezra, and Nehemiah-led groups).

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