2 Chronicles 15

2Ch 15:1-15.

JUDAH

MAKES A

SOLEMN

COVENANT WITH

GOD.

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.

2. The Lord is with you, while ye be with him--You have had, in your

recent signal success, a remarkable proof that God's blessing is upon

you; your victory has been the reward of your faith and piety. If you

steadfastly adhere to the cause of God, you may expect a continuance of

His favor; but if you abandon it, you will soon reap the bitter fruits

of apostasy.

3-6. Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God,

&c.--Some think that Azariah was referring to the sad and disastrous

condition to which superstition and idolatry had brought the

neighboring kingdom of Israel. His words should rather be taken in a

wider sense, for it seems manifest that the prophet had his eye upon

many periods in the national history, when the people were in the state

described--a state of spiritual destitution and ignorance--and

exhibited its natural result as widespread anarchy, mutual dissension

among the tribes, and general suffering

(Jud 9:23; 12:4; 20:21;

2Ch 13:17).

These calamities God permitted to befall them as the punishment of

their apostasy. Azariah's object in these remarks was to establish the

truth of his counsel

(2Ch 15:2),

threatening, in case of neglecting it by describing the uniform course

of the divine procedure towards Israel, as shown in all periods of

their history. Then after this appeal to national experience, he

concluded with an earnest exhortation to the king to prosecute the work

of reformation so well begun

[2Ch 15:7].

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.

8. when Asa heard . . . the prophecy of Oded the prophet--The insertion

of these words, "of Oded the prophet," is generally regarded as a

corruption of the text. "The sole remedy is to erase them. They are,

probably, the remains of a note, which crept in from the margin into

the text" [BERTHEAU].

he took courage--Animated by the seasonable and pious address of

Azariah, Asa became a more zealous reformer than ever, employing all

his royal authority and influence to extirpate every vestige of

idolatry from the land.

and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim--He may

have acquired cities of Ephraim, the conquest of which is not recorded

(2Ch 17:2);

but it has been commonly supposed that the reference is to cities which

his father Abijah had taken in that quarter

(2Ch 13:19).

renewed the altar of the Lord . . . before the porch--that is, the

altar of burnt offering. As this was done on or about the fifteenth

year of the reign of this pious king, the renewal must have consisted

in some splendid repairs or embellishments, which made it look like a

new dedication, or in a reconstruction of a temporary altar, like that

of Solomon

(2Ch 7:7),

for extraordinary sacrifices to be offered on an approaching

occasion.

9-15. he gathered all Judah and Benjamin--Not satisfied with these

minor measures of purification and improvement, Asa meditated a grand

scheme which was to pledge his whole kingdom to complete the work of

reformation, and with this in view he waited for a general assembly of

the people.

and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh--The population

of Asa's kingdom had been vastly increased by the continued influx of

strangers, who, prompted by motives either of interest or of piety,

sought in his dominions that security and freedom which they could not

enjoy amid the complicated troubles which distracted Israel.

and out of Simeon--Although a portion of that tribe, located within the

territory of Judah, were already subjects of the southern kingdom, the

general body of the Simeonites had joined in forming the northern

kingdom of Israel. But many of them now returned of their own accord.

10-14. the third month--when was held the feast of pentecost. On

this occasion, it was celebrated at Jerusalem by an extraordinary

sacrifice of seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep, the spoil of

the Ethiopians being offered. The assembled worshippers entered with

great and holy enthusiasm into a national covenant "to seek the Lord

their God . . . with all their heart and with all their

soul;" and, at the same time, to execute with rigor the laws which made

idolatry punishable with death

(2Ch 15:13;

De 17:2-5;

Heb 10:28).

The people testified unbounded satisfaction with this important

religious movement, and its moral influence was seen in the promotion

of piety, order, and tranquillity throughout the land.

18. the things that his father had dedicated--probably part of the

booty obtained by his signal victory over Jeroboam, but which, though

dedicated, had hitherto been unrepresented.

and that he himself had dedicated--of the booty taken from the

Ethiopians. Both of these were now deposited in the temple as votive

offerings to Him whose right hand and holy arm had given them the

victory.