2 Chronicles 15:7

Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak,.... Be hearty, earnest, and vigorous, and not languid and remiss in reforming the worship of God, which Asa had begun: for your work shall be rewarded; with peace and prosperity at home, and success against enemies abroad, of which they had had a recent instance.

15:1-19 The people make a solemn covenant with God. - The work of complete reformation appeared so difficult, that Asa had not courage to attempt it, till assured of Divine assistance and acceptance. He and his people offered sacrifices to God; thanksgiving for the favours they had received, and supplication for further favours. Prayers and praises are now our spiritual sacrifices. The people, of their own will, covenanted to seek the Lord, each for himself, with earnestness. What is religion but seeking God, inquiring after him, applying to him upon all occasions? We make nothing of our religion, if we do not make heart-work of it; God will have all the heart, or none. Our devotedness to God our Saviour, should be avowed and shown in the most solemn and public manner. What is done in hypocrisy is a mere drudgery.

2 Chronicles 15:7. Be ye strong therefore — Go on resolutely to maintain God’s worship, and to root out idolatry, as you have begun to do; for this is the only method of preserving yourselves from such calamities as your predecessors have felt. And let not your hands be weak — Be not discouraged with the opposition which you may possibly meet with. For your work shall be rewarded — What you do for God, and for his honour and service, shall not be overlooked, or go unrequited.

Be ye strong therefore; go on therefore courageously and resolutely to maintain God’s worship, and to root out idolatry, as you have begun to do; for this is the only right method of preserving yourselves from such calamities as your predecessors have felt. Let not your hands be weak; be not discouraged with the opposition which you may possibly meet with. Your work shall be rewarded; what you do for God and for his honour and service shall not go unrequited.

(7) Be ye strong therefore. —Rather, But ye, be ye strong. Be weak.—Droop, or hang down (Zephaniah 3:16; 2Samuel 4:1). Your work shall be rewarded.—Literally, there is indeed a reward for your work; words occurring in Jeremiah 31:16. We have here the moral of the prophet’s address. The ruinous results of not “seeking,” and “forsaking,” Jehovah (2Chronicles 15:2) have been briefly but powerfully sketched from the past history of the nation. The conclusion is, Do not ye fall away like your forefathers; but let your allegiance to Jehovah be decided and sincere. Your work.—Of rooting out idolatry.

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.

"And one people is dashed in pieces by the other, and one city by the other; for God confounds them by all manner of adversity." המם denotes confusion, which God brings about in order to destroy His enemies ( Exodus 14:24 ; Joshua 10:10 ; Judges 4:15 ). Days when they were without the true God, without teaching prophets, and without law, Israel had already experienced in the times of defection after Joshua (cf. Judges 2:11 .), but will experience them in the future still oftener and more enduringly under the idolatrous kings in the Assyrian and Babylonian exile, and still even now in its dispersion among all nations. That this saying refers to the future is also suggested by the fact that Hosea ( Hosea 3:4 ) utters, with a manifest reference to 2 Chronicles 15:3 of our speech, a threat that the ten tribes will be brought into a similar condition (cf. Hosea 9:3-4 ); and even Moses proclaimed to the people that the punishment of defection from the Lord would be dispersion among the heathen, where Israel would be compelled to serve idols of wood and stone ( Deuteronomy 4:27 ., Deuteronomy 28:36 , Deuteronomy 28:64 ), i.e., would be without the true God. That Israel would, in such oppression, turn to its God, would seek Him, and that the Lord would be found of them, is a thought also expressed by Moses, the truth of which Israel had not only had repeated experience of during the time of the judges, but also would again often experience in the future (cf.

Hosea 3:5 ; Jeremiah 31:1 ; Ezekiel 36:24 .; Romans 11:25 .). בּצּר־לו refers back to Deuteronomy 4:30 ; the expression in 2 Chronicles 15:4 is founded upon Deuteronomy 4:29 (cf. Isaiah 55:6 ). - Of the oppression in the times of defection portrayed in 2 Chronicles 15:5 ., Israel had also had in the time of the judges repeated experience (cf. Judges 5:6 ), most of all under the Midianite yoke ( Judges 6:2 ); but such times often returned, as the employment of the very words of the first hemistich of 2 Chronicles 15:5 in Zechariah 8:10 , in reference to the events of the post-exilic time, shows; and not only the prophet Amos ( Amos 3:9 ) sees רבּות מהוּמות, great confusions, where all is in an indistinguishable whirl in the Samaria of his time, but they repeated themselves at all times when the defection prevailed, and godlessness degenerated into revolution and civil war.