2 Chronicles 6:21-31

21 "Listen to the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place; hear from Your dwelling place, from heaven; ¹hear and forgive.

22 "If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this house,

23 then hear from heaven and act and judge Your servants, ²punishing the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.

24 "If Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because ³they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this house,

25 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You have given to them and to their fathers.

26 "When the ⁴heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin when You afflict them;

27 then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your people Israel, indeed, ⁵teach them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people for an inheritance.

28 "If there is ⁶famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, if there is locust or grasshopper, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is,

29 whatever * prayer or supplication is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own pain, and spreading his hands toward this house,

30 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know ⁷for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men,

31 that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long * as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.

2 Chronicles 6:21-31 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 21

This chapter respects the priests, the sons of Aaron, and forbids their mourning for the dead, unless in some cases, Le 21:1-6; or their marriage with an whore or a divorced woman, Le 21:7,8; and the daughters of any of them to commit fornication, which is made punishable with death, Le 21:9; and it contains particular laws for the high priest to observe, who was not to mourn for any, even for his parents, Le 21:10,11; nor to go out of the sanctuary, Le 21:12; nor to marry any woman but a virgin, Le 21:13-15; and it also directs, that none of the priests having any blemish in them should be employed in divine service, though they might eat of the holy things, Le 21:16-24.

Cross References

• 1. Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 44:22; Micah 7:18
• 2. Isaiah 3:11; Romans 2:8, 9
• 3. Psalms 51:4
• 4. 1 Kings 17:1
• 5. Psalms 94:12
• 6. 2 Chronicles 20:9
• 7. 1 Samuel 16:7; 1 Chronicles 28:9

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "returning"
• [b] Lit "smitten"
• [c] Lit "gates"
• [d] Lit "whoever shall know"
• [e] Or "reverence"
• [f] Lit "all the days that they live on the face of the land"