Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Chronicles 15:6
And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity.
6. nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city ] R.V. they were broken in pieces, nation against nation, and city against city. Israel is meant. In the civil strife of the days of the Judges Israel appeared more than once as two nations destroying one another: cp. Jdg 8:13-17; Jdg 9:26 ff; Jdg 12:1 ff; Jdg 20:12 ff.
vex ] Rather, afflict; see 2Ch 15:5.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The allusion is probably to the destructions recorded in Jdg 9:45; 20:33-48.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Nation was destroyed of nation, i.e. one part of the people of Israel destroyed the other by civil wars; of which see instances, Jdg 9:23, &c.; Jdg 12:1, &c. As all the people of Israel are called a nation, so the several tribes and families of them are sometimes called nations, as Gen 17:4; Eze 2:3 Act 4:27, compared with Psa 2:1.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city,…. Or one tribe of another; as the Ephraimites by the Gileadites, and the tribe of Benjamin by the other tribes; and Shechem by Abimelech, Jud 9:45,
for God did vex them with all adversity; both with foreign enemies and civil wars; and now it is intimated that this would be their case again, should they not keep close to the Lord their God.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“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.” denotes confusion, which God brings about in order to destroy His enemies (Exo 14:24; Jos 10:10; Jdg 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. Jdg 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 (Hos 3:4) utters, with a manifest reference to 2Ch 15:3 of our speech, a threat that the ten tribes will be brought into a similar condition (cf. Hos 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 (Deu 4:27., Deu 28:36, Deu 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. Hos 3:5; Jer 31:1; Eze 36:24.; Rom 11:25.). refers back to Deu 4:30; the expression in 2Ch 15:4 is founded upon Deu 4:29 (cf. Isa 55:6). – Of the oppression in the times of defection portrayed in 2Ch 15:5., Israel had also had in the time of the judges repeated experience (cf. Jdg 5:6), most of all under the Midianite yoke (Jdg 6:2); but such times often returned, as the employment of the very words of the first hemistich of 2Ch 15:5 in Zec 8:10, in reference to the events of the post-exilic time, shows; and not only the prophet Amos (Amo 3:9) sees , 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. Azariah portrays the terrors of such times in strong colours (2Ch 15:6): “Dashed to pieces is people by people, and city by city.” The war of the tribes of Israel against Benjamin (Judg 20:f.), and the struggle of the Gileadites under Jephthah with Ephraim (Jdg 12:4.), were civil wars; but they were only mild preludes of the bellum omnium contra omnes depicted by Azariah, which only commenced with the dissolution of both kingdoms, and was announced by the later prophets as the beginning of the judgment upon rebellious Israel (e.g., Isa 9:17-20), and upon all peoples and kingdoms hostile to God (Zec 14:13; Mat 24:7). With cf. , Zec 14:13. To this portrayal of the dread results of defection from the Lord, Azariah adds (2Ch 15:7) the exhortation, “Be ye strong (vigorous), and show yourselves not slack, languid” (cf. Zep 3:16; Neh 6:9); i.e., in this connection, proceed courageously and vigorously to keep yourselves true to the Lord, to exterminate all idolatry; then you shall obtain a great reward: cf. on these words, Jer 31:16.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(6) And nation was destroyed of nation.And they were crushed, nation by nation and city by city. The verb khathath occurs Isa. 2:4 (to beat); but in its (intensive) passive form only here. Some MSS. have the (intensive) active form, which is found elsewhere. So LXX. and Vulg.: And nation shall fight against nation. Nation is gy, i.e., a community of kindred, such as a tribe or clan, rather than a merely political aggregate. The allusion is to the old feuds and contentions between rival tribes, e.g., between Ephraim and Gilead (Manasseh) (Judges 12), or between Benjamin and the other tribes (Judges 20). The verse vividly pourtrays an internecine strife, like that described in Isa. 19:2 : And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, kingdom against kingdom; or like that depicted by the same prophet (Isa. 9:18-21): No man shall spare his brother . . . they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm [i.e., of his natural ally]: Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah.
Did vex them with all adversity.Had confounded (or, discomfited) them with every kind of distress. (Comp. Zec. 14:13 : A great confusion from the Lord.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Nation destroyed of nation “It is quite in harmony with the rhetorical nature of the passage that the contentions of the Israelites among themselves (for example, in the time of the Judges between the inhabitants of Gilead and Ephraim, and between Benjamin and the rest of the tribes, Jdg 12:4; Judges 20, 21; and in later times between the two Israelitish kingdoms) should be described as a crushing of one people by the other.” Bertheau.
City of city Comp. Jdg 9:45.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ch 15:6 And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity.
Ver. 6. And nation was destroyed. ] Heb., Beaten to pieces: such is the woe of war, that no words, however so wide, are sufficient to set it forth.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
adversity. By civil wars.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
nation: 2Ch 12:15, 2Ch 13:17, Mar 13:8, Luk 21:9, Luk 21:10
destroyed: Heb. beaten in pieces
God: 2Ch 33:11, 2Ch 36:17, Jdg 2:14, Psa 106:41, Isa 10:6, Amo 3:6, Luk 21:22-24
Reciprocal: 2Ch 15:15 – the Lord Job 4:20 – destroyed Psa 107:39 – oppression Isa 8:22 – look Isa 42:24 – General Jer 16:5 – I have Jer 25:32 – evil Eze 35:7 – passeth Mat 24:7 – nation shall
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ch 15:6. Nation was destroyed of nation One part of the people of Israel destroyed the other by civil wars; of which see instances, Jdg 9:23, &c., and 2Ch 12:1, &c. As all Israel, so the several tribes of them are sometimes called nations.