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Commentary on 2 Chronicles 36

Whosoever Will · the Seven Threads Commentary

2 Chronicles 36:15

Chronicles covers the same period as Samuel-Kings but from the perspective of the Davidic covenant and the temple, what God was building and what the people kept rejecting. The theological lens is sharper; the evaluation more explicitly covenantal. The climax comes in 2 Chronicles 36:15-16, where the Chronicler compresses the entire prophetic witness before the exile into two verses. The LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers: hashkem ve-shaloch, rising early and sending urgently, persistently, without ceasing. Because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. And they mocked the messengers of God. Despised his words. Scoffed at his prophets. Until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, until there was no remedy: ein marpe, no healing remaining. These two verses are the most concentrated statement of Threads 1 and 4 in the entire historical books. Thread 1: a God who kept sending, kept reaching, kept rising early to dispatch messengers, because he had compassion on his people. Thread 4: a people who kept mocking, kept despising, kept misusing the messengers, until the accumulation of genuine refusal produced the exile that had no remedy. The exile is the consequence of Thread 4's sustained failure in the face of Thread 1's sustained reaching. Chronicles ends with the edict of Cyrus: thus says Cyrus king of Persia. The LORD God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up. The last word of the Hebrew canon is a command to return: let him go up.
He sent rising up early and sending: the most concentrated statement of Thread 1 in all the historical books; and they mocked, despised, and misused: the most concentrated statement of Thread 4's sustained human refusal; until there was no remedy.
וַיִּשְׁלַח יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵיהֶם עֲלֵיהֶם בְּיַד מַלְאָכָיו הַשְׁכֵּם וְשָׁלוֹחַ (vayyishlach YHWH Elohei avoteihem aleihem be-yad malakhav hashkem ve-shaloch): the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers rising up early and sending: hashkem ve-shaloch (rising early and sending, the infinitive absolute idiom for urgent, repeated, persistent action; rising before dawn to send messengers; the phrase appears throughout Jeremiah for the prophetic witness; God did not send once and withdraw; he sent persistently, urgently, comprehensively) · עַד אֵין מַרְפֵּא (ad ein marpe): until there was no remedy: ein marpe (no healing, no cure, no remedy remaining, marpe from rapha, to heal; the chronic refusal has exhausted the capacity for healing that repentance could have produced; the exile is not arbitrary judgment but the consequence of a condition that has become terminal through sustained, chosen, generation-long hardening)
threads t1 · t4 · t5 · see Jeremiah 7:25-26 · Nehemiah 9:30 · Matthew 23:37

2 Chronicles 36:16

Chronicles covers the same period as Samuel-Kings but from the perspective of the Davidic covenant and the temple, what God was building and what the people kept rejecting. The theological lens is sharper; the evaluation more explicitly covenantal. The climax comes in 2 Chronicles 36:15-16, where the Chronicler compresses the entire prophetic witness before the exile into two verses. The LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers: hashkem ve-shaloch, rising early and sending urgently, persistently, without ceasing. Because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. And they mocked the messengers of God. Despised his words. Scoffed at his prophets. Until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, until there was no remedy: ein marpe, no healing remaining. These two verses are the most concentrated statement of Threads 1 and 4 in the entire historical books. Thread 1: a God who kept sending, kept reaching, kept rising early to dispatch messengers, because he had compassion on his people. Thread 4: a people who kept mocking, kept despising, kept misusing the messengers, until the accumulation of genuine refusal produced the exile that had no remedy. The exile is the consequence of Thread 4's sustained failure in the face of Thread 1's sustained reaching. Chronicles ends with the edict of Cyrus: thus says Cyrus king of Persia. The LORD God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up. The last word of the Hebrew canon is a command to return: let him go up.
He sent rising up early and sending: the most concentrated statement of Thread 1 in all the historical books; and they mocked, despised, and misused: the most concentrated statement of Thread 4's sustained human refusal; until there was no remedy.
וַיִּשְׁלַח יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵיהֶם עֲלֵיהֶם בְּיַד מַלְאָכָיו הַשְׁכֵּם וְשָׁלוֹחַ (vayyishlach YHWH Elohei avoteihem aleihem be-yad malakhav hashkem ve-shaloch): the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers rising up early and sending: hashkem ve-shaloch (rising early and sending, the infinitive absolute idiom for urgent, repeated, persistent action; rising before dawn to send messengers; the phrase appears throughout Jeremiah for the prophetic witness; God did not send once and withdraw; he sent persistently, urgently, comprehensively) · עַד אֵין מַרְפֵּא (ad ein marpe): until there was no remedy: ein marpe (no healing, no cure, no remedy remaining, marpe from rapha, to heal; the chronic refusal has exhausted the capacity for healing that repentance could have produced; the exile is not arbitrary judgment but the consequence of a condition that has become terminal through sustained, chosen, generation-long hardening)
threads t1 · t4 · t5 · see Jeremiah 7:25-26 · Nehemiah 9:30 · Matthew 23:37
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