2 Tawarikh 15:8-13

15:8 When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he was encouraged. ¹  He removed the detestable idols from the entire land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had seized in the Ephraimite hill country. He repaired the altar of the Lord in front of the porch of the Lord’s temple. ² 

15:9 He assembled all Judah and Benjamin, as well as the settlers ³  from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had come to live with them. Many people from Israel had come there to live ⁴  when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. 15:10 They assembled in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. 15:11 At that time ⁵  they sacrificed to the Lord some of the plunder they had brought back, including 700 head of cattle and 7,000 sheep. ⁶  15:12 They solemnly agreed ⁷  to seek the Lord God of their ancestors ⁸  with their whole heart and being. 15:13 Anyone who would not seek the Lord God of Israel would be executed, whether they were young or old, ⁹  male or female.

2 Tawarikh 29:10-11

29:10 Now I intend ¹⁰  to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, so that he may relent from his raging anger. ¹¹  29:11 My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to serve in his presence and offer sacrifices.” ¹² 

2 Tawarikh 29:1

Hezekiah Consecrates the Temple

29:1 Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. ¹³  His mother was Abijah, ¹⁴  the daughter of Zechariah.

1 Samuel 7:3-4

7:3 Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you are really turning to the Lord with all your hearts, remove from among you the foreign gods and the images of Ashtoreth. ¹⁵  Give your hearts to the Lord and serve only him. Then he will deliver you ¹⁶  from the hand of the Philistines.” 7:4 So the Israelites ¹⁷  removed the Baals and images of Ashtoreth. They served only the Lord.

Maleakhi 4:6

4:6 He will encourage fathers and their children to return to me, ¹⁸  so that I will not come and strike the earth with judgment.” ¹⁹ 

Lukas 1:17

1:17 And he will go as forerunner before the Lord ²⁰  in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, ²¹  to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him.”

[15:8]  ¹ tn Heb “strengthened himself.”

[15:8]  ² tn Heb “the porch of the Lord.”

[15:9]  ³ tn Or “resident aliens.”

[15:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “had fallen upon him.”

[15:11]  ⁵ tn Or “In that day.”

[15:11]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term צֹאן (tso’n) denotes smaller livestock in general; depending on context it can refer to sheep only or goats only, but their is nothing in the immediate context here to specify one or the other.

[15:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “entered into a covenant.”

[15:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “fathers.”

[15:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “whether small or great.”

[29:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “now it is with my heart.”

[29:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “so that the rage of his anger might turn from us.” The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding statement of intention.

[29:11]  ¹² tn Heb “to stand before him to serve him and to be his servants and sacrificers.”

[29:1]  ¹³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[29:1]  ¹⁴ tn The parallel passage in 2 Kgs 18:2 has “Abi.”

[7:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the Ashtarot” (plural; also in the following verse). The words “images of” are supplied for clarity.

[7:3]  sn The Semitic goddess Astarte was associated with love and war in the ancient Near East. The presence of Ashtarot in Israel is a sign of pervasive pagan and idolatrous influences; hence Samuel calls for their removal. See 1 Sam 31:10, where the Philistines deposit the armor of the deceased Saul in the temple of the Ashtarot, and 1 Kgs 11:5, 33; 2 Kgs 23:13, where Solomon is faulted for worshiping the Ashtarot.

[7:3]  ¹⁶ tn Following imperatives, the jussive verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result.

[7:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the sons of Israel.”

[4:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he will turn the heart[s] of [the] fathers to [the] sons, and the heart[s] of [the] sons to their fathers.” This may mean that the messenger will encourage reconciliation of conflicts within Jewish families in the postexilic community (see Mal 2:10; this interpretation is followed by most English versions). Another option is to translate, “he will turn the hearts of the fathers together with those of the children [to me], and the hearts of the children together with those of their fathers [to me].” In this case the prophet encourages both the younger and older generations of sinful society to repent and return to the Lord (cf. Mal 3:7). This option is preferred in the present translation; see Beth Glazier-McDonald, Malachi (SBLDS), 256.

[4:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “[the] ban” (חֵרֶם, kherem). God’s prophetic messenger seeks to bring about salvation and restoration, thus avoiding the imposition of the covenant curse, that is, the divine ban that the hopelessly unrepentant must expect (see Deut 7:2; 20:17; Judg 1:21; Zech 14:11). If the wicked repent, the purifying judgment threatened in 4:1-3 will be unnecessary.

[1:17]  ²⁰ tn Grk “before him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:17]  ²¹ sn These two lines cover all relationships: Turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children points to horizontal relationships, while (turn) the disobedient to the wisdom of the just shows what God gives from above in a vertical manner.