2 Tawarikh 6:26-28

6:26 “The time will come when ¹  the skies ²  are shut up tightly and no rain falls because your people ³  sinned against you. When they direct their prayers toward this place, renew their allegiance to you, ⁴  and turn away from their sin because you punish ⁵  them, 6:27 then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Certainly ⁶  you will then teach them the right way to live ⁷  and send rain on your land that you have given your people to possess. ⁸ 

6:28 “The time will come when the land suffers from a famine, a plague, blight, and disease, or a locust ⁹  invasion, or when their enemy lays siege to the cities of the land, ¹⁰  or when some other type of plague or epidemic occurs.

[6:26]  ¹ tn Heb “when.” In the Hebrew text vv. 26-27a actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided into two sentences for stylistic reasons.

[6:26]  ² tn Or “heavens” (also in v. 12). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[6:26]  ³ tn Heb “they.”

[6:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “confess [or perhaps, “praise”] your name.”

[6:26]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text reads “because you answer them,” as if the verb is from עָנָה (’anah, “answer”). However, this reference to a divine answer is premature, since the next verse asks for God to intervene in mercy. It is better to revocalize the consonantal text as תְעַנֵּם (tÿ’annem, “you afflict them”), a Piel verb form from the homonym עָנָה (“afflict”).

[6:27]  ⁶ tn The present translation understands כִּי (ki) in an emphatic or asseverative sense (“Certainly”). Other translation have “indeed” (NASB), “when” (NRSV), “so” (NEB), or leave the word untranslated (NIV).

[6:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “the good way in which they should walk.”

[6:27]  ⁸ tn Or “for an inheritance.”

[6:28]  ⁹ tn Actually two Hebrew words appear here, both of which are usually (but not always) taken as referring to locusts. Perhaps different stages of growth or different varieties are in view, but this is uncertain. NEB has “locusts new-sloughed or fully grown”; NASB has “locust or grasshopper”; NIV has “locusts or grasshoppers”; NRSV has “locust, or caterpillar.”

[6:28]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in the land, his gates.”