2 Tawarikh 30:6-11

30:6 Messengers ¹  delivered the letters from the king and his officials throughout Israel and Judah.

This royal edict read: ²  “O Israelites, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so he may return ³  to you who have been spared from the kings of Assyria. ⁴  30:7 Don’t be like your fathers and brothers who were unfaithful to the Lord God of their ancestors, ⁵  provoking him to destroy them, ⁶  as you can see. 30:8 Now, don’t be stubborn ⁷  like your fathers! Submit ⁸  to the Lord and come to his sanctuary which he has permanently consecrated. Serve the Lord your God so that he might relent from his raging anger. ⁹  30:9 For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and sons will be shown mercy by their captors and return to this land. The Lord your God is merciful and compassionate; he will not reject you ¹⁰  if you return to him.”

30:10 The messengers journeyed from city to city through the land of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun, but people mocked and ridiculed them. ¹¹  30:11 But some men from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

2 Tawarikh 31:1

31:1 When all this was over, the Israelites ¹²  who were in the cities of Judah went out and smashed the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and demolished ¹³  all the high places and altars throughout Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh. ¹⁴  Then all the Israelites returned to their own homes in their cities. ¹⁵ 

2 Tawarikh 34:6-7

34:6 In the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins ¹⁶  around them, 34:7 he tore down the altars and Asherah poles, demolished the idols, and smashed all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

[30:6]  ¹ tn Heb “the runners.”

[30:6]  ² tn Heb “and according to the command of the king, saying.”

[30:6]  ³ tn The jussive with vav conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

[30:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “to the survivors who are left to you from the palm of the kings of Assyria.”

[30:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 19, 22).

[30:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he made them a devastation” (or, perhaps, “an object of horror”).

[30:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “don’t stiffen your neck” (a Hebrew idiom for being stubborn).

[30:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “give a hand.” On the meaning of the idiom here, see HALOT 387 s.v. I יָד 2.

[30:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “so that the rage of his anger might turn from you.” The jussive with vav conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

[30:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “turn [his] face from you.”

[30:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and they were mocking them and ridiculing them.”

[31:1]  ¹² tn Heb “all Israel.”

[31:1]  ¹³ tn Or “tore down.”

[31:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the high places and the altars from all Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and in Manasseh until finished.”

[31:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and the sons of Israel returned, each to his possession to their cities.”

[34:6]  ¹⁶ tn “In their ruins” is the marginal reading (Qere) of the Hebrew text.