2 Chronicles 24:20

24:20 God’s Spirit energized ¹  Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said to them, “This is what God says: ‘Why are you violating the commands of the Lord? You will not be prosperous! Because you have rejected the Lord, he has rejected you!’”

2 Chronicles 25:15-16

25:15 The Lord was angry at Amaziah and sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why are you following ²  these gods ³  that could not deliver their own people from your power?” ⁴  25:16 While he was speaking, Amaziah ⁵  said to him, “Did we appoint you to be a royal counselor? Stop prophesying or else you will be killed!” ⁶  So the prophet stopped, but added, “I know that the Lord has decided ⁷  to destroy you, because you have done this thing and refused to listen to my advice.”

2 Chronicles 32:4

32:4 A large number of people gathered together and stopped up all the springs and the stream that flowed through the district. ⁸  They reasoned, ⁹  “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?”

¹ tn Heb “clothed.”

² tn Heb “seeking,” perhaps in the sense of “consulting [an oracle from].”

³ tn Heb “the gods of the people.”

⁴ tn Heb “hand.”

³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Amaziah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn Heb “Stop yourself! Why should they strike you down?”

⁵ tn The verb יָעַץ (ya’ats, “has decided”) is from the same root as יוֹעֵץ (yo’ets, “counselor”) in v. 16 and עֵצָה (’etsah, “advice”) later in v. 16. The wordplay highlights the appropriate nature of the divine punishment. Amaziah rejected the counsel of God’s prophet; now he would be the victim of God’s “counsel.”

⁴ tn Heb “and they closed up all the springs and the stream that flows in the midst of the land.” Here אָרֶץ (’arets, “land”) does not refer to the entire land, but to a smaller region like a district.

⁵ tn Heb “land, saying.”