2 Chronicles 7:19

Bible in Basic English (1941)

But if you are turned away from me, and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other gods, giving them worship:

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וְאִם־תְּשׁוּב֣וּן אַתֶּ֔ם וַעֲזַבְתֶּם֙ חֻקּוֹתַ֣י וּמִצְוֺתַ֔י אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָתַ֖תִּי לִפְנֵיכֶ֑ם וַהֲלַכְתֶּ֗ם וַעֲבַדְתֶּם֙ אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֔ים וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִיתֶ֖ם לָהֶֽם׃

Transliteration

But if wə-ʾim- təšûḇûn you ʾattem wa- ʿăzaḇtem my statutes ḥuqqôṯay û- my commandments miṣwōṯay ʾăšer nāṯattî before lipənêḵem wa- hălaḵtem wa- ʿăḇaḏtem ʾĕlōhîm ʾăḥērîm wə- hištaḥăwîṯem to them lāhem.

Grammar Details

• *wə-ʾim-*: conjunction with conditional particle - 'but if'
• *təšûḇûn*: qal imperfect, 2nd masculine plural - 'you turn back/away'
• *ʾattem*: personal pronoun, 2nd masculine plural - 'you'
• *wa-*: consecutive conjunction - 'and'
• *ʿăzaḇtem*: qal perfect, 2nd masculine plural - 'you forsake'
• *ḥuqqôṯay*: noun, feminine plural construct with 1st singular suffix - 'my statutes'
• *û-*: conjunction - 'and'
• *miṣwōṯay*: noun, feminine plural construct with 1st singular suffix - 'my commandments'
• *ʾăšer*: relative particle - 'which/that'
• *nāṯattî*: qal perfect, 1st singular - 'I have given'
• *lipənêḵem*: preposition with noun, masculine plural construct and 2nd masculine plural suffix - 'before you'
• *hălaḵtem*: qal perfect, 2nd masculine plural - 'you go'
• *ʿăḇaḏtem*: qal perfect, 2nd masculine plural - 'you serve'
• *ʾĕlōhîm*: noun, masculine plural - 'gods'
• *ʾăḥērîm*: adjective, masculine plural - 'other'
• *wə-*: conjunction - 'and'
• *hištaḥăwîṯem*: hishtafel perfect, 2nd masculine plural - 'you worship'
• *lāhem*: preposition with 3rd masculine plural suffix - 'to them'

Word Meanings

• *təšûḇûn*: you turn back, you return, you turn away
• *ʿăzaḇtem*: you forsake, you abandon, you leave
• *ḥuqqôṯay*: my statutes, my decrees, my ordinances
• *miṣwōṯay*: my commandments, my precepts, my orders
• *nāṯattî*: I have given, I placed, I set
• *lipənêḵem*: before you, in front of you, in your presence
• *hălaḵtem*: you go, you walk, you follow
• *ʿăḇaḏtem*: you serve, you worship, you work for
• *ʾĕlōhîm*: gods, deities, divine beings
• *ʾăḥērîm*: other, foreign, strange
• *hištaḥăwîṯem*: you worship, you bow down, you prostrate yourselves

Referenced Verses

• Deut 28:15 : 15 But if you do not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and take care to do all his orders and his laws which I give you today, then all these curses will come on you and overtake you:
• Lev 26:14 : 14 But if you do not give ear to me, and do not keep all these my laws;
• Lev 26:33-46 : 33 And I will send you out in all directions among the nations, and my sword will be uncovered against you, and your land will be without any living thing, and your towns will be made waste. 34 Then will the land take pleasure in its Sabbaths while it is waste and you are living in the land of your haters; then will the land have rest. 35 All the days while it is waste will the land have rest, such rest as it never had in your Sabbaths, when you were living in it. 36 And as for the rest of you, I will make their hearts feeble in the land of their haters, and the sound of a leaf moved by the wind will send them in flight, and they will go in flight as from the sword, falling down when no one comes after them; 37 Falling on one another, as before the sword, when no one comes after them; you will give way before your haters. 38 And death will overtake you among strange nations, and the land of your haters will be your destruction. 39 And those of you who are still living will be wasting away in their sins in the land of your haters; in the sins of their fathers they will be wasting away. 40 And they will have grief for their sins and for the sins of their fathers, when their hearts were untrue to me, and they went against me; 41 So that I went against them and sent them away into the land of their haters: if then the pride of their hearts is broken and they take the punishment of their sins, 42 Then I will keep in mind the agreement which I made with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will keep in mind the land. 43 And the land, while she is without them, will keep her Sabbaths; and they will undergo the punishment of their sins, because they were turned away from my decisions and in their souls was hate for my laws. 44 But for all that, when they are in the land of their haters I will not let them go, or be turned away from them, or give them up completely; my agreement with them will not be broken, for I am the Lord their God. 45 And because of them I will keep in mind the agreement which I made with their fathers, whom I took out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, to be their God: I am the Lord. 46 These are the rules, decisions, and laws, which the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.
• Deut 4:23-27 : 23 Take care that you do not let the agreement of the Lord your God, which he has made with you, go out of your mind, or make for yourselves images of any sort, against the orders which the Lord your God has given you. 24 For the Lord your God is an all-burning fire, and he will not let the honour which is his be given to any other. 25 If, when you have had children and children's children, and have been living a long time in the land, you are turned to evil ways, and make an image of any sort, and do evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, moving him to wrath: 26 May heaven and earth be my witnesses against you today, that destruction will quickly overtake you, cutting you off from that land which you are going over Jordan to take; your days will not be long in that land, but you will come to a complete end. 27 And the Lord will send you wandering among the peoples; only a small band of you will be kept from death among the nations where the Lord will send you.
• Deut 28:36-68 : 36 And you, and the king whom you have put over you, will the Lord take away to a nation strange to you and to your fathers; there you will be servants to other gods of wood and stone. 37 And you will become a wonder and a name of shame among all the nations where the Lord will take you. 38 You will take much seed out into the field, and get little in; for the locust will get it. 39 You will put in vines and take care of them, but you will get no wine or grapes from them; for they will be food for worms. 40 Your land will be full of olive-trees, but there will be no oil for the comfort of your body; for your olive-tree will give no fruit. 41 You will have sons and daughters, but they will not be yours; for they will go away prisoners into a strange land. 42 All your trees and the fruit of your land will be the locust's. 43 The man from a strange land who is living among you will be lifted up higher and higher over you, while you go down lower and lower. 44 He will let you have his wealth at interest, and will have no need of yours: he will be the head and you the tail. 45 And all these curses will come after you and overtake you, till your destruction is complete; because you did not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, or keep his laws and his orders which he gave you: 46 These things will come on you and on your seed, to be a sign and a wonder for ever; 47 Because you did not give honour to the Lord your God, worshipping him gladly, with joy in your hearts on account of all your wealth of good things; 48 For this cause you will become servants to those whom the Lord your God will send against you, without food and drink and clothing, and in need of all things: and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck till he has put an end to you. 49 The Lord will send a nation against you from the farthest ends of the earth, coming with the flight of an eagle; a nation whose language is strange to you; 50 A hard-faced nation, who will have no respect for the old or mercy for the young: 51 He will take the fruit of your cattle and of your land till death puts an end to you: he will let you have nothing of your grain or wine or oil or any of the increase of your cattle or the young of your flock, till he has made your destruction complete. 52 Your towns will be shut in by his armies, till your high walls, in which you put your faith, have come down: his armies will be round your towns, through all your land which the Lord your God has given you. 53 And your food will be the fruit of your body, the flesh of the sons and daughters which the Lord your God has given you; because of your bitter need and the cruel grip of your haters. 54 That man among you who is soft and used to comfort will be hard and cruel to his brother, and to his dear wife, and to of those his children who are still living; 55 And will not give to any of them the flesh of his children which will be his food because he has no other; in the cruel grip of your haters on all your towns. 56 The most soft and delicate of your women, who would not so much as put her foot on the earth, so delicate is she, will be hard-hearted to her husband and to her son and to her daughter; 57 And to her baby newly come to birth, and to the children of her body; for having no other food, she will make a meal of them secretly, because of her bitter need and the cruel grip of your haters on all your towns. 58 If you will not take care to do all the words of this law, recorded in this book, honouring that name of glory and of fear, THE LORD YOUR GOD; 59 Then the Lord your God will make your punishment, and the punishment of your seed, a thing to be wondered at; great punishments and cruel diseases stretching on through long years. 60 He will send on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which were a cause of fear to you, and they will take you in their grip. 61 And all the diseases and the pains not recorded in the book of this law will the Lord send on you till your destruction is complete. 62 And you will become a very small band, though your numbers were like the stars of heaven; because you did not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God. 63 And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and increasing you, so the Lord will take pleasure in cutting you off and causing your destruction, and you will be uprooted from the land which you are about to take as your heritage. 64 And the Lord will send you wandering among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other: there you will be servants to other gods, of wood and stone, gods of which you and your fathers had no knowledge. 65 And even among these nations there will be no peace for you, and no rest for your feet: but the Lord will give you there a shaking heart and wasting eyes and weariness of soul: 66 Your very life will be hanging in doubt before you, and day and night will be dark with fears, and nothing in life will be certain: 67 In the morning you will say, If only it was evening! And at evening you will say, If only morning would come! Because of the fear in your hearts and the things which your eyes will see. 68 And the Lord will take you back to Egypt again in ships, by the way of which I said to you, You will never see it again: there you will be offering yourselves as men-servants and women-servants to your haters for a price, and no man will take you.
• Josh 23:15-16 : 15 And you will see that, as all the good things which the Lord your God undertook to do for you, have come to you, so the Lord will send down on you all the evil things till he has made your destruction complete, and you are cut off from the good land which the Lord your God has given you. 16 If the agreement of the Lord your God, which was given to you by his orders, is broken, and you become the servants of other gods and give them worship, then the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, and you will quickly be cut off from the good land which he has given you.
• 1 Sam 12:25 : 25 But if you still do evil, destruction will overtake you and your king.
• 1 Kgs 9:6-7 : 6 But if you are turned from my ways, you or your children, and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other gods and give them worship: 7 Then I will have Israel cut off from the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for myself, I will put away from before my eyes; and Israel will be a public example, and a word of shame among all peoples.
• 1 Kgs 11:4-8 : 4 For it came about that when Solomon was old, his heart was turned away to other gods by his wives; and his heart was no longer true to the Lord his God as the heart of his father David had been. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and Milcom, the disgusting god of the Ammonites. 6 And Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not walking in the Lord's ways with all his heart as David his father did. 7 Then Solomon put up a high place for Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, in the mountain before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the disgusting god worshipped by the children of Ammon. 8 And so he did for all his strange wives, who made offerings with burning of perfumes to their gods.
• 1 Chr 28:9 : 9 And you, Solomon my son, get knowledge of the God of your father, and be his servant with a true heart and with a strong desire, for the Lord is the searcher of all hearts, and has knowledge of all the designs of men's thoughts; if you make search for him, he will be near you; but if you are turned away from him, he will give you up for ever.