Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 11:14
For the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the mass relocation of Levites and priests from the northern districts to Judah and Jerusalem immediately following Jeroboam’s establishment of unauthorized shrines.
The words — עָזְבוּ ('a.ze.Vu) means "they forsook" or "they left," and מִגְרְשֵׁיהֶם (mig.re.shei./Hem) translates as "their pasture lands," denoting the specific territorial assets abandoned during the migration.
The thread — This displacement directly responds to Jeroboam appointing his own priests for calf idols (2 Chronicles 11:15; 1 Kings 12:28) and reverses the statutory provision that Levites receive cities and grazing territory as their permanent inheritance (Numbers 35:2).
Why it lands — The text requires a reader to recognize that institutional or economic security must be surrendered when religious leadership abandons covenant worship, demanding a plain assessment of where one places ultimate allegiance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem: for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest’s office unto the Lord:
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 13:9 But did you not drive out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites? And did you not make priests for yourselves as do the peoples of other lands? Now whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams can become a priest of things that are not gods.
- Numbers 35:2 “Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance they will possess, cities for the Levites to live in and pasturelands around the cities.
- 1 Kings 12:28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, “Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
- Leviticus 27:30 Thus any tithe from the land, whether from the seed of the land or the fruit of the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.
- Numbers 18:21 Behold, I have given to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work they do, the service of the Tent of Meeting.
- Joshua 21:20 The remaining Kohathite clans of the Levites were allotted these cities: From the tribe of Ephraim
- 1 Kings 13:33 Even after these events, Jeroboam did not repent of his evil ways, but again he appointed priests for the high places from every class of people. He ordained anyone who desired to be a priest of the high places.
- 1 Chronicles 6:66 And some of the clans of the Kohathites were given cities from the tribe of Ephraim for their territory: