Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 11:4
that this is what the LORD says: ‘You are not to go up and fight against your brothers. Each of you must return home, for this is My doing.’” So they listened to the words of the LORD and turned back from going against Jeroboam.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — A divine messenger commands the assembled army of Judah and Benjamin to halt their campaign against Jeroboam. The speaker is the LORD, addressing Rehoboam’s forces at the moment they are preparing to attack their northern kinsmen.
The words — The text highlights כֹּ֣ה (koh) meaning “thus” and אָמַ֣ר ('a.Mar) meaning “he says,” framing the LORD’s direct declaration. It emphasizes לֹא (lo'-) “not” paired with תַעֲלוּ (ta.'a.Lu) “you must go up” and תִלָּ֨חֲמ֜וּ (ti.La.cha.Mu) “you must do battle” to mark the absolute prohibition.
The thread — The narrative echoes the sovereign control seen in 2 Chronicles 10:15, where the kingdom’s division is explicitly called “from God.” It aligns with the theological pattern in Genesis 50:20, where human hostility is overridden by divine purpose.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to recognize that military action must submit to divine command rather than human strategy. It demands immediate obedience when God declares a course of action as His own doing.
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
Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren: return every man to his house: for this thing is done of me. And they obeyed the words of the Lord, and returned from going against Jeroboam.
Cross-references
- Genesis 50:20 As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.
- 1 Kings 11:29 During that time, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met Jeroboam on the road as he was going out of Jerusalem. Now Ahijah had wrapped himself in a new cloak, and the two of them were alone in the open field.
- 2 Chronicles 10:15 So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from God, in order that the LORD might fulfill the word that He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.
- 2 Chronicles 25:7 But a man of God came to him and said, “O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the LORD is not with Israel—not with any of the Ephraimites.
- 2 Chronicles 28:8 Then the Israelites took 200,000 captives from their kinsmen—women, sons, and daughters. They also carried off a great deal of plunder and brought it to Samaria.
- Genesis 13:8 So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no contention between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen. After all, we are kinsmen.
- 2 Samuel 2:26 Then Abner called out to Joab: “Must the sword devour forever? Do you not realize that this will only end in bitterness? How long before you tell the troops to stop pursuing their brothers?”
- 1 Kings 22:36 As the sun was setting, the cry rang out in the army: “Every man to his own city, and every man to his own land!”
- Psalms 33:11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the purposes of His heart to all generations.
- Hosea 8:4 They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction.