Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 30:10
And the couriers traveled from city to city through the land of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun, but the people scorned and mocked them.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — King Hezekiah’s couriers move through the northern territories of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Zebulun to summon the people to Jerusalem for Passover. The northern tribes respond with scorn and mockery rather than immediate obedience.
The words — The Hebrew phrase הָרָצִים עֹבְרִים (ha-ra.Tzim 'oe.Rim) literally translates to "the runners passing." This phrase describes the royal messengers moving systematically from city to city to deliver the king’s summons.
The thread — This pattern of rejected messengers reappears in 2 Chronicles 36:16, where officials mock God’s envoys until divine wrath falls. A parallel dynamic occurs in Genesis 19:14, when Lot’s warning to his sons-in-law is treated as a joke.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine calls through human messengers will often meet resistance before yielding repentance. Readers must examine whether they respond to prophetic warnings with mockery or with the humility that 2 Chronicles 30:11 later describes.
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
So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 36:16 But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.
- 2 Chronicles 30:6 At the command of the king, the couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his officials, which read: “Children of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that He may return to those of you who remain, who have escaped the grasp of the kings of Assyria.
- Genesis 19:14 So Lot went out and spoke to the sons-in-law who were pledged in marriage to his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
- Nehemiah 2:19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked us and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
- Esther 3:13 And the letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—and to plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.
- Esther 3:15 The couriers left, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was in confusion.
- Esther 8:10 Mordecai wrote in the name of King Xerxes and sealed it with the royal signet ring. He sent the documents by mounted couriers riding on swift horses bred from the royal mares.
- Esther 8:14 The couriers rode out in haste on their royal horses, pressed on by the command of the king. And the edict was also issued in the citadel of Susa.
- Job 9:25 My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good.
- Job 12:4 I am a laughingstock to my friends, though I called on God, and He answered. The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock.