Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 36:14
Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, following all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the LORD, which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The chronicler records the collective rebellion of Judah’s priestly and lay leadership immediately after King Zedekiah’s defiance of Nebuchadnezzar and his own hardening of heart (2 Chronicles 36:13). This account precedes God’s repeated warnings sent through messengers out of compassion for His dwelling place (2 Chronicles 36:15).
The words — The text highlights הִרְבּ֣וּ (hir.Bu, "they increased") paired with לִ/מְעָל (li/m.'ol, "to act unfaithfully") and מַ֔עַל (Ma.'al, "unfaithfulness") to describe the escalating covenant betrayal of the priests and people. This lexical pairing emphasizes the quantitative and qualitative growth of their idolatrous practices.
The thread — The chronicler’s indictment of priestly and lay complicity in defiling the sanctuary echoes the prophetic condemnation of Judah’s leaders in Ezekiel 22:6 and Daniel 9:8. The pattern of religious corruption driving national exile also parallels the altar-driven compromises recorded in 2 Kings 16:10.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that religious leadership and communal conformity actively corrupt sacred spaces rather than preserve them. It requires readers to examine whether their own practices follow prescribed holiness or absorb surrounding cultural defilement.
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
Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 22:6 See how every prince of Israel within you has used his power to shed blood.
- Daniel 9:8 O LORD, we are covered with shame—our kings, our leaders, and our fathers—because we have sinned against You.
- 2 Kings 16:10 Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria. On seeing the altar in Damascus, King Ahaz sent Uriah the priest a model of the altar and complete plans for its construction.
- 2 Chronicles 28:3 Moreover, Ahaz burned incense in the Valley of Ben-hinnom and sacrificed his sons in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
- 2 Chronicles 33:4 Manasseh also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”
- 2 Chronicles 33:9 So Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.
- Ezra 9:7 From the days of our fathers to this day, our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities, we and our kings and priests have been delivered into the hands of the kings of the earth and subjected to the sword and to captivity, to pillage and humiliation, as we are this day.
- Jeremiah 5:5 I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.” But they too, with one accord, had broken the yoke and torn off the chains.
- Jeremiah 37:13 But when he reached the Gate of Benjamin, the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, seized him and said, “You are deserting to the Chaldeans!”
- Jeremiah 38:4 Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to die, for he is discouraging the warriors who remain in this city, as well as all the people, by speaking such words to them; this man is not seeking the well-being of these people, but their ruin.”