2 Chronicles 6:28

When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemies besiege them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Solomon addresses God during the temple dedication, listing national disasters that will prompt Israel to pray. He speaks as the king instructing the people on how to respond when calamity strikes their cities or land.

The words — The Hebrew רָעָ֞ב (ra‘āḇ) literally means famine, and דֶּ֣בֶר (dᵉḇer) denotes pestilence or plague. These terms anchor the verse’s list of physical judgments that trigger covenant response.

The thread — Famine appears in Ruth 1:1 and locust devastation in Joel 2:25 as recorded judgments. James 5:13 connects personal suffering directly to prayer, mirroring this verse’s pattern of crisis prompting supplication.

Why it lands — The text requires readers to identify specific afflictions and direct prayer toward God’s appointed place. It demands immediate, unadorned acknowledgment of disaster as the catalyst for seeking divine intervention.

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

If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillers; if their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land; whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be:

Cross-references

Ruth 1:1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the land of Moab.
Joel 2:25 I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you.
James 5:13 Is any one of you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises.
Revelation 9:3 And out of the smoke, locusts descended on the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth.
Exodus 10:12 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt, so that the locusts may swarm over it and devour every plant in the land—everything that the hail has left behind.”
Leviticus 26:16 then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.
Leviticus 26:25 And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
Deuteronomy 28:21 The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land that you are entering to possess.
1 Kings 8:37 When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemy besieges them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,
2 Kings 6:25 So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.