Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 7:13
If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD addresses Solomon immediately after appearing to him at night and confirming He has chosen the temple as a house of sacrifice.
The words — אֶֽעֱצֹר ('e.'e.Tzor) literally means "I will shut up" or "I will hold back," and מָטָ֔ר (ma.Tar) translates directly to "rain."
The thread — The motif of a shut sky and withheld rain appears in 2 Chronicles 6:26 and Deuteronomy 11:17, while Revelation 11:6 later transfers the authority to close the sky to the two witnesses.
Why it lands — The text explicitly lists drought, locusts, and plague as possible divine actions before introducing the condition for healing, requiring the reader to acknowledge that judgment is the stated premise before the call to humility and repentance.
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 I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 6:26 When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them,
- Deuteronomy 11:17 or the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you. He will shut the heavens so that there will be no rain, nor will the land yield its produce, and you will soon perish from the good land that the LORD is giving you.
- Revelation 11:6 These witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy, and power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.
- Revelation 3:7 To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open.
- 2 Samuel 24:13 So Gad went and said to David, “Do you choose to endure three years of famine in your land, three months of fleeing the pursuit of your enemies, or three days of plague upon your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should reply to Him who sent me.”
- Exodus 10:4 But if you refuse to let My people go, I will bring locusts into your territory tomorrow.
- Job 12:14 What He tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man He imprisons cannot be released.
- Ezekiel 14:19 Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out My wrath upon it through bloodshed, cutting off from it both man and beast,
- 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.
- Numbers 14:12 I will strike them with a plague and destroy them—and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are.”