2 Chronicles 7:19 (LSB)

Passage

“But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,

Nearby Context

2 Chronicles 7:17 As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, even to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My judgments,

2 Chronicles 7:18 then I will establish your royal throne as I cut a covenant with your father David, saying, ‘You shall not have a man cut off as ruler in Israel.’

2 Chronicles 7:19 “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,

2 Chronicles 7:20 then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have set apart as holy for My name I will cast out of My presence and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

2 Chronicles 7:21 As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will feel desolate and say, ‘Why has Yahweh done thus to this land and to this house?’

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "turn", "away", "forsake", "statutes", "commandments", "before", "serve", and "other". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "turn" and "away", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 18's "then I will establish your royal throne..." into verse 20's "then I will uproot you from My...", so "turn" and "away" belong inside that flow. In 2 Chronicles context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "turn" and "away" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.