2 Chronicles 7:21 (LSB)

Passage

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?’

Nearby Context

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?’

2 Chronicles 7:22 And they will say, ‘Because they forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt and took hold of other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.’”

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "house", "exalted", "everyone", "passes", "feel", "desolate", "yahweh", and "done". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "house" and "exalted", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 20's "then I will uproot you from My..." into verse 22's "And they will say Because they forsook...", so "house" and "exalted" 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 "house" and "exalted" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.