Retribution
2 Chronicles 16:12-13
And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great…


From the theological standpoint of the chronicler's school, these invidious records of the sins of good kings were necessary in order to account for their misfortunes. That sin was always punished by complete, immediate, and manifest retribution in this life, and that conversely all misfortune was the punishment of sin, was probably the most popular religious teaching in Israel from early days till the time of Christ. This doctrine of retribution was current among the Greeks. When the Spartan King Cleomenes committed suicide, the public mind in Greece at once inquired of what particular sin he had thus paid the penalty. When in the course of the Peloponnesian war the AEginetans were expelled from their island, this calamity was regarded as a punishment inflicted upon them because fifty years before they had dragged away and put to death a suppliant who had caught hold of the handle of the door of the temple of Demeter Theomophorus.

(W. H. Bennett, M.A.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians.

WEB: In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet; his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he didn't seek Yahweh, but to the physicians.




Our Disinclination to Rely Upon God Only
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