2 Chronicles 15:3
New International Version
For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach and without the law.

New Living Translation
For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach them, and without the Law to instruct them.

English Standard Version
For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without law,

Berean Standard Bible
For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a priest to instruct them, and without the law.

King James Bible
Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.

New King James Version
For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law;

New American Standard Bible
For many days Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without the Law.

NASB 1995
“For many days Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law.

NASB 1977
“And for many days Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law.

Legacy Standard Bible
Now for many days Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law.

Amplified Bible
Now for a long time Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest, and without [God’s] law.

Christian Standard Bible
For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without instruction,

Holman Christian Standard Bible
For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without instruction,

American Standard Version
Now for a long season Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law:

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
For many Days Israel did not serve their God in the truth, and they did not receive from their Priests and they did not listen to their law, and they were handed over into the hand of enemies.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Israel has been a long time without the true God, and without a priest to expound the truth, and without the law.

Contemporary English Version
For a long time, the people of Israel did not worship the true God or listen to priests who could teach them about God. They refused to obey God's Law.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And many days shall pass in Israel without the true God, and without a priest a teacher, and without the law.

English Revised Version
Now for long seasons Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law:

GOD'S WORD® Translation
For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest who taught [correctly], and without Moses' Teachings.

Good News Translation
For a long time Israel lived without the true God, without priests to teach them, and without a law.

International Standard Version
Israel lived for years without the true God, priests to teach them, and the Law,

JPS Tanakh 1917
Now for long seasons Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law;

Literal Standard Version
and many days [are] to Israel without [the] true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law,

Majority Standard Bible
For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a priest to instruct them, and without the law.

New American Bible
For a long time Israel was without a true God, without a priest-teacher, without instruction,

NET Bible
For a long time Israel had no true God, or priest to instruct them, or law.

New Revised Standard Version
For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law;

New Heart English Bible
Now for a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.

Webster's Bible Translation
Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.

World English Bible
Now for a long time Israel was without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law.

Young's Literal Translation
and many days are to Israel without a true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Prophecy of Azariah
2So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. 3For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a priest to instruct them, and without the law. 4But in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought Him, and He was found by them.…

Cross References
Leviticus 10:8
Then the LORD said to Aaron,

1 Kings 12:28
After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, "Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt."

2 Chronicles 17:7
In the third year of his reign, Jehoshaphat sent his officials Ben-hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah to teach in the cities of Judah,

2 Chronicles 17:9
They taught throughout Judah, taking with them the Book of the Law of the LORD. They went throughout the towns of Judah and taught the people.

Amos 8:11
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land--not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.


Treasury of Scripture

Now for a long season Israel has been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.

a long

1 Kings 12:28-33
Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt…

Hosea 3:4
For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:

true God

Jeremiah 10:10
But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.

John 17:3
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

1 Thessalonians 1:9
For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;

a teaching

2 Chronicles 17:8,9
And with them he sent Levites, even Shemaiah, and Nethaniah, and Zebadiah, and Asahel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehonathan, and Adonijah, and Tobijah, and Tobadonijah, Levites; and with them Elishama and Jehoram, priests…

Leviticus 10:11
And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.

Deuteronomy 33:10
They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law: they shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar.

without law

Romans 2:12
For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;

Romans 7:8,9
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead…

1 Corinthians 9:21
To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.

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Israel Law Priest Season Seasons Teach Teaching Time True.
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Israel Law Priest Season Seasons Teach Teaching Time True.
2 Chronicles 15
1. Asa, with Judah and many of Israel, moved by the prophecy of Azariah,
12. make a solemn covenant with God
16. He puts down Maachah his grandmother for idolatry
18. He brings dedicated things into the house of God, and enjoys a long peace.














(3) Now for a long season Israel hath been.--Literally, And many days to Israel, without true God, and without teaching priest, and without teaching. This is clearly an illustration of the general truth asserted in last verse. "Many a time hath Israel been without true God," etc. Periods of religious decline, such as those recorded in the Book of Judges, as well as those of later times, especially since the division of the kingdom, are adduced as historical proof of the statement that the Lord was with Israel while they were with him. (Comp. Judges 2:11-19; Judges 3:7-10; also Hosea 3:4-5.)

Without.--L?l?', only here in this sense.

The true God.--Jeremiah 10:9 : "Jehovah is true God" ('elohim 'emeth).

Teaching priest.--Koh?n moreh. (See Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 17:9; Deuteronomy 33:10; Deuteronomy 24:8; Ezekiel 44:23; Jeremiah 18:18; Malachi 2:6-7.) The priests instructed the people in the Torah, or divine Law (literally, teaching). . . .

Verse 3. - Now for a long season. This translation is wrong; translate rather first, And many the days to Israel to not have true God, and to not have teaching priest, and to not have Law. So far no tense is limited, however naturally through the very drift of the passage it may seem that experience is being challenged, and so necessarily the past tense desiderated, not, however, in aorist shape, but in what some French grammarians call present perfect. For Azariah may well contemplate his illustration as good from long of old, to the very moment he was speaking. The unfortunate wealth of illustration to hand of his position may pardon the doubtfulness of commentators as to the source from which it may be supposed he would have drawn his most effective instances. It will not be the unlikeliest guide to follow the triple description of the alleged apostasy, misfortune, or iniquity "of Israel," e.g. (say) it happened to them to not have the true God; happened to them to not have teaching priest; happened to them to not have the Law (this meaning, to not have it authoritatively proclaimed, taught, ministered). When did these three things happen altogether most notoriously? They describe, not the transgressions of an individual king, but the state of the people and kingdom as a whole. If it were possible to conceive the description as a flagrant anachronism, a retrospective post-Captivity amplification, which the writer (in his glow of work and thought) was unconsciously and irresistibly betrayed into putting into the lips of the Prophet Azariah, all doubt would end; for the description would suit no state of things and no period better than that of the divided kingdoms, especially applying to the career of the separate kingdom of Israel. Our account, unfortunately, is unchecked just here by a parallel. It is, however, impossible to suppose this without any tittle of external authority for it, much less enough to proceed upon. Some so crave the illustration that they are prepared to suppose all the tenses of these verses present and future rather than past and "present perfect." But, in fact, no doubt the history of Israel since the death of Moses illustrated the language of Azariah passim to a degree beyond all "that is written" or that we know. And then we may certainly consider theft the expression chosen, "many days" (which some translate "many a day," "many a time "), even the word "years" not being employed, leaves it open to us to go to short episodes of an irreligious and disastrous character in the history of Israel. Lastly, the long stretch of fully three hundred years, extending throughout the Book of Judges (its last five chapters in right order or wrong)into the opening seven chapters of 1 Samuel, provides one running comment, superabundant almost to repetitiousness, for the illustration of our vers. 3-7; in many cases absolutely picking out the very colours to match (e.g. Judges 5:6; Judges 20:29, 31, compared with our ver. 5). To distinguish and separate the very numerous references that might be made is merely supererogatory, and spoils the unmatched mosaic work of the history (Judges 2:15, 18, 19; Judges 3:12-15; Judges 4:1-3; Judges 5:6, 19-21, 31: 6:1-5, 7-10; 9:32-37; 10:6-16; 11:19, 20; 12:5, 6; 17:5, 6, 13; 20:29, 31; 1 Samuel 2:30 -35; 1 Samuel 4:9-22; 1 Samuel 7:3, 8; 1 Samuel 13:19-22). It is a long-stretched-out history of a practically atheistic, priest-less, lawless life; divided into narratives of invasion, oppression, servitude (sevenfold, the Mesopotamian, Moabite, Canaanitish, Midianitish, Ammonitish, Philistine, and, it may be added, in order to comprehend all internal strife, Ishmaelitish larger and lesser, yet surprisingly general), smart, cry for help manifestly more the cry of pain and cowardice than of penitence and repentance, resolution and vow, and - for another trial and still another - of Divine pity, forbearance, and deliverance

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
For many
רַבִּ֖ים (rab·bîm)
Adjective - masculine plural
Strong's 7227: Much, many, great

years
וְיָמִ֥ים (wə·yā·mîm)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 3117: A day

Israel
לְיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל (lə·yiś·rā·’êl)
Preposition-l | Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3478: Israel -- 'God strives', another name of Jacob and his desc

has been without
לְלֹ֣א ׀ (lə·lō)
Preposition-l | Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

the true
אֱמֶ֗ת (’ĕ·meṯ)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 571: Stability, certainty, truth, trustworthiness

God,
אֱלֹהֵ֣י (’ĕ·lō·hê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

without
וּלְלֹ֛א (ū·lə·lō)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

a priest
כֹּהֵ֥ן (kō·hên)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3548: Priest

to instruct them,
מוֹרֶ֖ה (mō·w·reh)
Verb - Hifil - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 3384: To flow as water, to lay, throw, to point out, to teach

and without
וּלְלֹ֥א (ū·lə·lō)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

law.
תוֹרָֽה׃ (ṯō·w·rāh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 8451: Direction, instruction, law


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OT History: 2 Chronicles 15:3 Now for a long season Israel was (2 Chron. 2Ch iiCh ii ch 2 chr 2chr)
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