2 Chronicles 29:11 - Exposition

Be not now negligent ; Hebrew, אַל־תִּשָּׁלוּ . This verb in kal (supposing it the same verb) occurs but five times ( Job 3:26 ; Job 12:6 ; Psalms 122:6 ; Jeremiah 12:1 ; Lamentations 1:5 ), the radical idea of it being the safety of ease or security rather than any absolute safety. In niph. it is found only in this place and in 2 Kings 4:28 , where the rendering of the Authorized Version, "Do not deceive me," will easily yield the same essential idea. The derivative adjective ( שֶׁלֵו ) occurs eight times, and always has the same flavour about it ( 1 Chronicles 4:40 ; Job 16:12 ; Job 20:20 ; Job 21:23 ; Psalms 73:12 ; Jeremiah 49:31 ; Ezekiel 23:42 ; Zechariah 7:7 ). And the derivative nouns ( שֶׁלֶו and שַׁלְוָה ) occur nine times, and, at any rate, in almost every instance evidently carrying the same fundamental idea ( Psalms 30:6 ; Psalms 122:7 ; Proverbs 1:32 ; Proverbs 17:1 ; Jeremiah 22:21 ; Ezekiel 16:49 ; Daniel 8:25 ; Daniel 11:21 , Daniel 11:24 ). Our Authorized Version, therefore, sufficiently reproduces the thought of Hezekiah, though perhaps this would more exactly come out of the rendering, "Be not now at ease," i.e. sacrifice ease and self-indulgence, etc. To serve him … that ye should minister . The same verb is used in both these places; so Revised Version, To minister unto him, and that ye should be his ministers.