2 Chronicles 15:3,4 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For a long season Israel hath been, &c. Hebrew, many days have been to Israel without the true God, &c. The prophet's design here is evidently to set before them the miserable consequences of forsaking God and his ordinances, and that if they should forsake him, there would be no way of having their grievances redressed, but by repenting and returning to him. In proof of this point he argues from facts, and observes, that in time past, when Israel forsook their duty, they were overrun with a deluge of atheism, impiety, irreligion, and all irregularities; and were continually embarrassed with vexations, and destructive wars, foreign and domestic. But when their troubles drove them to God, they found it not in vain to seek him. He seems to refer especially to the times of the judges. For then they were frequently, though not wholly and universally, yet in a very great measure, without God and his law, and teaching priests: and then, indeed, they were brought to suffer all the exigencies and calamities here mentioned. They were harassed by grievous wars, both foreign and domestic, and frequently oppressed by one enemy or other, as by the Moabites, Midianites, Ammonites, and other neighbouring nations, and were vexed with all adversity, 2 Chronicles 15:6; yet when, in their perplexity, they turned to God by repentance, prayer, and reformation, he raised up deliverers for them. Thus that maxim, that God is with us, while we are with him, was often verified in those times. This seems to be the most obvious sense of the passage, taking Israel for the whole nation, and not for the ten tribes merely, who had revolted under Jeroboam, to whom part of the prophet's speech is not at all applicable; for it could not with truth be said of them, that when they were in trouble they turned unto the Lord, and sought him, and he was found of them. Some think, among whom is Houbigant, that the whole passage is prophetical, and looks forward to future times; and that it ought to be read in the future tense, thus: Now, for a long season, Israel shall be without the true God, &c. But when, in their trouble, they shall turn unto the Lord God of Israel, and seek him, he will be found of them: see Hosea 3:4. But the former explication seems to be more agreeable, both to the Hebrew text, and to the context preceding and following, and to be much more suitable to the design of the prophet, as stated above.