2 Chronicles 16 Bible study: The LORD's eyes run back and forth

Baasha king of Israel "went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not allow anyone to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah" (16:1). Asa answers with money. He "brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the LORD’s house and of the king’s house, and sent to Ben Hadad king of Syria, who lived at Damascus" (16:2), with a message: "Let there be a treaty between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you silver and gold. Go, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me" (16:3). It works. Ben Hadad's captains "struck Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali" (16:4). Baasha "stopped building Ramah, and let his work cease" (16:5), and "Asa the king took all Judah, and they carried away the stones and timber of Ramah" (16:6), and "he built Geba and Mizpah with them" (16:6). One chapter earlier, Asa had brought "silver, gold, and vessels into God’s house" (15:18). 1 Kings tells the same events (1 Kings 15:17-22); there Asa calls what he sent "a present of silver and gold" (1 Kings 15:19).

2 Chronicles 16:9→leads toMatthew 6:6

Asa had relied on the king of Syria and not on the LORD (16:7), and Hanani told him, "For the LORD’s eyes run back and forth throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him" (16:9). Jesus taught, "But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly" (Matthew 6:6). Jesus doesn't cite 2 Chronicles 16, and no link between the Hebrew and Greek words is claimed, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on what both say: God sees, and he acts for the one who turns to him. Some hear in Jesus' words the same God Hanani spoke of, whose eyes are on the one whose heart is toward him. Others read 16:9 as a seer's word to one king about his wars (16:7-9), and Matthew 6:6 within Jesus' teaching against praying "that they may be seen by men" (Matthew 6:5), and don't look from one to the other.

שׁוּטshutsay SHOOT

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "go or rove about", and in the form used here, "go eagerly, quickly, to and fro". Strong's lists among its English words "run to and fro". "For the LORD’s eyes run back and forth throughout the whole earth" (16:9). This is its only use in 2 Chronicles. Zechariah heard nearly the same words: "These are the LORD’s eyes, which run back and forth through the whole earth" (Zechariah 4:10). Jeremiah was told, "Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem" (Jeremiah 5:1), to see "if you can find a man, if there is anyone who does justly, who seeks truth" (Jeremiah 5:1).