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2 Chronicles 27 · a question people ask

If Jotham did right, why did the people act corruptly?

In the text

The chapter doesn't say. It puts the two side by side in one verse: "He did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes" and "The people still acted corruptly" (27:2). It doesn't say what the people did, or for how long. 2 Chronicles has told of this before: Jehoshaphat was "doing that which was right in the LORD’s eyes" (20:32), and yet "the people had still not set their hearts on the God of their fathers" (20:33). The next chapter tells of Jotham's son Ahaz, who "didn’t do that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, like David his father" (28:1). 2 Chronicles doesn't explain why the people didn't follow their king, and these notes don't either.

The verses

“He did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, according to all that his father Uzziah had done. However he didn’t enter into the LORD’s temple. The people still acted corruptly.”
2 Chronicles 27:2 · World English Bible
“He walked in the way of Asa his father, and didn’t turn away from it, doing that which was right in the LORD’s eyes. However the high places were not taken away, and the people had still not set their hearts on the God of their fathers.”
2 Chronicles 20:32-33 · World English Bible
“Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t do that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, like David his father,”
2 Chronicles 28:1 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Chronicles 27

2 Chronicles 27: He ordered his ways

The one thing Jotham didn't copy from his father is told with the same Hebrew verb and the same word for temple as his father's trespass: Uzziah "went into the LORD’s temple" (26:16); Jotham "didn’t enter into the LORD’s temple" (27:2). And 2 Chronicles gives the reason he became mighty: "he ordered his ways before the LORD his God" (27:6).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions