2 Chronicles 25:8

Contemporary English Version

and so he will let your enemies defeat you, even if you fight hard. He is the one who brings both victory and defeat."

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
But if you go with them, do it! Be strong for battle! But God will make you stumble before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to make one stumble.”

Hebrew Names Version
But if you will go, do [valiantly], be strong for the battle: God will cast you down before the enemy; for God has power to help, and to cast down.

King James Version
But if thou wilt go, do it; be strong for the battle: God shall make thee fall before the enemy: for God hath power to help, and to cast down.

English Standard Version
But go, act, be strong for the battle. Why should you suppose that God will cast you down before the enemy? For God has power to help or to cast down."

New Century Version
You can make yourself strong for war, but God will defeat you. He has the power to help you or to defeat you."

New English Translation
Even if you go and fight bravely in battle, God will defeat you before the enemy. God is capable of helping or defeating."

Amplified Bible
"But if you do go [in spite of this warning], be strong and courageous for battle; yet God will cause you to stumble and fall before the enemy, for God has power to help and to cause people to stumble."

New American Standard Bible
"But if you do go, do it, be strong for the battle; yet God will bring you down before the enemy, for God has the power to help and to bring down."

World English Bible
But if you will go, do [valiantly], be strong for the battle: God will cast you down before the enemy; for God has power to help, and to cast down.

Geneva Bible (1587)
If not, goe thou on, doe it, make thy selfe strong to the battel, but God shall make thee fall before the enemie: for God hath power to helpe, and to cast downe.

Legacy Standard Bible
But if you do go, do it, be strong for the battle; yet God will cause you to stumble before the enemy, for God has power to help and to cause to stumble."

Berean Standard Bible
Even if you go and fight bravely in battle, God will make you stumble before the enemy, for God has power to help and power to overthrow."

Complete Jewish Bible
And if you do go, then no matter how fiercely you fight, God will cause you to fail before the enemy. For God has the power to help and to cause failure."

Darby Translation
But if thou wilt go, do [it]; be strong for the battle: God will make thee fall before the enemy, for there is with God power to help and to cast down.

Easy-to-Read Version
Maybe you will make yourself strong and ready for war, but God can help you win or help you lose."

George Lamsa Translation
You are to engage in a great battle, and the LORD will cause you to fall before your enemies because you have not praised the LORD, for he is the helper and one who exalts.

Good News Translation
You may think that they will make you stronger in battle, but it is God who has the power to give victory or defeat, and he will let your enemies defeat you."

Lexham English Bible
But even still, you yourself go, do! Be strong for the battle else God will make you stumble before the enemy! For there is power with God to help and to cause stumbling."

Literal Translation
But if you will go, do it ! Be strong for the battle, for God will cause you to stumble before the enemy; for God has power to help, and also to cause to stumble.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For yf thou commest to shewe yi boldnes in the battaill, God shal make the fall before thine enemies. For God hath power to helpe, and to cause for to fall.

American Standard Version
But if thou wilt go, do valiantly, be strong for the battle: God will cast thee down before the enemy; for God hath power to help, and to cast down.

Bible in Basic English
But go yourself, and be strong in war; God will not let you go down before those who are fighting against you; for God has power to give help or to send you down before your attackers.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
But if thou wilt needes [be saytlesse:] come on, and take the battell in hande, and God shall make thee fall before the enemie: For God hath power to helpe, and to cast downe.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
But if thou wilt go, and do engage never so valiantly in battle, God will cast thee down before the enemy; for God hath power to help, and to cast down.'

King James Version (1611)
But if thou wilt goe, doe it, bee strong for the battell: God shall make thee fall before the enemy: for God hath power to helpe, and to cast downe.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For if thou shalt undertake to strengthen thyself with these, then the lord shall put thee to flight before the enemies: for it is of the Lord both to strengthen and to put to flight.

English Revised Version
But if thou wilt go, do [valiantly], be strong for the battle: God shall cast thee down before the enemy; for God hath power to help, and to cast down.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
for if thou gessist that batels stonden in the myyt of oost, the Lord schal make thee to be ouercomun of enemyes, for it is of God for to helpe, and to turne in to fliyt.

Update Bible Version
But if you will go, do [valiantly], be strong for the battle: God will cast you down before the enemy; for God has power to help, and to cast down.

Webster's Bible Translation
But if thou wilt go, do [it], be strong for the battle: God will make thee fall before the enemy: for God hath power to help, and to cast down.

New King James Version
But if you go, be gone! Be strong in battle! Even so, God shall make you fall before the enemy; for God has power to help and to overthrow."

New Living Translation
If you let them go with your troops into battle, you will be defeated by the enemy no matter how well you fight. God will overthrow you, for he has the power to help you or to trip you up."

New Life Bible
But if you think that in this way you will be strong in war, God will destroy you in front of those who fight you. For God has power to help and to destroy."

New Revised Standard
Rather, go by yourself and act; be strong in battle, or God will fling you down before the enemy; for God has power to help or to overthrow."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
But, if thou art going, do, be strong for the battle, - God will cause thee to fall before the enemy, for there is strength in God, to help or to cause to fall.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And if thou think that battles consist in the strength of the army, God will make thee to be overcome by the enemies: for it belongeth to God both to help, and to put to flight.

Revised Standard Version
But if you suppose that in this way you will be strong for war, God will cast you down before the enemy; for God has power to help or to cast down."

Young's Literal Translation
but if thou art going -- do [it], be strong for battle, God doth cause thee to stumble before an enemy, for there is power in God to help, and to cause to stumble.'

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"But if you do go, do it, be strong for the battle; yet God will bring you down before the enemy, for God has power to help and to bring down."

Contextual Overview

¹ Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled twenty-nine years from Jerusalem, the hometown of his mother Jehoaddin. ² Even though Amaziah obeyed the Lord by doing right, he refused to be completely faithful. ³ For example, as soon as he had control of Judah, he arrested and killed the officers who had murdered his father. ⁴ But the children of those officers were not killed; the Lord had commanded in the Law of Moses that only the people who sinned were to be punished. ⁵ Amaziah sent a message to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and called together all the men who were twenty years old and older. Three hundred thousand men went to Jerusalem, all of them ready for battle and able to fight with spears and shields. Amaziah grouped these soldiers according to their clans and put them under the command of his army officers. ⁶ Amaziah also paid almost four tons of silver to hire one hundred thousand soldiers from Israel. ⁷ One of God's prophets said, "Your Majesty, don't let these Israelite soldiers march into battle with you. The Lord has refused to help anyone from the northern kingdom of Israel, ⁸ and so he will let your enemies defeat you, even if you fight hard. He is the one who brings both victory and defeat." ⁹ Amaziah replied, "What am I supposed to do about all the silver I paid those troops?" "The Lord will give you back even more than you paid," the prophet answered. ¹⁰ Amaziah ordered the troops from Israel to go home, but when they left, they were furious with the people of Judah.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

be strong: 2 Chronicles 18:14, Ecclesiastes 11:9, Isaiah 8:9, Isaiah 8:10, Joel 3:9-14, Matthew 26:45

God hath power: 2 Chronicles 14:11, 2 Chronicles 20:6, Judges 7:7, 1 Samuel 14:6, Job 5:18, Job 9:13, Psalms 20:7, Psalms 33:16-20, Psalms 62:11, Ecclesiastes 9:11

army: Heb. band, 2 Chronicles 25:13

The Lord: 2 Chronicles 1:12, Deuteronomy 8:18, Psalms 24:1, Proverbs 10:22, Haggai 2:8, Luke 18:29, Luke 18:30, Philippians 4:19

Reciprocal: 2 Samuel 3:6 - Abner 1 Kings 12:24 - Ye shall not go up 1 Kings 18:27 - Elijah 1 Kings 20:22 - strengthen 2 Chronicles 18:19 - go up 2 Chronicles 26:5 - and as long Psalms 89:43 - not made Psalms 102:10 - thou hast Ezekiel 38:7 - General Joel 3:10 - let Nahum 2:1 - keep

Cross-References

Genesis 25:7
Abraham died at the ripe old age of one hundred seventy-five.

Genesis 25:9
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him east of Hebron in Machpelah Cave that was part of the field Abraham had bought from Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite. Abraham was buried there beside his wife Sarah.

Genesis 25:17
Ishmael had settled in the land east of his brothers, and his sons settled everywhere from Havilah to Shur, east of Egypt on the way to Asshur. Ishmael was one hundred thirty-seven when he died.

Genesis 25:28
Esau would take the meat of wild animals to his father Isaac, and so Isaac loved him more, but Jacob was his mother's favorite son.

Genesis 25:29
One day, Jacob was cooking some stew, when Esau came home hungry

Genesis 35:18
Rachel was at the point of death, and right before dying, she said, "I'll name him Benoni." But Jacob called him Benjamin.

Genesis 49:29
Jacob told his sons: Soon I will die, and I want you to bury me in Machpelah Cave. Abraham bought this cave as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, and it is near the town of Mamre in Canaan. Abraham and Sarah are buried there, and so are Isaac and Rebekah. I buried Leah there too.

Numbers 20:24
"Aaron, this is where you will die. You and Moses disobeyed me at Meribah, and so you will not enter the land I promised the Israelites.

Numbers 27:13
After you have seen it, you will die, just like your brother Aaron,

Judges 2:10
After a while the people of Joshua's generation died, and the next generation did not know the Lord or any of the things he had done for Israel.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle,.... An ironical expression; if thou wilt not be advised, take them with thee, and try what thou canst do; exert all thy courage, and use thy military skill, and mark the issue:

God shall make thee fall before the enemy; notwithstanding the number of thy troops, and those of thy auxiliaries; though some take them to be spoken seriously, and read the words, "but go thou"; that is, alone, without the hired troops, and fight boldly and courageously; or otherwise "God shall make thee fall", c.

for God hath power to help and to cast down to help with a few, and to cast down with many; to help without the hired Israelites, and to cast down with them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If the present text is regarded as sound, this passage must be taken ironically. But most recent commentators supply a second negative, and render it: “But go thou alone, act, be strong for the battle - God shall then not make thee to fall.”