2 Chronicles 25:8

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."

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."

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."

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 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 reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother was Jehoaddin from Jerusalem. ² Amaziah did what was pleasing in the Lord 's sight, but not wholeheartedly. ³ When Amaziah was well established as king, he executed the officials who had assassinated his father. ⁴ However, he did not kill the children of the assassins, for he obeyed the command of the Lord as written by Moses in the Book of the Law: "Parents must not be put to death for the sins of their children, nor children for the sins of their parents. Those deserving to die must be put to death for their own crimes." ⁵ Then Amaziah organized the army, assigning generals and captains for all Judah and Benjamin. He took a census and found that he had an army of 300,000 select troops, twenty years old and older, all trained in the use of spear and shield. ⁶ He also paid about 7,500 pounds of silver to hire 100,000 experienced fighting men from Israel. ⁷ But a man of God came to him and said, "Your Majesty, do not hire troops from Israel, for the Lord is not with Israel. He will not help those people of Ephraim! ⁸ 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." ⁹ Amaziah asked the man of God, "But what about all that silver I paid to hire the army of Israel?" The man of God replied, "The Lord is able to give you much more than this!" ¹⁰ So Amaziah discharged the hired troops and sent them back to Ephraim. This made them very angry with Judah, and they returned home in a great rage.

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 15:15
(As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.)

Genesis 25:7
Abraham lived for 175 years,

Genesis 25:8
and he died at a ripe old age, having lived a long and satisfying life. He breathed his last and joined his ancestors in death.

Genesis 25:9
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.

Genesis 25:17
Ishmael lived for 137 years. Then he breathed his last and joined his ancestors in death.

Genesis 25:28
Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Genesis 25:29
One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry.

Genesis 35:18
Rachel was about to die, but with her last breath she named the baby Ben-oni (which means "son of my sorrow"). The baby's father, however, called him Benjamin (which means "son of my right hand").

Genesis 49:29
Then Jacob instructed them, "Soon I will die and join my ancestors. Bury me with my father and grandfather in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.

Numbers 20:24
"The time has come for Aaron to join his ancestors in death. He will not enter the land I am giving the people of Israel, because the two of you rebelled against my instructions concerning the water at Meribah.

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.”