7. to desolation] Render, as margin, to be an astonishment; compare xxix. 8 (same Hebrew word).
⁸Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were; but yield yourselves[¹] unto the Lord, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever, and serve the Lord your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.
[¹] Hebrew give the hand.
8. yield yourselves] Literally “give the hand”; compare 1 Chronicles xxix. 24 “submitted themselves”).
sanctified for ever] Compare vii. 16.
⁹For if ye turn again unto the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that led them captive, and shall come again into this land: for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him. ¹⁰So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.
9. shall find compassion] Compare Psalms cvi. 46 (a similar phrase in Hebrew).
¹¹Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.
11. of Asher] Asher is somewhat strange. The parallel with verse 10 alone suggests that we should read of Ephraim; and this is the more probable if the real significance of the reference is for the Chronicler’s period (see the head-note, and xv. 9). It is not likely that Judaism at that time could claim many adherents in the old territory of Asher (see Hölscher, Palästina, p. 32).
humbled themselves] So xxxiii. 12.