if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Parallel translations
- KJV If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
- BSB and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
- NKJV if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
- NASB and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
- NLT Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God promises that if His people humble themselves, pray, seek Him, and repent, He will hear, forgive, and heal their land. It is a foundational promise of restoration through repentance.
Overview
This much-loved verse spells out the path back from judgment: humility, prayer, seeking God's face, and turning from sin, met by His hearing, forgiveness, and healing. Its primary reference is national Israel under the old covenant, so faithful interpreters caution against applying its land-healing promise indiscriminately to modern nations. Yet it reveals God's unchanging character of mercy toward the penitent, fully realized in the forgiveness secured through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 22
- Lam 3:40–41Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
- Isa 55:6–7Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.
- Jas 4:9–10Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
- Prov 28:13He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
- 2 Chr 6:37–39yet if they come to their senses in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly;’
- Deut 4:29–30But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
- Jer 33:6‘Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth.
- 2 Chr 33:12–13When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
- Ezek 33:11Tell them, As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn, turn from your evil ways; for why will you die, house of Israel?
- 2 Chr 6:27then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.
- Lev 26:40–41“‘If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me,
- Ezek 18:27–30Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.
- Jer 8:22Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? Why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
- Isa 63:19We have become like those over whom you never ruled, like those who were not called by your name.
- Deut 30:1–6It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where Yahweh your God has driven you,
- Isa 59:20“A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob,” says Yahweh.
- 2 Chr 6:30then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know (for you, even you only, know the hearts of the children of men)
- Isa 45:19I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, Yahweh, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.
- Acts 9:11The Lord said to him, “Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judah for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus. For behold, he is praying,
- Jer 51:9“We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her, and let us each go into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
- 2 Chr 33:18–19Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, behold, they are written among the acts of the kings of Israel.
- Ps 60:2You have made the land tremble. You have torn it. Mend its fractures, for it quakes.
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Christ at the center
Temple, priesthood, and the repeated need for a faithful king who seeks the LORD all point past every imperfect reign to the King and Temple who finally and fully dwell with God's people.
How 2 Chronicles 7:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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