2 Chronicles · Chapter 13

Verse 2. His mother’s name-was Michaiah] See on 2 Chronicles 11:20.

Verse 2. His mother’s name was Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel — Called Maachah, the daughter of Absalom, 1 Kings 15:2. She might be daughter to one, and grand-daughter to the other: or the proper and natural daughter of the one, and the other’s daughter by adoption.

2. Michaiah — Probably a copyist’s error for Maachah. Daughter of Uriel — And granddaughter of Absalom. 1 Kings 15:2, note.

Verse 3. Abijah set the battle in array] The numbers in this verse and in the seventeenth seem almost incredible. Abijah’s army consisted of four hundred thousand effective men; that of Jeroboam consisted of eight hundred thousand; and the slain of Jeroboam’s army were five hundred thousand. Now it is very possible that there is a cipher too much in all these numbers, and that they should stand thus: Abijah’s army, forty thousand; Jeroboam’s eighty thousand; the slain, fifty thousand. Calmet, who defends the common reading, allows that the Venice edition of the Vulgate, in 1478; another, in 1489; that of Nuremberg, in 1521; that of Basil, by Froben, in 1538; that of Robert Stevens, in 1546; and many others, have the smaller numbers. Dr. Kennicott says: “On a particular collation of the Vulgate version, it appears that the number of chosen men here slain, which Pope Clement’s edition in 1592 determines to be five hundred thousand, the edition of Pope Sixtus, printed two years before, determined to be only fifty thousand; and the two preceding numbers, in the edition of Sixtus, are forty thousand and eighty thousand. As to different printed editions, out of fifty-two, from the year 1462 to 1592, thirty-one contain the less number. And out of fifty-one MSS. twenty-three in the Bodleian library, four in that of Dean Aldrich, and two in that of Exeter College, contain the less number, or else are corrupted irregularly, varying only one or two numbers.”

This examination was made by Dr. Kennicott before he had finished his collation of Hebrew MSS., and before Deuteronomy Rossi had published his Variæ Lectiones Veteris Testamenti; but from these works we find little help, as far as the Hebrew MSS. are concerned. One Hebrew MS., instead of ãla twam [bra arba meoth eleph, four hundred thousand, reads ãla rc[ [bra arba eser eleph, fourteen thousand.

In all printed copies of the Hebrew, the numbers are as in the common text, four hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand, and five hundred thousand.

The versions are as follow:-The Targum, or Chaldee, the same in each place as the Hebrew.

The Syriac in 2 Chronicles 13:3 has four hundred thousand young men for the army of Abijah, and eight hundred thousand stout youth for that of Jeroboam. For the slain Israelites, in 2 Chronicles 13:17, it has [Syriac] five hundred thousand, falsely translated in the Latin text quinque milia, five thousand, both in the Paris and London Polyglots: another proof among many that little dependence is to be placed on the Latin translation of this version in either of the above Polyglots. The Arabic is the same in all these cases with the Syriac, from which it has been translated.

The Septuagint, both as it is published in all the Polyglots, and as far as I have seen in MSS.. is the same with the Hebrew text. So also is Josephus. The Vulgate or Latin version is that alone that exhibits any important variations; we have had considerable proof of this in the above-mentioned collations of Calmet and Kennicott. I shall beg liberty to add others from my own collection.

In the Editio Princeps of the Latin Bible, though without date or place, yet evidently printed long before that of Fust, in 1462, the places stand thus: Ver. 3. Cumque inisset certamen, et haberet bellicosissimos viros, et electorum QUADRAGINTA milia: Iheroboam construxit e contra aciem OCTOGINTA milia virorum; “With him Abia entered into battle; and he had of the most warlike and choice men forty thousand; and Jeroboam raised an army against him of eighty thousand men.”

And in ver. 17: Et corruerunt vulnerati ex Israel, QUINQUAGINTA milia virorum fortium; “And there fell down wounded fifty thousand stout men of Israel.”

In the Glossa Ordinaria, by Strabo Fuldensis, we have forty thousand and eighty thousand in the two first instances, and five hundred thousand in the last.-Bib. Sacr. vol. ii., Antv. 1634.

In six ancient MSS. of my own, marked A, B, C, D, E, F. the text stands thus:—

A.-Cumque inisset Abia certamen, et haberet bellicosissimos viros, et electorum XL. MIL. Jeroboam instruxit contra aciem LXXX. MIL. And in ver. 17: Et corruerunt vulnerati ex Israel L. MIL. virorum fortium. Here we have forty thousand for the army of Abijah, and eighty thousand for that of Jeroboam, and FIFTY thousand for the slain of the latter. B.-QUADRAGINITA milia, — OCTOGINTA milia,

FORTY thousand. — EIGHTY thousand.

QUINQUIAGINTA milia,

FIFTY thousand.

The numbers being here expressed in words at full length, there can be no suspicion of mistake.

C.-CCCC milia, — DCCC milibus, — D milia

400 thousand. — 800 thousand. — 500 thousand.

This is the same as the Hebrew text, and very distinctly expressed. D.-xl. m. — lxxx. m. — l. v. m.

40,000.— 80,000. — 50 and 5000.

This, in the two first numbers, is the same as the others above; but the last is confused, and appears to stand for fifty thousand and five thousand. A later hand has corrected the two first numbers in this MS., placing over the first four CCCC, thus

cccc

xl.,

thus changing forty into four hundred; and over the second thus, dccc

lxxx.,

thus changing eighty into eight hundred. Over the latter number, which is evidently a mistake of the scribe, there is no correction. E.-xl. m. — OCTOGINTA m. — l. m.

40,000 — EIGHTY thousand. — 50,000.

F.-CCCC. m. — DCCC. m. — D. m.

400,000. — 800,000. — 600,000.

This also is the same as the Hebrew.

The reader has now the whole evidence which I have been able to collect before him, and may choose; the smaller numbers appear to be the most correct. Corruptions in the numbers in these historical books we have often had cause to suspect, and to complain of.

Verse 3. Abijah set the battle in array — Namely, against Jeroboam, having, no doubt, God’s authority to engage with him in battle. It is probable, indeed, that Jeroboam was the aggressor, and that what Abijah did was in his own necessary defence.

Verse 3. Four hundred thousand—eight hundred thousand chosen men. This would seem incredible, did we not know that the manner of the Hebrews at that time was to bring all their people from twenty to fifty years of age into the field. Yet such a multitude must form an unwieldy and ungovernable army. If the sword fail to destroy them, they must soon be routed by hunger and thirst. These, like the five hundred thousand under Xerxes, that invaded Greece, melted away like snow in the warmer beams of the sun.

3. Set the battle in array — Literally, joined the battle; that is, opened the war; began the fight. Jeroboam also set the battle in array — The verb here is different from that translated by the same words above. Abijah began the war in order to punish Jeroboam and Israel for rebellion, and Jeroboam ordered out his army for defense. The numbers 800,000 and 400,000 seem incredibly large; but perhaps the author only meant to designate the forces which each kingdom could command, not to say that all these 1,200,000 were engaged in any one battle. Compare the number of fighting men in David’s time. 2 Samuel 24:9.

Verse 4. Stood up upon Mount Zemaraim] “Which was a mount of the tribe of the house of Ephraim.”-Targum. Jarchi thinks that Abijah went to the confines of the tribe of Ephraim to attack Jeroboam. It could not be Shomeron, the mount on which Samaria was built in the days of Omri king of Israel, 1 Kings 16:24.

Verse 4. Abijah stood upon mount Zemaraim — Some commodious place whence his words might be heard by Jeroboam, and some of his army, who possibly were pitched in the valley. Or, the two armies being pitched near each other, Abijah desired a parley before they fought, to see if they could accommodate matters without shedding blood. Whereupon Jeroboam and some of his commanders and soldiers probably drew near to him, and stood below at the bottom of the hill, from whence they could hear him. And this, it is likely, Jeroboam was the more willing to do, that in the mean time he might cause an ambushment to come behind Abijah and his army, as he did, (verse 13,) while he was quietly standing before them, and seemed to hearken to any terms of accommodation which were offered.

4. Stood up upon mount Zemaraim — A general standing upon an eminence, could, like Jotham on Mount Gerizim, speak so as to be heard by a vast audience below. See note on Judges 9:7. The locality of Mount Zemaraim is uncertain. Some have thought to connect it with the Benjamite town of the same name mentioned in Joshua 18:22. But that was in the Jordan valley, this in Mount Ephraim. It was probably an eminence near the border of the two kingdoms, perhaps not far from Beth-el, near which the great battle was fought. Hear me, thou Jeroboam — Abijah vainly thinks to make his enemies see the sin and folly of their separating from the kingdom of David. His speech was one sided, for he failed to observe that the permanency and integrity of David’s kingdom were conditioned upon obedience.

V. 5. Of salt-By a perpetual covenant.

Verse 5. By a covenant of salt?] For ever. “For as the waters of the sea never grow sweet, neither shall the dominion depart from the house of David.”-Targum. See Clarke’s note on “Numbers 18:19”.

Verse 5. By a covenant of salt — A perpetual covenant. The reason of this mode of expression seems to arise from the preserving nature of salt; which, therefore, was made a symbol of friendship and fidelity. It is most likely, that in all solemn covenants which were confirmed by sacrifice, it was an ancient custom to offer salt with the sacrifice, to denote the faith and perpetuity of the covenant; so that, in this view, a covenant of salt will signify a covenant confirmed by sacrifice. See note on Numbers 18:19.

Ver. 5. A covenant of salt, that is, incorruptible. “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, and I will give you the sure mercies of David.” Isaiah 55:4, Thus the Messiah was the soul of the covenant, whenever it was renewed, as in Genesis 12:3. But as all covenants with men were accompanied with a feast, our Harmer proves that this word designates a feast: so is the Hebrew reading of Ezra 4:14.

5. A covenant of salt — The meat-offering was a standing memorial of God’s covenant with man, and could never be lawfully offered without salt. Leviticus 2:13. Salt, the symbol of perpetuity and incorruptibility, became therefore proverbially associated with the Israelitish notion of a sacred and inviolable covenant. Hence “a covenant of salt” is equivalent to “a holy and inviolable covenant.” Compare Numbers 18:19.

Verse 7. When Rehoboam was young and tender-hearted] Therefore he could not be forty-one when he came to the throne; see Clarke’s note on “2 Chronicles 13:3”. Children of Belial here signifies men of the most abandoned principles and characters; or men without consideration, education, or brains.

Verse 7. Vain men, children of Belial — Such as have cast off the yoke and the obedience which they owed both to God and to their king. When Rehoboam was young — Not in age, for he was then forty-one years old, but in his kingdom, which he had but newly obtained, and in experience in politics, and especially in military affairs, to which he was, indeed, wholly a stranger, having been born and brought up in a time of great peace and security.

V. 8. Golden calves-There is that among you which may damp your confidence: you worship those images which God abhors.

Verse 8. Ye think to withstand the kingdom of the Lord — That kingdom which was not set up by vain men, in pursuance of their own ambition and discontent, as yours was, but ordained and established by God himself in the house of David. And ye be — Or, because ye be, a great multitude — This he mentions, as being both the ground of their confidence, namely, that they had more tribes, and a greater host; and also a presage of their downfall, which their trusting to the arm of flesh was. And there are with you golden calves — Or, But there are, &c. There is that among you which may damp your courage and confidence: you worship those images which God abhors. Which Jeroboam made you for gods — Or, for God, as that plural word is most commonly used: that is, instead of God, to give them the name of God, and that worship which is peculiar to him.

V. 9. Consecrate-To make himself a priest.

Verse 9. A young bullock and seven rams] He who could provide these for his own consecration was received into the order of this spurious and wicked priesthood. Some think he who could give to Jeroboam a young bullock and seven rams, was thereby received into the priesthood; this being the price for which the priesthood was conferred. The former is most likely.

Verse 9. Have ye not cast out the priests of the Lord? — The house of Aaron, whom God appointed to minister in holy things. And have made you priests, after the manner of the nations? — In conformity to the custom of the idolatrous nations. So that whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a young bullock — To make himself a priest, Leviticus 7:3. Whosoever desires to be in the office, and will be at the charge of his consecration, though ever so much a scandal to the character; the same may be a priest of them that are no gods — That have nothing of the nature or power of gods, though you give them that name. Such, however, though very unfit to be priests, were most fit of all others to be their priests. For what could be more suitable to gods that were no gods, than priests that were no priests?

V. 10. The Lord-Heb. Jehovah, the only true God. We-Maintain his worship which you have rejected.

Verse 10. The Lord is our God] We have not abandoned the Lord; and we still serve him according to his own law.

Verse 10. But the Lord is our God — Hebrew, Jehovah, the only true and great God. And we have not forsaken him — We maintain his honour and worship, which you have ungratefully rejected. And he is able to protect us and give us success.

V. 11. Pure table-Made of pure gold, Exodus 25:23,24, he saith table and candlestick, though there were ten of each, because ordinarily there was but one of each used at a time for those uses. We keep-Perhaps he flattered himself, that his keeping up the external worship of God would make satisfaction for the errors of his life.

Verse 11. The show-bread upon the pure table — So called, because it was made of pure gold, Exodus 25:23, 24. He saith, table and candlestick, though there were ten of each, because ordinarily there was but one of each used at a time. We keep the charge of the Lord our God — We worship no images, have no priests but those whom he has ordained, no rites of worship but what he has prescribed. Both the temple-service and the temple-furniture are of his appointing: his appointment we abide by, and neither add nor diminish. Perhaps he flattered himself that his keeping up the external worship of God would make satisfaction for the errors of his life. Or he said this, that he might thereby encourage his own soldiers, and convince or terrify his enemies.

V. 12. Trumpets-Upon the sounding whereof God hath solemnly promised to assist his people, Numbers 10:9. The Lord-You have not only us for your enemies, but God, even the God whom your fathers served. It is folly to fight against the God of almighty power: but it is treachery and base ingratitude, to fight against your father’s God.

Verse 12. God himself is with us] Ye have golden calves; we have the living and omnipotent Jehovah.

With-trumpets to cry alarm against you.] This was appalling: When the priests sound their trumpets, it will be a proof that the vengeance of the Lord shall speedily descend upon you.

Verse 12. Behold, God himself is with us for our captain — Here in our camp. We may be sure he is with us, because we are with him. And as a token of his presence we have here with us his priests, sounding his trumpets — According to the law, as a testimony against you, and an assurance to us, that in the day of battle we shall be remembered before the Lord our God, and saved from our enemies. See Numbers 10:9, where this sacred signal is thus explained. Nothing is so effectual to imbolden men, and give them courage and fortitude in the day of battle, as to have an assurance that God is with them, and fighteth for them. Fight ye not against the God of your fathers — It is folly to fight against the God of almighty power; but it is treachery, and base ingratitude, to fight against your fathers’ God, and you cannot expect to prosper. Thus he concludes with giving them fair warning.

12. O children of Israel, fight ye not against the Lord God of your fathers — Abijah’s speech, throughout, rings with the true theocratic spirit, but, as mentioned above, it fails to note all the facts involved in the division of the empire of David and Solomon. Its earnest and solemn appeals, however, may have had much to do with the defeat of Israel, for God may have caused it to terrify multitudes of Jeroboam’s warriors.

V. 13. Jeroboam-While Abijah was discoursing, Jeroboam takes the advantage of it to lay an ambush. It does not appear that he made any answer to all that Abijah said. The longest sword he thinks will determine the matter, not the better cause.

Verse 13. But Jeroboam caused an ambushment] While Abijah was thus employed in reproving them, Jeroboam divided his army privately, and sent a part to take Abijah in the rear; and this must have proved fatal to the Jews, had not the Lord interposed.

Verse 13. But Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come behind — While Abijah was discoursing, he took the advantage thus afforded him of sending a party of soldiers privately to lie in ambush, and attack Abijah’s army behind, while he continued to face them with his main body. It does not appear that he made any answer to Abijah’s speech. The longest sword, he thinks, must determine the matter, not the better cause.

Verse 14. Behold, the battle was before and behind — Thus Judah was unexpectedly brought into a great strait, and put into great fear. A good cause, and one which is designed to be victorious, may be involved in difficulty and distress. And they cried unto the Lord — For when danger was on every side, which way should they look but upward for deliverance? It is an unspeakable comfort, that no enemy, not the most powerful or politic, and no stratagem or ambushment, can cut off our communication with heaven. Our way thitherward is always open. We may hope they cried unto the Lord before they engaged in this war; but the distress they were in made them renew their prayers, and quickened them to be more importunate. God brings his people into straits, that he may teach them to cry unto him.

V. 15. Gave a shout-It is unspeakable comfort, that no stratagem or ambush can cut off our communication with heaven. To the cry of prayer they added the shout of faith, and so became more than conquerors.

Verse 15. Then the men of Judah gave a shout — In confidence of victory, the priests animating them by sounding the trumpets, and giving them assurance of God’s presence with them. To the cry of prayer they added the shout of faith, and so became more than conquerors. God smote Jeroboam and all Israel — He struck him and his army with such terror and amazement, that, it appears, they could not strike a stroke, but fled with the greatest precipitation imaginable, and the conquerors gave no quarter; so that they put to the sword five hundred thousand chosen men; more (it is said) than ever we read of in any history to have been killed in one battle. But the battle was the Lord’s; who would thus chastise the idolatry of Israel, and own the house of David. But see the sad effects of division! It was the blood of Israelites which was thus shed like water by Israelites, while the heathen, their neighbours, to whom the name of Israel had formerly been a terror, cried, Aha, so would we have it.

Verse 17. Slain-five hundred thousand chosen men.] Query, fifty thousand? This was a great slaughter: see Clarke’s note on “2 Chronicles 13:3”, where all these numbers are supposed to be overcharged.

Ver. 17. There fell down slain five hundred thousand men. The Vulgate diminishes the number of the slain to fifty thousand; but as the LXX, and the complute edition, agree with the Hebrew, and as Josephus affirms that there never was a battle recorded by either Greek or Barbarian writer, in which there was so great a number slain, the modern versions have done right in disregarding the authority of the Vulgate.

17. There fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men — These many slain (µyllj, pierced, wounded) probably include both killed and wounded during the whole war; not those who fell in any one engagement.

Verse 18. Judah prevailed, because] “They depended on the WORD of the God of their fathers.”-T.

Verse 18. Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time — And had not the determinate counsel of God been otherwise, surely so great a blow would have brought them back to the house of David. And Judah prevailed, because they relied on the God of their fathers — It was not by their own valour that they obtained this great victory, but by their relying on God, their depending on his power to help them, and their committing themselves and their cause to him.

18. Israel were brought under — Rather, were humbled. Jehovah saw fit to humble and defeat their pride, and he did so by means of Abijah and his army.

Verse 19. Beth-el] “Beth-lehem.”-Targum. Jeshanah] We know not where these towns lay.

Verse 19. Abijah took cities from him, Beth-el, &c. — Which, however, Jeroboam recovered afterward, as appears by the course of the history. What became of the golden calf at Beth-el, when that place came thus into the hands of the king of Judah, we are not told. Probably when Jeroboam’s host was discomfited, and he expected that Abijah would pursue his victory, he removed the golden calf from thence to some safer place. And Ephraim — A city so called, possibly the same which is mentioned John 11:54; or that which is called Ophra, Judges 8:27.

19. Beth-el with the towns thereof — It must have been a great humiliation to Jeroboam to lose this ancient city, the principal seat of his calf worship. It was subsequently recovered by the northern kingdom, but when and by whom is not recorded. The sites of Jeshanah… and Ephraim are now unknown.

V. 20. The Lord struck him-He escaped the sword of Abijah: but God struck him: there is no escaping his sword.

Verse 20. The Lord struck him, and he died.] Who died? Abijah or Jeroboam? Some think it was Jeroboam; some, that it was Abijah. Both rabbins and Christians are divided on this point; nor is it yet settled. The prevailing opinion is that Jeroboam is meant, who was struck then with that disease of which he died about two years after; for he did not die till two years after Abijah: see 1 Kings 14:20; 15:9. It seems as if Jeroboam was meant, not Abijah.

Verse 20. The Lord struck him — Either with vexation and horror of mind, or with some painful and lingering, but incurable disease, like that of Jehoram, which tormented him two years together, and at last killed him, 2 Chronicles 21:19. And he died — Not immediately, but a year or two after this time. He escaped the sword of Abijah; but there is no escaping God’s sword.

20. The Lord struck him, and he died — We have elsewhere no intimation that Jeroboam died suddenly or by any special stroke of Divine judgment. He outlived Abijah some two years. But probably the stroke here referred to, and that which hastened Jeroboam’s death, was the fearful prophecy of Ahijah, which foretold the utter extermination of Jeroboam’s house. Comp. 1 Kings 14:7-16.

V. 21. Married-Not after this victory, for he died presently after it, but in the whole time of his life.

Verse 21. Married fourteen wives] Probably he made alliances with the neighbouring powers, by taking their daughters to him for wives.

Verse 21. Abijah married fourteen wives — Not now after this victory, for he died soon after it; but in the whole time of his life, before he was king, and afterward.

Verse 22. Written in the story] vrdmb bemidrash, “in the commentary;” this, as far as I recollect, is the first place where a midrash or commentary is mentioned. The margin is right.

His ways, and his sayings] The commentary of the prophet Iddo is lost. What his sayings were we cannot tell; but from the specimen in this chapter, he appears to have been a very able speaker, and one who knew well how to make the best use of his argument.

II CHRONICLES

22. The story of the prophet Iddo — Rather, the midrash, or commentary of the prophet Iddo. A work apparently different from that “against Jeroboam,” (2 Chronicles 9:29,) and that “concerning genealogies,” (2 Chronicles 14:15,) by the same prophet. The name would seem to show that it was a prophetical work consisting of comments and moral reflections on the ways and acts of the king. See Introduction.