2 Chronicles 13:3

_AND ABIJAH SET THE BATTLE IN ARRAY WITH AN ARMY OF VALIANT MEN OF WAR, EVEN FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND CHOSEN MEN: JEROBOAM ALSO SET THE BATTLE IN ARRAY AGAINST HIM WITH EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND CHOSEN MEN, BEING MIGHTY MEN OF VALOUR._ Abijah set the battle in array - i:e., took the field and opened the campaign. WITH ... FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND CHOSEN MEN: JEROBOAM ... WITH EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND. These are doubtless large numbers, considering the smallness of the two kingdoms. It must be borne in mind however, that Oriental armies are mere mobs-vast numbers accompanying the camp in hope of plunder; so that the gross numbers described as going upon the Asiatic expedition are often far from denoting the exact number of fighting men. But in accounting for the large number of soldiers enlisted in the respective armies of Abijah and Jeroboam, there is no need of resorting to this mode of explanat...

Verse 2 Chronicles 13:3. _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...

It has been proposed to change the numbers, here and in 2 Chronicles 13:17, into 40,000, 80,000, and 50,000 respectively - partly because these smaller numbers are found in many early editions of the Vulgate, but mainly because the larger ones are thought to be incredible. The numbers accord well, however, with the census of the people taken in the reign of David 1 Chronicles 21:5, joined to the fact which the writer has related 2 Chronicles 11:13, of a considerable subsequent emigration from the northern kingdom into the southern one. The total adult male population at the time of the census was 1,570, 000. The total of the fighting men now is 1,200, 000. This wou

EXPOSITION The career of _Abijah _begins and ends with this chapter, the twenty-one verses of which are paralleled by only eight in 1 Kings 15:1. The difference is caused by the fact that the writer of Kings only mentions that there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam, while the writer of Chronicles, besides giving particulars of the war, rehearses the splendid, dramatic, rhetorical address and appeal of Abijah on Mount Zemaraim to the people of the ten tribes. 2 CHRONICLES 13:1 IN THE EIGHTEENTH YEAR. Reading this literally, it will appear that Rehoboam had completed a full seventeen years. 2 Chronicles 13:2

AND ABIJAH SET THE BATTLE IN ARRAY, WITH AN ARMY OF VALIANT MAN OF WAR, EVEN FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND CHOSEN MEN,.... Collected such an army of select men, led them into his enemy's country, and set them in order of battle: AND JEROBOAM ALSO SET THE BATTLE IN ARRAY AGAINST HIM, WITH EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND CHOSEN MEN, BEING MIGHTY MEN OF VALOUR; double the number of Abijah s army, he having ten tribes to collect out of, and Abijah but two....

CHAPTER 13 THE REIGN OF ABIJAH _ 1. The beginning of his reign (2 Chronicles 13:1)_ 2. War with Jeroboam (2 Chronicles 13:3) 3. Death of Jeroboam (2 Chronicles 13:20) 4. Abijah's family (2 Chronicles 13:21) Abijah is called in Kings, Abijam, and in 2 Chronicles 13:21, Abijahu (Hebrew text). His reign was not of a long duration; he outlived his father Rehoboam only three years. His mother was Maachah ...

THE REIGN OF ABIJAH. MOST of this section has nothing corresponding to it in 1 K., though references to the history of this reign occur in 1 Kings 15:1. 2 Chronicles 13:1 f. _Cf._ 1 Kings 15:1 f., where the name of Abijah's mother is given as Maacah; so, too, 2 Chronicles 11:20. 2 Chronicles 13:4 ff. The representation of Abijah here (contrast 1 Kings 15:3) as a God-fearing champion of the Levitical worship is

MEN OF. Hebrew. _gibbor._ App-14. FOUR HUNDRED... EIGHT HUNDRED. Note the steady increase of Judah and the decrease of Israel: Rehoboam could assemble 180,000; Abijah (eighteen years later), 400,000; Asa (six years later), 580,000; Jehoshaphat (thirty-two years later), 1,160, 000. On the other hand, with Israel, Jeroboam could assemble 800,000, while Ahab's army was compared to "two little flocks of kids" (1 Kings 20:27), which could not stand against the Syrians. This increase of Judah was caused by the constant emigration of Israelites from the ten tribes. See note on 1 Kings 12:17. MIGHTY MEN. Hebrew. _gibbor._ App-14....

_Abijah set the battle in array_ R.V. ABIJAH JOINED BATTLE. _four hundred thousand … eight hundred thousand_ It is to be noted that the Chronicler does _not_expressly say that these two huge armies met on one field of battle. In 2 Samuel 24:9 (David's numbering) the fighting men of Israel are given at 800,000 and the fighting men of Judah at 500,000. Similarly the Chronicler may mean to state here the whole armed strength of Israel and Judah without committing himself to the number of those who actually took the field. The language is not precise, for the Chronicler is little interested in military details. It should be noted, moreover, that the numbers precede the mention of the battlefield, and therefore are not _necessarily_to be included in the account of the fight. Similarly it is to be noted that the Chronicler does _not_say in...

EVEN FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND CHOSEN MEN— Houbigant thinks the numbers right in this and the 17th verse. Dr. Kennicott observes upon them as follows: "It is probable, that the Hebrew numbers may have been anciently expressed by marks, analogous to our common figures; for, indeed, several numbers seem greatly corrupted from the addition or subtraction of a cypher; and the numbers of this very passage, instead of 400,000, and 800,000, and 500,000, were probably at first 40,000, 80,000 and 50,000. On a particular examination of the Latin or Vulgate version, it appears that the number of chosen men here slain, which the Vulgate of Clement's edition in 1592 determines to be 500,000, the Vulgate of Sextus, printed two years before, determined to be only 50,000; and the two preceding numbers in the edition of Sextus are 40,000, and 80,000, and that of Clement 400,000 and 800,000. As to different p...