2 Chronicles 14:9

against them We should expect either against him(i.e. Asa) or against Judah. Perhaps this account has been torn out from some older document without regard to the context, so that the reference of themis lost. Cp. notes on 2 Chronicles 14:12-14.

Zerah the Ethiopian Rather, Zerah the Cushite ("man of Cush"). Gush (Genesis 10:7) was the ancestor of certain Arabian tribes (including Saba), and Arabians and Cushites ("Ethiopians" A.V., also R.V.) are mentioned as neighbours (2 Chronicles 21:16). It is therefore not improbable that the leader of the inroad was an Arabian (Sabean) and not an Ethiopian. Zerahperhaps represents Dhirrîh(Zirrîh), a title (meaning "the magnificent") of several of the oldest princes of Saba.

a thousand thousand This was an inroad of the "children of the East" who were formidable from sheer weight of numbers. We may gather from 2 Chronicles 16:8 that the original invaders, starting from South Arabia, were joined by other hordes as they drew near the border of Judah. The number a thousand thousandis probably meant to signify that the host was too great to number; it is not to be taken literally.

three hundred chariots The chariots, though comparatively few, are mentioned, (1) because Asa himself had none at all, (2) perhaps also because they represent an Egyptian contingent. This suggestion receives support from 2 Chronicles 16:8, where the Lubim (cp. 2 Chronicles 12:3) are associated with the Cushites in the invasion. The cowardly foreign policy of Egypt may have led her on this occasion to defend her own borders from the barbarian hordes, by encouraging them to invade her neighbour's territories.

The reading three hundredis supported by the LXX. and is probably right. The reading of the Pesh., "thirty thousand," and the wording of 2 Chronicles 16:8, "with very many chariots and horsemen," seem like a retouching of the narrative to make the number of the chariots and horsemen correspond with the number of the whole host.

Mareshah See note on 2 Chronicles 11:8.