2 Chronicles 13:3

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

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 against Jeroboam. We need not scrupulously inquire into the lawfulness of this war, for this Abijah, though here he makes a fair flourish, and maintained the better cause, yet was indeed an ungodly man, , and therefore minded not the satisfaction of his conscience, but only the recovery of his parent’ s ancient dominions.

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.Ver. 3. And Abijah set the battle in array.] Josephus saith, that Jeroboam began the war, in hope to vanquish young Abijah; but Sethus Calvisius saith, that Abijah, rashly offering war to Jeroboam, yet obtained the victory, when he called upon God. Even four hundred thousand, &c.] Yet was this great army out numbered by Jeroboam’ s; so was Asa’ s six hundred thousand by Zera’ s million. Huge were the armies of the Jews, that small people in comparison: five hundred thousand - not fifty thousand only, as Ruffinus ill translateth Josephus - were slain on one side; the greatest number that ever we read of slain in any battle.

(3) Set the battle in array.—Began the battle. Vulg., “cumque iniisset Abia certanien” (1 Kings 20:14). Four hundred thousand chosen men.—In David’s census, Judah mustered 470,000 fighting men, and Israel 1,100,000, without reckoning Levi and Benjamin (1 Chronicles 21:5). The numbers of the verse present a yet closer agreement with the results of that census as reported in 2 Samuel 24:9; where, as here, the total strength of the Israelite warriors is given as 800,000, and that of Judah as 500,000. This correspondence makes it improbable that the figures have been falsified in transmission. (See Note on 2 Chronicles 13:17.) Jeroboam also set the battle in array.—While Jeroboam had drawn up against him. Vulg., instruxite contra aciem.

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 De Rossi had published his Variae Lectiones Veteris Testamenti; but from these works we find little help, as far as the Hebrew MSS. are concerned. One Hebrew MS., instead of ארבע מאות אלף arba meoth eleph, four hundred thousand, reads ארבע עשר אלף 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.

3–20 (no parallel in 1 Kin.). The Battle of Zemaraim The historical probabilities of this account are discussed in the Introduction, § 8.

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

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.