2 Chronicles 15:19

And there was no more war unto the thirty fifth year of the reign of Asa.

For though there were continual skirmishes between Asa and Baasha and their people all their days, , yet it did not break forth into an open war till Asa’ s thirty-fifth year, i.e. till that was ended. But how this thirty-fifth year is to be computed, See Poole "".

2 Chronicles 15:19 And there was no [more] war unto the five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa.Ver. 19. Unto the five and thirtieth year,] sc., From the revolt of the ten tribes. See 2 Chronicles 16:8. The Septuagint corruptly here render, Unto the thirtieth year.

(19) And there was no more war unto the five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa.—Literally, and war arose not until, etc. This statement appears to refer back to 2 Chronicles 15:15 : “And the Lord gave them rest round about;” and so to assign the limit of that period of peace, which ensued after the defeat of Zeran. In 1 Kings 15:16 we find a different statement: “And war continued between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days,” a statement which is repeated in 1 Kings 15:32 of the same chapter. The chronicler has evidently modified the older text, in order to assign a precise date to the outbreak of active hostilities between the two monarchs. (Both 1 Kings 15:16 and the present 2 Chronicles 15:19 begin with the same two Hebrew words, meaning “and war was,” but the chronicler inserts a not).The verse of Kings need not imply more than that no amicable relations were ever established between the two sovereigns. They had inherited a state of war, although neither was in a condition to make an open attack upon the other for some years. The five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa.—This limit does not agree with the data of Kings (seo on 2 Chronicles 16:1). Thenius suggests that the letter l, denoting 30, got into the text originally, through some transcriber, who inadvertently wrote the l with which the next Hebrew word begins twice over. Later on, some other copyist naturally corrected 2 Chronicles 16:1, to agree with this. Assuming thus that the right readings here were originally the fifth and sixth years of the reign of Asa, Thenius concludes that in 2 Chronicles 16:1 the letter v (i.e., 6) has been shortened into y (10); and that Baasha’s attempt preceded the invasion of Zerah. The false dates probably existed already in the source which the chronicler followed.

Verse 19. The five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa] Archbishop Usher thinks that this should be counted from the separation of the kingdom, and that this fell on the fifteenth year of Asa's reign. To settle in every respect these chronologies is a most difficult undertaking; and the difficulty does not belong to the sacred books alone, all other chronological tables of all the nations in the world, are in the same predicament. With those of our own history I have often been puzzled, even while I had access to all the archives of the nation. Probably we should read here the five and twentieth year. See the margin, and 1Kg 15:16.

19. there was no more war] This statement can be reconciled with 1 Kings 15:16; 1 Kings 15:32 only by interpreting it broadly to mean that nothing serious occurred until the war with Baasha had been going on for several years.

The five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa - This cannot be reconciled with the chronqlogy of Kings 1 Kings 16:8 : and the suggestion in the marg.

19. No more war unto the five and thirtieth year of… Asa — This date, and also that of the next verse, (2 Chronicles 16:1,) is undoubtedly erroneous, for in the twenty-sixth year of Asa Baasha was