In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam, Abijah began to reign over Judah. He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.
Show the surrounding paragraph
2 Chronicles 13:1-2 sits inside this longer paragraph.
In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam, Abijah began to reign over Judah. He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. Abijah joined battle with an army of valiant men of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men; and Jeroboam set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men, who were mighty men of valor. Abijah stood up on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, “Hear me, Jeroboam and all Israel: Ought you not to know that Yahweh, the God of Israel, gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt? Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up, and rebelled against his lord. Worthless men were gathered to him, wicked fellows who strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tender hearted, and could not withstand them.
Parallel Translations
-
In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam, Abijah began to reign over Judah.
He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.
-
Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah.
He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Michaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.
Show all 3 translations
-
In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah.
Three years reigned he in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (9)
- 2 Chronicles 11:20 (v2) After her, he took Maacah the daughter of Absalom; and she bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.
- 1 Kings 15:6-7 (v2) Now there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. The rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, aren’t they…
- 2 Chronicles 12:16 (v1) Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in David’s city; and Abijah his son reigned in his place.
- Joshua 18:28 (v2) Zelah, Eleph, the Jebusite (also called Jerusalem), Gibeath, and Kiriath; fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of…
- Judges 19:14 (v2) So they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.
Show all 9 cross-references
- Judges 19:16 (v2) Behold, an old man came from his work out of the field at evening. Now the man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he lived in…
- 1 Samuel 10:26 (v2) Saul also went to his house to Gibeah; and the army went with him, whose hearts God had touched.
- 1 Kings 15:1-8 (v1) Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah. He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His…
- 1 Kings 15:2 (v2) He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (22 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–2 He meaneth Judah and Benjamin.
He meaneth Judah and Benjamin.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–2 2Ch 13:1 Now in the eighteenth year of king…
2Ch 13:1 Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah.
Ver. 1. Now in the eighteenth year.] See 1Ki 15:1-2.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On v2 Michaiah the daughter of Uriel, called Maachah the daughter…
Michaiah the daughter of Uriel, called Maachah the daughter of Absalom, 1Ki 15:2. She might be daughter to one, and granddaughter to the other; or the proper and natural daughter of the, one, and the other’s by adoption, of which there are instances in Scripture; or the same person might be called Uriel and Absalom: see 1Ki 15:2.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 Abijah's mother was called Maachah, the daughter of Absalom,…
Abijah's mother was called Maachah, the daughter of Absalom, Ch2 11:20; here she is called Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel. It is most probable that she was a grand-daughter of Absalom, by his daughter Tamar (Sa2 14:27), and that her immediate father was this Uriel. But we are here to attend Abijah into the field of battle with Jeroboam king of Israel.
I. God gave him leave to engage with Jeroboam, and owned him in the conflict, though he would not permit Rehoboam to do it, Ch2 11:4. 1. Jeroboam, it is probable, was now the aggressor, and what Abijah did was in his own necessary defence. Jeroboam, it may be, happening to survive Rehoboam, claimed the crown of Judah be survivorship, at least hoped to get it from this young king, upon his accession to the throne. Against these impudent pretensions it was brave in Abijah to take up arms, and God stood by him. 2. When Rehoboam attempted to recover his ten tribes Jeroboam was upon his good behaviour, and there must be some trial of him; but now that he had discovered what manner of man he was, by setting up the calves and casting off the priests, Abijah is allowed to chastise him, and it does not appear that he intended any more; whereas Rehoboam aimed at no less than the utter reduction of the ten tribes, which was contrary to the counsel of God.
Read full note →
II. Jeroboam's army was double in number to that of Abijah (Ch2 13:3), for he had ten tribes to raise an army out of, while Abijah had but two. Of the army on both sides it is said, they were mighty men, chosen men, and valiant; but the army of Judah consisted only of 400,000, while Jeroboam's army amounted to 800,000. The inferior number however proved victorious; for the battle is not always to the strong nor the cause to the majority.
III. Abijah, before he fought them, reasoned with them, to persuade them, though not to return to the house of David (that matter was settled by the divine determination and he acquiesced), yet to desist from fighting against the house of David. He would not have them withstand the kingdom of the Lord in the hands of the sons of David (Ch2 13:8), but at least to be content with what they had. Note, It is good to try reason before we use force. If the point may be gained by dint of argument, better so than by dint of sword. We must never fly to violent methods till all the arts of persuasion have been tried in vain. War must be the ultima ratio regum - the last resort of kings. Fair reasoning may do a great deal of good and prevent a good deal of mischief. How forcible are right words! Abijah had got with his army into the heart of their country; for he made this speech upon a hill in Mount Ephraim, where he might be heard by Jeroboam and the principal officers, with whom it is probable he desired to have a treaty, to which they consented. It has been usual for great generals to make speeches to their soldiers to animate them, and this speech of Abijah had some tendency to do this, but was directed to Jeroboam and all Israel. Two things Abijah undertakes to make out, for the satisfaction of his own men and the conviction of the enemy: -
1. That he had right on his side, a jus divinum - a divine right: "You know, or ought to know, that God gave the kingdom to David and his sons for ever" (Ch2 13:5), not by common providence, his usual way of disposing of kingdoms, but by a covenant of salt, a lasting covenant, a covenant made by sacrifice, which was always salted; so bishop Patrick. All Israel had owned that David was a king of God's making, and that God had entailed the crown upon his family; so that Jeroboam's taking the crown of Israel at first was not justifiable: yet it is not certain that Abijah referred chiefly to that, for he knew that Jeroboam had a grant from God of the ten tribes. His attempt, however, to disturb the peace and possession of the king of Judah was by no means excusable; for when the ten tribes were given to him two were reserved for the house of David. Abijah shows, (1.) That there was a great deal of dishonesty and disingenuousness in Jeroboam's first setting himself up: He rebelled against his lord (Ch2 13:6) who had preferred him (Kg1 11:28), and basely took advantage of Rehoboam's weakness in a critical juncture, when, in gratitude to his old master and in justice to his title, he ought rather to have stood by him, and helped to secure the people in their allegiance to him, than to head a party against him and make a prey of him, which was unworthily done and what he could not expect to prosper in. Those that supported him are here called vain men (a character perhaps borrowed from Jdg 11:3), men that did not act from any steady principle, but were given to change, and men of Belial, that were for shaking off the yoke of government and setting those over them that would do just as they would have them do. (2.) That there was a great deal of impiety in his present attempt; for, in fighting against the house of David, he fought against the kingdom of the Lord. Those who oppose right oppose the righteous God who sits in the throne judging right, and cannot promise themselves success in so doing. Right may indeed go by the worst for a time, but it will prevail at last.
2. That he had God on his side. This he insisted much upon, that the religion of Jeroboam and his army was false and idolatrous, but that he and his people, the men of Judah, had the pure worship of the true and living God among them. It appears from the character given of Abijah (Kg1 15:3) that he was not himself in this war chiefly from the religion of his kingdom. For, (1.) Whatever he was otherwise, it should seem that he was no idolator, or, if he connived at the high places and images (Ch2 14:3, Ch2 14:5), yet he constantly kept up the temple-service. (2.) Whatever corruptions there were in the kingdom of Judah, the state of religion among them was better than in the kingdom of Israel, with which they were now contending. (3.) It is common for those that deny the power of godliness to boast of the form of it. (4.) It was the cause of his kingdom that he was pleading; and, though he was not himself so good as he should have been, yet he hoped that, for the sake of the good men and good things that were in Judah, God would now appear for them. Many that have little religion themselves yet have so much sense and grace as to value it in others. See how he describes, [1.] The apostasy of Israel from God. "You are a great multitude," said he, "far superior to us in number; but we need not fear you, for you have that among yourselves which is enough to ruin you. For," First, "You have calves for your gods (Ch2 13:8), that are unable to protect and help you and will certainly cause the true and living God to oppose you. Those will be Achans, troublers of your camp." Secondly, "You have base men for your priests, Ch2 13:9. You have cast off the tribes of Levi, and the house of Aaron, whom God appointed to minister in holy things; and, in conformity to the custom of the idolatrous nations, make any man a priest that has a mind to the office and will be at the charge of the consecration, though ever so much a scandal to the office." Yet such, though very unfit to be priests, were fittest of all to be their priests; for what more agreeable to gods that were no gods than priests that were no priests? Like to like, both pretenders and usurpers. [2.] The adherence of Judah to God: "But as for us (Ch2 13:10) we have not forsaken God. Jehovah is our God, the God of our fathers, the God of Israel, who is able to protect us, and give us success. He is with us, for we are with him." First, "At home in his temple: We keep his charge, Ch2 13:10, Ch2 13:11. We worship no images, have no priests but what 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. These we have the comfort of, these we now stand up in the defence of: so that upon a religious as well as a civil account we have the better cause. Secondly, Here in the camp; he is our captain, and we may therefore be sure that he is with us, because we are with him, Ch2 13:12. 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;" for so this sacred signal is explained, Num 10:9. Nothing is more effectual to embolden men, and put spirit into them, than to be sure that God is with them and fights for them. He concludes with fair warning to his enemies. "Fight 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."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam began…
Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah.; see Gill on Kg1 15:1.
.
Read full note →
2 Chronicles 13:2
ch2 13:2
ch2 13:2
ch2 13:2He reigned three years in Jerusalem,.... See Gill on Kg1 15:2,
his mother's name also was Michaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah; see Ch2 11:20; see Gill on Kg1 15:2.
and there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam; and in this chapter is an account of a battle fought between them, not recorded in the book of Kings.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v1 Abijah sets the battle in array against Jeroboam, ver.…
Abijah sets the battle in array against Jeroboam, ver. 1-3. He declares the justice of his cause, ver. 4-12. Trusts in God and gains the victory, ver. 13-20. His wives and children, ver. 21. 22.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Abijah begins to reign over Judah, and has war…
CHAPTER XIII
Abijah begins to reign over Judah, and has war with Jeroboam,
Read full note →
1-3.
His speech from Mount Zemaraim to Jeroboam, before the
commencement of hostilities, 4-12.
While thus engaged, Jeroboam despatches some troops which come
on the rear of Abijah's army, 13.
Perceiving this, they cry unto the Lord, and the Israelites are
defeated with the loss of five hundred thousand men, 14-18.
Abijah retakes several cities from Jeroboam, who is smitten by
the Lord, and dies, 19, 20.
Abijah's marriages and issue, 21, 22.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIII
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v2 2Ch 13:2. His mother’s name was Michaiah, the daughter…
2Ch 13:2. His mother’s name was Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel —
Called Maachah, the daughter of Absalom, 1Ki 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.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–2 The history of Abijah’s reign is here related far…
The history of Abijah’s reign is here related far more fully than in Kings (marginal reference), especially as regards his war with Jeroboam.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v2 Michaia, alias Maacha. Her father had also two names;…
Michaia, alias Maacha. Her father had also two names; viz., Absalom or Abessalom, and Uriel. (Challoner) --- Many had two names. (Tirinus) --- Of Gabaa, may refer to the women.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 b. Abijah.—Ch. 13
b. Abijah.—Ch. 13
2Ch_13:1 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah. 2He reigned three years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Michaiah,1 daughter of Uriel of Gibeah.
Read full note →
3And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. And Abijah began the war with an army of valiant warriors, four hundred thousand chosen men: and Jeroboam prepared war against him with eight hundred thousand chosen 4men, valiant in might. And Abijah arose on Mount Zemaraim, which is in 5Mount Ephraim, and said, Hear me, Jeroboam and all Israel. Do you not know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David 6for ever, to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt? And Jeroboam son of Nebat, servant of Solomon son of David, arose and rebelled against his 7master. And vain men, of no account, gathered unto him, and withstood Rehoboam son of Solomon; and Rehoboam was young and weak of heart, and held not out against them. 8And now ye are saying that ye will hold out against the kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David; and ye are a great multitude, and with you are golden calves, which Jeroboam made you for gods. 9Have ye not cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made you priests like the nations of the lands? whosoever cometh to fill his hand with a young steer and seven rams is a 10priest to them that are no gods. And we, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken Him; and the priests that minister to the Lord are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites in their business. 11And they burn unto the Lord burnt-offerings every morning and every evening, and incense of spices, and laying of bread on the pure table, and the candlestick of gold and its lamps to burn every evening: for we keep the charge of the Lord our God; but ye 12have forsaken Him. And behold, with us, at our head, are God and His priests, and the clanging trumpets to sound against you: sons of Israel, fight not against the Lord God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper.
13And Jeroboam led round an ambush to come behind them; and they were 14before Judah, and the ambush was behind them. And Judah turned, and behold they had the battle before and behind; and they cried unto the Lord, 15and the priests sounded with the trumpets. And the men of Judah shouted; and when the men of Judah shouted, God smote Jeroboam and all Israel 16before Abijah and Judah. And the sons of Israel fled before Judah; and God gave them into their hand. 17And Abijah and his people smote them with a great slaughter; and there fell slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen 18men. And the sons of Israel were humbled at that time; and the sons of Judah prevailed, because they trusted in the Lord God of their fathers. 19And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam, and took cities from him: Bethel and her daughters, and Jeshanah2 and her daughters, and Ephron3 and her 20daughters. And Jeroboam had no more strength in the days of Abijah; and 21the Lord smote him, and he died. And Abijah strengthened himself, and took to him fourteen wives, and begat twenty and two sons and sixteen daughters. 22And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his words, 23are written in the commentary of the prophet Iddo. And Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David; and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years.
c. Asa. The Prophets Azariah Son of Oded and Hanani.—Ch. 14–16
α. Asa’s Theocratic Zeal and Care for the Defence of the Kingdom: 2Ch_14:1-7
2Ch_14:1.And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord 2his God. And he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high 3places, and brake the pillars, and cut down the Asherim. And commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law and the 4commandment. And he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun-statues: and the kingdom was quiet before him.
5And he built fenced cities in Judah; for the land had rest, and there was 6no war with him in those days; for the Lord gave him rest. And he said to Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls and towers, gates and bars, and the land is yet before us; because we have sought the Lord our God, and He hath given us rest around: and they built and prospered. 7And Asa had an army, bearing shield and spear, out of Judah three hundred thousand, and out of Benjamin, bearing shield and drawing bow, two hundred and eighty thousand: all these were men of valour.
β. Asa’s Victory over Zerah the Ethiopian: 2Ch_14:8-14
8And Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with a host of a thousand 9thousand, and three hundred chariots; and he came to Mareshah. And Asa went out against him, and they joined battle in the valley of Zephathah at 10Mareshah. And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, no one is nigh Thee to help with the mighty or with no might; help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on Thee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude: 11O Lord, Thou art our God; no man may hold out against Thee. And the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians 12fled. And Asa, and the people that were with him, pursued them unto Gerar: and the Ethiopians fell, so that there was no recovery; for they were broken before the Lord, and before His host; and they carried off very great 13spoil. And they smote all the cities round Gerar; for the terror of the Lord 14was upon them. And they smote also the tents of cattle, and took sheep in abundance, and camels, and returned to Jerusalem.
γ. The Prophetic Warning of Azariah Son of Oded: 2Ch_15:1-7
2Ch_15:1-2.And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded. And he went forth before Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; the Lord is with you, while ye are with Him; and if ye seek Him, He will be found of you; and if ye forsake Him, He will forsake you. 3And many days will be to Israel without the true God, and without a teaching 4priest, and without a law. And he shall return in his trouble unto the Lord God of Israel, and seek Him, and He shall be found of him. 5And in those times is no peace for him that goeth out or cometh in, but great vexations 6on all the inhabitants of the lands. And nation shall be smitten4 by 7nation, and city by city; for God hath vexed them with all trouble. But be ye brave, and let not your hands be slack; for there is a reward for your labour.
δ. Asa’s Reform of Worship, and Renewal of Covenant with the Lord: 2Ch_15:8-19
8And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded5 the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from Mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the Lord, that was before the porch of the Lord. 9And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them, out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon; for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. 10And they gathered at Jerusalem, in the third month of the fifteenth year of 11the reign of Asa. And they sacrificed to the Lord in that day, of the spoil they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. 12And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their 13heart, and with all their soul. And whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, small or great, man or woman. 14And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with clangour, and with trumpets and cornets. 15And all Judah was glad at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought Him with their whole desire, and He was found of 16them: and the Lord gave them rest round about. And also Maachah, the mother of Asa the king, he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol for Asherah: and Asa cut down her idol, and crushed it, and burnt it in the brook Kidron. 17But the high places were not taken away out of Israel; but the heart of Asa was perfect all his days. 18And he brought the things which his father and himself had consecrated into the house of God, silver and gold, and vessels. 19And there was no more war unto the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.
ε. The War with Baasha of Israel: 2Ch_16:1-6
2Ch_16:1.In the thirty-sixth year6 of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built Ramah, to let no one come out or go in to 2Asa king of Judah. And Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord, and of the king’s house, and sent to Benhadad king 3of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus,7 saying: A league is between me and thee, and between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent thee silver and gold; go, break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me. 4And Benhadad hearkened unto King Asa, and sent the captains of his army against the cities of Israel; and they smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abelmaim, 5and all the stores of the cities of Naphtali. And when Baasha heard 6it, he left off building of Ramah, and let his work cease. And Asa the king took all Judah, and carried away the stones of Ramah, and its timber, with which Baasha had built, and built therewith Geba and Mizpah.
ζ. Hanani’s Prophetic Warning: Asa’s Transgression and End: 2Ch_16:7-14
7And at that time came Hanani the seer to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped from thy hand. 8Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubites a huge host, in chariots and horsemen very many? and when thou didst rely on the Lord, He gave them into thy hand. 9For the eyes of the Lord run throughout all the earth, to prove Himself strong for those whose heart relies wholly on Him: thou 10hast done foolishly in this; for henceforth thou shalt have wars. And Asa was displeased with the seer, and put him in the prison; for he was in a rage with him because of this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time.
11And, behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, behold, they are written in 12the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And Asa, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, was diseased in his feet, until his disease was very great: and in his disease also he sought not the Lord, but to the physicians. 13And Asa slept with his fathers; and he died in the forty-first year of his reign. 14And they buried him in his own tomb, which he had dug for himself in the city of David; and they laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours of divers kinds, compounded by art; and they made a very great burning for him.
EXEGETICAL
The histories of both reigns, that of Abijah and that of Asa, are presented here in a very extended form, when compared with the parallel accounts in 1Ki_15:1-24; and in particular, there are several discourses of a prophetic nature in the history of Abijah, one addressed by this king himself on Mount Zemaraim to Jeroboam and the army of Israel (ch 13:4–12), and in that of Asa, the warnings of the seers Azariah son of Oded and Hanani (2Ch_15:2-7; 2Ch_16:7-10), by the insertion of which the Chronist has considerably enlarged his account. But with respect to the history of war and worship, his representation is a far richer gain from the ancient sources than that preserved in 1 Kings 15.
I. Abijah: 2 Chronicles 13; comp. 1Ki_15:1-8.—In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam. This date of the beginning of Abijah’s reign is also given in 1 Kings, and also the three years’ duration of his reign (he is, moreover, always called אֲבִיָּם; see on 2Ch_11:22).—And his mother’s name was Michaiah, daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. As Abijah’s mother is called Maachah, not merely 2Ch_11:20 ff., but also 1Ki_15:2, the present name מִיכָיָהוּ must be regarded as a mistake for the original מַֽעֲכָה. Her father, Uriel of Gibeah, is to be regarded as the husband of Tamer the daughter of Absalom, and herself, therefore, as the grand-daughter of the latter; see on 2Ch_11:20. From the Maachah, further mentioned 2Ch_15:16 (and 1Ki_15:13), the mother of Asa, whom he removed from the dignity of a gebirah (mistress, Sultana Walide, queen-mother) for her idolatry, she is scarcely to be considered different; rather is her designation there as mother to be supposed = grandmother, and her continued regency under her grandson Asa is to be explained simply from the brief duration of Abijah’s reign, and the probable minority of Asa at his death (comp. Athaliah’s attempt to reign instead of her grandson Joash, 2 Chronicles 22). Against the assumption by Thenius and Bertheau of the diversity of the two Maachahs (of whom the mother of Abijah was the daughter of Absalom, but the mother of Asa in reality the one who is here falsely called “a daughter of Uriel of Gibeah”), see Keil, p. 261, Rem.
2Ch_13:3 ff. Abijah’s War with Jeroboam.—And Abijah began the war with … 400,000 chosen men. Neither this number nor the double number of the warriors of Jeroboam should be taken strictly, as is abundantly clear from the substantial agreement of both numbers with the results of Joab’s enumeration under David (800,000 men-at-arms of Israel and 500,000 of Judah; comp. 1 Chronicles 21). Less probable is the assumption of an error in transcription, resting on a change of the numeral letters, as the cause of these almost incredibly high numbers (Kennicott, Dissert. Gen. § 27; J. Pye-Smith, The Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, 6th edit. vol. 1. p. 29); for to explain the fact in this way, we must assume several such mistakes or corruptions in similar circumstances, which would be very strange. Comp. also on 2 Chronicles 17, and Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 3.
2Ch_13:4. And Abijah arose on Mount Zemaraim, obviously a steep cliff or summit lying between the contending armies, from which the king addressed the foe in like manner as Jotham once addressed the Shechemites from Mount Gerizim, Jdg_9:7. That every single warrior of the host of Israel, numbering several hundred thousands, could have heard his words is not said, and need not be assumed. The situation of Mount Zemarami is no longer to be ascertained. It was probably in the neighbourhood of Bethel, near which is a town, Jos_18:22, named צְמָרַיִם (Zemaraim), the ruins of which may have been found in el Sumra, between Jerusalem and Jericho, near the valley of the Jordan. At all events, the locality should be sought east of Bethel (Robinson, Phys. Geogr. of the Holy Land, p. 38), and this el Sumra may lie too far in a south-easterly direction.
2Ch_13:5. Do you not know, literally, “Is it not to you, concerns it not you, to know?” comp., for example, 1Ch_13:4.—That the Lord … gave … to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt, by an irrevocable covenant; comp. Lev_2:13; Num_18:19. בְּרִית מֶלַח belongs to the whole sentence, as accusative of restriction (therefore: “in the manner of a covenant of salt”).
2Ch_13:7. And vain men, of no account, gathered unto him, properly, “sons of worthlessness, children of Belial,” a phrase occurring not elsewhere in Chronicles, but again in 1Ki_21:10; 1Ki_21:13. On א׳ רֵקִים, “loose, fickle men,” comp. Jdg_9:4; Jdg_11:3.—And withstood Rehoboam, “showed themselves strong against him” (הִתְאַמִּיץ עַל); comp. the (הִתְחַזֵּק לִפְנֵי) resistance afterwards shown on the part of Rehoboam to this opposition.—Rehoboam was young and weak of heart, faint-hearted, unstable. The term נַעַר, young, used of Rehoboam when already king, appears not specially to favour the former statement (2Ch_12:13) that he was then forty-one years old, and to require the change of this age into twenty-one years. Moreover, Abijah relates in this his speech the events in the revolt of the ten tribes from Rehoboam in a very inexact way (Rehoboam did not show himself “weak of heart” on that occasion, but rather hard and daring of heart, etc.); for he clearly wishes “to justify his father as far as possible, and roll all the blame of the revolt of the ten tribes on Jeroboam and his worthless followers” (Keil).
2Ch_13:8. The kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David, the theocratic kingdom founded by David, and hereditary in his house (comp. 1Ch_29:23 and the like).
2Ch_13:9. Have ye not … made you priests like the nations of the lands, not divinely called, but only humanly chosen, priests, like those of heathendom; comp. 1Ki_12:31.—Whosoever cometh to fill his hand, that is, institute and consecrate himself priest of the new worship; comp. Exo_28:41; Exo_29:9; Exo_32:29; see 1Ki_13:33. The following words: “with a young steer (literally, with a steer the son of the herd, and seven rams,” belong not so much to “fill” as to “cometh” (בּוֹא בְ, as Psa_40:8). As according to Exodus 29 the offerings to be made on the consecration of a priest consisted of a young steer as a sin-offering, a ram as a burnt-offering, and a ram of consecration, and this presented on seven days in succession (thus in all seven steers and fourteen rams), the offering appears here to be imperfectly stated, not on account of an inaccurate report, but because Abijah might know that in fact there had been a considerable deviation from the strict requirements of the law, in order the more speedily to obtain a new priesthood. Indeed, it was a priesthood of non-gods or ungods (comp. Deu_32:21) which was so founded.
2Ch_13:10. And the Levites in their business (“in the business,” במלאכת), performing their office in the legal way; comp. 1Ch_23:28 ff.
2Ch_13:11. Burn unto the Lord burntofferings, “fumigate, turn into smoke,” הִקְטִיר, which is then zeugmatically connected with the laying of the shew-bread and the lighting of the lamps, which are also parts of the priestly office. On these various priestly functions, that are then combined as a “keeping of the charge of the Lord” (Lev_8:35), comp. Exo_29:38 ff; Exo_25:30 ff; Exo_27:20 ff.; Lev_24:7 ff.
2Ch_13:12. The clanging trumpets to sound are made prominent, because God had expressly designated them in the law as the pledges on account of which He would remember and help His people in war, Num_10:9.
2Ch_13:13 ff. Judah’s Victory over the Superior Force of Israel.—To come behind them; comp. Jos_8:2; Jdg_20:29 ff.
2Ch_13:15. And the men of Judah shouted. Keil rightly says: “In וַיִָּריעוּ and בְּהָרִיעַ the loud cry of the warriors and the clanging of the priests with the trumpets are combined, and הָרִיעַ is to be referred neither alone to the war-cry of the combatants assailing the enemy, nor, with Berth. (and Kamph.), to the blowing of the clanging trumpets;” comp. also Jdg_7:19 ff. (Gideon in the conflict with the Midianites).
2Ch_13:17. Smote them with a great slaughter; for the phrase, see Num_11:33; Jos_10:30. For the number 500,000, which appears inconceivably great as the number of those who fell in the one field at Zemaraim, comp. Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 3.
2Ch_13:18. The sons of Israel were humbled (comp. נבנע in 2Ch_12:6 f.), or “weakened” by their enormous loss (comp. Jdg_3:30; Jdg_8:28; 1Sa_7:13).
2Ch_13:19. Bethel and her daughters, her daughter towns; comp. Neh_11:25. Besides this border city of south Israel, well known from Gen_12:8; Gen_28:19; Gen_35:15, Jos_7:12, etc. (the present Beitin), are named the otherwise unknown Jeshanah (or Jesyna; comp. Crit. Note), and an Ephron, as cities taken by Abijah from the conquered. The last has scarcely anything but the name common with Mount Ephron on the south border of Benjamin (Jos_15:9), but should probably be identified with Ophrah near Bethel (Jdg_6:11), or the town Ephraim situated there, mentioned Josh. 11:54 (comp. Josephus, B. J. iv. 9. 9), especially if we are to read עֶפְרַיִן, with the Masorah; see Crit. Note.
2Ch_13:20. And Jeroboam had no more strength; עצַר כֹּחַ, as 2Ch_20:37; 1Ch_29:14.—And the Lord smote him, and he died, not “snatched him away by a sudden death” (of which nothing is known from 1 Kings), but “smote him, visited him with misfortune (comp. נגף in 2Ch_13:15 and 2Ch_21:18) till his death,” referring probably to that which is related in 1Ki_14:1-18.
2Ch_13:21 ff. Family History of Abijah; his End.—And Abijah strengthened himself (התחזק, as 2Ch_12:13), and took to him fourteen wives. Comp. the Evangelical and Ethical Reflections in the previous section, No. 3. Abijah must have had most of these fourteen wives before he ascended the throne, or at least before his war with Jeroboam. That he took them after the war follows only apparently from the position in the narrative, which has no chronologic import.
2Ch_13:22. Are written in the commentary of the prophet Iddo. Comp. on this source of our author, Introd. § 5, II. p. 17.
2 Chronicles 13:23. And Asa . . . in his days the land was quiet ten years, in consequence of the great victory of his father over Jeroboam, and the weakening of the northern kingdom thereby occasioned; comp. 2Ch_14:4-5; 2Ch_15:19.
II. Asa: 1. His Theocratic Zeal and Care for the Defence of the Kingdom: 2Ch_14:1-7; comp. 1Ki_15:9-12; 1Ki_15:14-15.—And Asa did that which was good and right; comp. 2Ch_31:20.
2Ch_14:2. Took away the altars of the strange gods, consecrated to strange gods, of the idolatrous foreign countries; comp. Gen_35:2; Gen_35:4. That only these, and not also “high places,” or illegal places of sacrifice consecrated to Jehovah, were removed by him, is clear from 2Ch_15:17.—And brake the pillars, the memorial stones erected to Baal (מַצֵּבוֹת); comp. Exo_34:13; Jdg_3:7; 2Ki_3:2. Likewise the “Asherim,” wooden posts and holy frees consecrated to Astarte; comp. 1Ki_14:23, and Bähr on the passage.—On 2Ch_14:3, comp. 2Ch_15:12.
2Ch_14:4. And he took away . . . the high places and the sun-statues; חַמָּנִים, the statues before the altars of Baal, consecrated to him as the sun-god; comp. 2Ch_34:4; Lev_26:30; Movers, Die Phönizier, i. 343 ff.—And the kingdom was quiet before him, that is, under him, under his eye (לְפָנָיו); comp. Num_8:22; Psa_72:5; Pro_4:3.
2Ch_14:5. Built fenced cities in Judah . . . in those days, during this quiet of ten years. Comp. Rehoboam’s fortifications, 2Ch_11:5 ff.
2Ch_14:6. Let us build these cities. What cities? It is not said; but certainly Geba and Mizpah, which were built after the war with Baasha (2Ch_16:6). Asa assigns as the motive for these buildings: “the land is yet before us,” free, open to us, unoccupied by the foe; comp. Gen_13:9.—And they built and prospered. Vulg. very free, yet in substance correct; nullumque in exstruendo impedimentum fuit.
2Ch_14:7. Bearing shield and spear. The great or long shield (צִנָּה) is here meant, in opposition to the short or round shield (מָגֵן) then mentioned; the same difference as in 2Ch_9:15-16. That the Jews had exclusively only long shields and spears, and the Benjamites only short shields and bows, as armour, need not be assumed; the representation is only relative, summary, and not to be pressed, as also the numbers (300,000 of the Jews and 280,000 of the Benjamites) are obviously only round. They are, moreover, so far as the whole population fit to bear arms is concerned, by no means incredible. With respect to the comparatively high number of 280,000 Benjamites, we are to consider not only their lighter armour (which might be borne by younger and weaker men), but also that Benjamin was an eminently warlike tribe, “a ravening wolf” according to Jacob’s prophetic word, Gen_49:27, that must have taken the field with all possible force. Comp. also on 1Ch_7:6-11, and the Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 3.
2. Asa’s Victory over Zerah the Ethiopian: 2Ch_14:8-14, a section wanting in Kings.—And Zerah the Ethiopian came out against him. This Zerah (Sept. Ζαρέ; Vulg. Zara) counts with most recent expositors, on account of the similarity of name, as the same with the Egyptian King Osorchon I., successor of Shishak-Sesonchis, and so the second king of the twenty-second or Bubastite Dynasty (comp. Unger, Manetho, p. 233; Thenius on 1Ki_15:23); whereas Hitzig rather identifies him with the Sabakos of Herodotus (Gesch. des V. Isr. p. 165 f.; comp. Herod, II. 137 ff., 152), but Brugsch takes him for an Ethiopian, not Egyptian, ruler, who, under the reign of Takeloth I. (about 944 b.c.), invaded the southwest of Asia and Egypt as a conqueror. The last assumption certainly agrees best, as well with the Biblical chronology as with the designation of Zerah as a Kushite.—With a host of 1,000,000. On this number, as scarcely to be pressed, but rather depending on a rough and ideal estimate, see the Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 3.—And he came to Mareshah, mentioned in 2Ch_11:9, between Hebron and Ashdod.
2Ch_14:9. And Asa went out against him, literally, “before him”; comp. 15:2; 1Ch_19:14; 1Ch_14:8.—In the valley of Zephathah, scarcely = Tell es Safieh (Robinson, Pal. ii. 625), but a place nearer Mareshah, perhaps that described by Robinson, II. 613.
2Ch_14:10. Lord, no one is nigh Thee to help, no one is able like Thee (literally, “with Thee”; comp. 2Ch_20:6; Psa_73:25) to help.—With the mighty, or with no might, “between the mighty and the impotent” (בֵּין with לְ following, as Gen_1:13, etc.); the help of God is conceived as imparted either to the mighty or the weak, and therefore as between both. Some conceive the passage otherwise; Vulg., Ramb., S. Schmidt, etc.: Domine, non est apud te ulla distantia utrum in paucis auxilieris an in pluribus; Berth., Keil, etc.: “No other than Thou can help in an unequal combat, that is, help the weaker part;” Kamph. (writing conjecturally לָעְצֹר for לַעְזֹר): “It is impossible that anything could prevail (עָצַר כֹּחַ, as 2Ch_13:20, etc.), whether the mighty or the weak.” Substantially correct, though inexact, Luther: “It is no difference with Thee to help among many, or where there is no power.”—In Thy name we go against this multitude, trusting to Thy help.—No man may hold out against Thee. For the omission of כֹּחַ with עצר, comp. 2Ch_20:37 (1Ch_29:14; 2 Chron. 13:25). On the sentence, comp. (partly at least) Psa_9:20 a.
2Ch_14:12. And Asa . . . pursued them unto Gerar, the old Philistine city, now Khirbet el Gerar, three and a half hours south-east of Gaza.—And the Ethiopians fell, so that there was no recovery, not “so that there was none left living” (Berth., Kamph., etc), but so that they could not rally, ut eis vivificatio, i. e. copias restaurandi ratio non esset (J. H. Mich., Keil, etc.). לְאֵין stands for אֵין of the older style, in the sense of “so that not” (comp. Ew. § 315, c). מִחְיָה, preservation of life, revival, as Gen_45:5; Ezr_9:8-9.—For they were broken (נִשְׁבַּר, as Eze_30:8) before the Lord, and before His host; Asa’s army is here so called as the instrument of the divine justice against the haughty foe. To think of a host of angels that had contended invisibly on the side of the Jews (Starke and other older writers, with allusion to Gen_32:2 f.) is without any warrant, as the term מַֽחֲנֶה, especially in the singular, stands for a single earthly army.
2Ch_14:13. And they smote all the cities around Gerar, probably because, like the Philistines generally, they had made common cause with the Cushites, and joined them against the Jews.—For the terror of the Lord, a terror occasioned by the Lord, and therefore the more powerful; comp. 17:10, 20:29; 1Sa_11:7.
2Ch_14:14. And they smote also the tents of cattle, the herds of the nomad tribes in the neighbourhood of Gerar (in the northern regions of the wilderness of Shur and Paran, the old country of the Amalekites).
3. Prophetic Warning of Azariah Son of Oded to Asa returning Home: 2Ch_15:1-7 (likewise peculiar to Chronicles).—Upon Azariah son of Oded. The names of both father and son occur only here: the identification of Oded with Iddo (2Ch_9:29; 2Ch_12:15) is an idle fancy of some ancients.
2Ch_15:2. Before Asa, to meet him; comp. on 2Ch_14:9.—The Lord is with you, while you are with Him. Comp. Jam_4:8; and with respect to the following sentence, 1Ch_28:9; 2Ch_12:5; 2Ch_24:20; Jer_29:13.
2Ch_15:3. And many days will be to Israel without the true God. The Sept. and Vulg., Luther, Clericus, and most moderns rightly refer these words to the future, and thus conceive them to be a prediction of that which was to happen with respect to the relation of God’s people to the Lord,—a prediction of like import with Hos_3:4-5. For this view speaks, on the one hand, the generality of the term “Israel,” which appears to be used here in the same ideal sense as in 2Ch_11:3; 2Ch_12:1, and, on the other hand, the absence of any more precise date in וְיָמִים רַבִּים, by which that which is said is characterized as a general truth holding for all times; but the reference to any definite earlier time, with which, besides, the closing monition in 2Ch_15:7 would ill agree, is absolutely excluded. Neither the time of the judges, with its illegal conditions and its closing reformation by Samuel, is described by the prophet (against Vitr. and Ramb.), nor the last decennium of the southern kingdom before the reforms of Asa (as the Syr., Arab., Raschi, Berth., think), nor, finally, the circumstances of the northern kingdom since Jeroboam (Targ., Tremell., Grotius, etc.). The last opinion is certainly the most arbitrary of all; for what occasion had the prophet to greet the king of the southern kingdom, returning as a conqueror after deliverance from a great danger, with a reflection on the errors and calamities of the northern kingdom? But if we refer the words as a prophecy to the future, no unsuitable limitation must be introduced (as, for example, to the Babylonish exile, of which Kimchi, Mariana, S. Schmidt, have thought). It is the whole future of the people of God, of which the prophet asserts the law: “If ye turn away from God, He will turn away from you.” Comp. besides, Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 1. On the “true God,” properly, “God of truth,” אֱלֹהֵי אֱמֶת, comp. Jer_10:10 and Isa_65:16 (אֱל׳ אָמֵן). לְלֹא אל׳ א׳, properly, “to not a god of truth”; לְלֹא, not essentially different from לְאֵין, 1Ch_22:4, 2Ch_20:35, is distinguished from בְּלֹא only as לְ is distinguished from בְּ: the latter expresses the being in a state, the former the falling into it (Keil).—Without a teaching priest, without priests to perform the function of teaching (Lev_10:10; Deu_33:10); the special reference to the high priest (Vitr. and others) has no ground in the context. To the defect in teaching priests corresponds the defect in a law; for where there is no מוֹרֶה, there is no תּוֹרָה!
2Ch_15:5 f. The prophetic address returns after a passing brief promise of salvation (2Ch_15:4 b) to the description of the lamentable effects of the future apostasy from God.—N peace for him that goeth out or cometh in, thus no free, peaceful intercourse; on “going out and in,” comp. 2Ch_16:1; Zec_8:10; Jos_6:1; on the following “great vexations” (מְהוּמוֹת), Deu_28:20; Amo_3:9. “All the inhabitants of the lands” are all the inhabitants of the provinces of Israel (or Judah); see 2Ch_34:33. The view of the speaker here scarcely extends over the whole inhabited globe (Kamph.), although in the following verse he transcends the boundaries of Judah, and depicts its attraction into the confusion and conflict of the neighbouring nations.—And nation shall be smitten by nation. Kamphausen’s rendering: “they are pushed nation on nation,” is too farfetched, and by no means required by the meaning of כתת. The Jews had a striking fulfilment of this gloomy foreboding of a bellum omnium contra omnes in the times of Nebuchadnezzar; a second in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, with respect to which Christ also makes use of similar prophetic expressions, Luk_21:10; Luk_21:26, and the parallels.—For God hath vexed them with all trouble; comp. Jdg_4:15; Zec_14:13.
2Ch_15:7. But be ye brave, and let not pour hands be slack; comp. Zep_3:16; Neh_6:9; and “the hands becoming slack” as a figure of sinking courage, 2Sa_4:1; Isa_35:3; Heb_12:11. On the closing promise of reward, comp. Jer_31:16; 1Co_3:8; 1Co_15:58.
4. Asa’s Reform of Worship and Renewal of Covenant with the Lord: 2Ch_15:8-19.—And when Asa heard . . . this prophecy of Oded the prophet. The Hebrew text has not וְהַנְּבוּאַת, but וְהַנְּבוּאָה. This circumstance points to a corruption of the passage, as well as the absence of עֲזַרְיָהוּ בֶּן before עֹדֵד, which was to be expected according to 2Ch_15:1. As the readings of the Sept. and Vulg. (see Crit. Note) may be only later attempts at emendation, and as the assumption of a double name of Azariah, according to which he was at times called by the name of his father (Starke and other ancients), is certainly as questionable as the transposition of the corresponding names in 2Ch_15:1 into “Oded son of Azariah” (Mov.), it appears most advisable to remove the words עֹדֵד הַנָּבִיא) from the text as an old gloss (Berth.), or (with Keil) to assume the omission of several words after וְהַנְּבוּאָה (say עֲזַרְיָהוּ בֶּן אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר).—He took courage (הִתְחַזַּק), according to Azariah’s exhortation: “be ye brave,” חִזְקוּ.—Put away the abominations, properly, “make to pass over (הֶֽעֱבִיר, as 1Ki_15:12) the abominations,” the idols; comp. 2Ki_23:13; 2Ki_23:24; Eze_30:7-8; Dan_9:27.—Which he had taken from Mount Ephraim, לכד, as 2Ch_13:19; 2Ch_17:2. According to the former of these passages, it appears that these were the cities that Abijah, Asa’s father, had taken. In fact this assumption is necessary, because no war of Asa with the northern kingdom had taken place at this time. A co-operation of Asa as lieutenant or joint-commander with his father in that war seems a questionable assumption, on account of his then very great youth (perhaps his minority; comp. on 2Ch_13:1).—And renewed the altar of the Lord, that was before the porch of the Lord, the altar of burnt-offering, that might have been in need of repair sixty years after its erection by Solomon (2Ch_8:12). Yet חִדֵּשׁ, renovare (comp. 2Ch_24:4), might possibly also be taken in the sense of “consecrate again,” after the previous defilement by idolatry (Vulg.: dedicavit; Berth., Kamph., etc.).
2Ch_15:9 ff. The Great Festival on the Renewal of the Theocratic Covenant.—And the strangers with them, out of Ephraim. That by these strangers are meant not merely the theocratically - disposed immigrants into Judah under Rehoboam (11:16), but also a newer addition to them that had come under Asa himself, is expressly asserted in the following words (comp. 30:11, 18). The mention of Simeon with Ephraim and Manasseh, and therefore as a district belonging to the northern kingdom, is scarcely to be explained by a migration of many Simeonites to North Palestine (Berth., Kamph.), but rather by th fact that the tribe of Simeon, though in a geographical situation it belonged to the kingdom of Judah, yet in the point of idolatry had made common cause with the northern kingdom by the erection of that impure worship of Jehovah at Beersheba, of which Amo_4:4; Amo_5:5; Amo_8:14 speaks along with Bethel and Gilgal (correctly Keil, Net., etc.).
2Ch_15:10. In the third month of the fifteenth, year of the reign of Asa, in the spring of the year 940 b.c.; comp. Hitzig, Gesch. p. 197.
2Ch_15:11. And they sacrificed . . . of the spoil they had brought, in the war with the Ethiopians and their allies; for this war, though it broke out in the eleventh year of Asa (2 Chronicles 13:23; 14:8), might have extended even to the present date, and therefore lasted for four years; the statement in 2Ch_14:8-14 admits of this very well.
2Ch_15:12. They entered into a covenant, a new covenant of peace with God; comp. בַבְּרִית בּוֹא, Jer_34:10; Neh_10:30.
2Ch_15:13. And whosoever . . . should be put to death, according to the strict letter of the law, Deu_17:2-6; comp. 2Ch_13:10; 2Ch_13:17. Observe the present trace of a far higher age of the book of Deuteronomy than the time of Josiah, where modern criticism places its origin. Comp. Schröder, Deuteron. Einl. pp. 25, 32; Kleinert, Das Deuteron. und der Deutoronomiker, 1872, especially p. 136 ff.
2Ch_15:14. And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice. On the musical instruments accompanying this act of the solemn renewal of the covenant, comp. 23:13; Neh_12:27 ff.
2Ch_15:16-18. Comp. Bähr on the almost literally coinciding parallel 1Ki_15:13-15.—And also Maachah, the mother of Asa the king, he removed. In 1 Kings stands simply אִמּוֹ, “his mother,” because there Maachah had been mentioned just before (2Ch_15:10). For the rest, comp. on 2Ch_13:1.—And Asa cut down her idol, and crushed it, and burnt it. The “crushing” (comp. Exo_32:20; 2Ki_23:15) is mentioned only by the Chronist; in 1 Kings וַיָּדֶק is wanting.
2Ch_15:17. Out of Israel is wanting in 1 Kings. It naturally means the southern kingdom as the legitimate and normal people of Israel; comp. 2Ch_15:3.—But the heart of Asa was perfect, entirely devoted to the Lord. The עִם יְהוָֹה expressly added 1 Kings is here omitted, because the שָׁלֵם, as predicate to לֵב, is plain enough of itself (comp. 2Ch_16:9; 2Ch_19:9); that is, Asa’s exclusive interest in the worship of Jehovah at Jerusalem, not in that (still tolerated) worship on the high places, is distinctly enough expressed.
2Ch_15:19, introducing the following account of the war.—And there was no more war unto the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa. The contradiction to 1Ki_15:16 : “And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days,” is in so far only apparent, as מִלְחָמָה there denotes only a state of hostility, here a formal war actually carried on in open field. It is not so easy to explain the difficulty involved in the date: “unto the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign;” see on 16:1.
5. Asa’s War with Baasha: 2Ch_16:1-6; comp. 1Ki_15:17-23.—In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa. As, according to 1Ki_16:8; 1Ki_16:10, Baasha died in the twenty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, and his successor Elah was killed before two years more had elapsed, and therefore in the twenty-seventh or twenty-eighth year of this king, the misplacing of the war between Asa and Baasha in the thirty-sixth year of the latter involves an error, and a very old one, already noted by the Sept., and provided with an attempt at emendation (see Crit. Note). A mistake of the pen, that, as 2Ch_10:19 shows, existed perhaps in the sources of the Chronist, is probably the ground of this error; and 36 appears to have been miswritten for 16 (and in accordance with this, in 2Ch_15:19, 35 for 15). From the similarity of the numeral ל (30) to י (1o) in the old Hebrew character, this change was very possible; and the circumstance that Asa’s reform of worship, 2Ch_15:10, took place in the third month of his fifteenth year, agrees on the whole very well with this determination of time; there results an interval of a year or a year and a half between the reform and the new war. The solution preferred by most of the old expositors, that the thirty-sixth year of the kingdom of Asa, that is, the thirty-sixth year from the founding of the kingdom of Judah by Rehoboam, which coincides with the sixteenth year of the reign of Asa, is meant (des Vignoles, Ramb., Starke, Mich., and Hengstenberg, Gesch. des Reiches Gottes, iii. 169), is not consistent with the word לְמַלְכוּת, which in this connection always signifies “reign, sovereignty.” The attempts made by Movers (Chron. p. 255 ff.) and Thenius (on 1 Kings 15) to explain this surprising mistake are too artificial, and arbitrary (see, on the contrary side, Berth. p. 325). On the following particulars, coinciding almost word for word with 1Ki_15:17 ff, comp. Bähr’s exposition.
2Ch_16:2. And sent to Benhadad. Instead of the form בֶּן־הֲדַד, presented here and generally in the Old Testament, the Assyrian monuments constantly exhibit this name in the form Binhidri (Schrader, Die Keilinschriften, p. 101 f.), thus agreeing with, the υἱὸς τοῦ ’́Αδερ of the Sept. ( = בֶּן־הֲדַר).
2Ch_16:4. And they smote Abel-maim = Abel-beth-maachah of the parallel text in 1 Kings, as is clear from 2Sa_20:14.—And all the stores of the cities of Naphtali. For this 1 Kings has: “And all Cinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.” That the one of the two readings has arisen from the other by misunderstanding or miswriting seems certain; perhaps the כִּנְּרוֹת in 1 Kings is corrupted from מִסְכְּנוֹת (Gesen.-Dietrich im Lex.), though our עָרֵי נ׳ וְאֶת כַּל־מִסְכְּנוֹת might possibly also be an explanation of the וְאֶת כָּל־כִּנְּרוֹת עַל אֶרֶץ נ׳, 1 Kings 15, whereby the Chronist might have characterized the high fertility of the district of Cinneroth (or Cinnereth, Jos_19:35) by the symbolic expression: “stores (corn-magazines) of the cities of Naphtali” (so Keil).
2Ch_16:5. And let his work cease. Instead of this, 1Ki_15:21 : “and dwelt in Tirzah.” In our וַיַּשְׁבֵּת אֶת־מְלַאכְתּוֹ, scarcely anything else is tο be seen but an attempt at interpretation, where the words וַיֵּשֶׁב בְּתִרְצָה had become illegible (Berth., Kamph.); for after the words: “he left off building of Ramah,” a second repetition of the thought, that Baasha gave up his undertaking against Judah, was obviously superfluous (against Keil).
2Ch_16:6. And built therewith Geba and Mizpah, the former (Geba of Benjamin in 1 Kings) half an hour north-east, the latter an hour south-west, of Jerusalem. The historical character of this notice is confirmed by Jer_41:9, where a pit made by Asa in Mizpah is mentioned.
6. Hanani’s Prophetic Warning: Asa’s Transgression and End: 2Ch_16:7-14.—And at that time came Hanani. This prophet (חֲנָנִי) is otherwise unknown, though he appears to be identical with the father of the prophet Jehu ben Hanani, who about this time announced to Baasha the downfall of his house (1Ki_16:1); comp. 19:2. That this Hanani was the author of the prophetic sentence (שֵׁמַע) quoted by Hos_7:12, whereby Israel is warned against a league with foreign powers, or more definitely, that the present oracle of Hanani, without naming its author, is quoted in this passage of Hosea, is the quite untenable conjecture of some moderns, for example, Fürst (Gesch. der bibl. Lit. ii. 206, 293).—Therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped from thy hand, the occasion has escaped thee of smiting both at once, Baasha of Israel and his presumptive ally the Syrian king. Comp. the rebuke by Elisha of Joash of Israel, for smiting only three times with the arrows instead of five or six times (2Ki_13:15 ff.).
2Ch_16:8. Confirmatory reference to the victory of Asa over Zerah (14:8 ff.). For the Lubites, comp. on 13:3f.
2Ch_16:9. For the eyes of the Lord, etc., literally, for Jehovah, His eyes. On “to prove himself strong for any one,” that is, help him mightily, comp. 1Ch_11:10. On “running” about, שׁוֹטֵט בְּ, comp. Jer_5:1; Zec_4:10. Before עִס־לְבָבָם שָׁלֵם אֵלָיו the relative אֲשֶׁר is omitted; comp. 1Ch_15:12.—For henceforth thou shall have wars, entanglements in unhappy worldly transactions, in the dangerous mazes of the policy of the great powers; a prediction of misfortune that was abundantly fulfilled, if not in Asa himself, yet in his successors until the exile.
2Ch_16:10. Put him in the prison, properly, “house of the stocks”; מַהְפֶּכֶת “turning round,” is the well-known instrument of torture for locking round the culprit, in which Jeremiah also and Paul were forced to languish (Jer_20:2; Jer_29:26; Act_16:24). Comp. the equivalent סַד, Job_13:27; Job_33:11.—And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time, from anger at the deserved censure of the prophet (on the suitableness and importance of this address, see the Evangelical and Ethical Reflections). רָצַץ, properly, “shatter,” in Pi.: “oppress, misuse,” as Job_20:19.
2Ch_16:11-14. Asa’s End. On 2Ch_16:11, comp. Introd. § 5, II.
2Ch_16:12. And Asa . . . was diseased in his feet, probably with gout; the following also: “his disease was very great” (literally, till it reached a great height, עַד לְמַעְלָה), Points to severe suffering of this kind.—And in his disease also he sought not the Lord, but to the physicians.דָּרַשׁ, first with the accusative of the object את־יהוה, as is usual elsewhere, then with בְּ, by which preposition is elsewhere designated, inquiring or seeking help from God or from idols (1Ch_10:14; 1Sa_28:7; 2Ki_1:2 ff.); thus here expressing a superstitious trust in the physicians, and accordingly not opposed to the right of making use of medical aid, especially in cases of sickness; so far from this, that inversely the not seeking of the Lord may be regarded as a not seeking of his priests who were in Israel, analogous to the Egyptian priests, the legitimate physicians (as is done by K. Ad. Menzel in his posthumous work, Religion und Stadtsidee, 1872, p. 29).
2Ch_16:14. Asa’s solemn burial is related by the Chronist with surprising detail, probably on account of the heathenish pomp and luxury which it displayed, reminding us of the manner of the Egyptian Pharaohs.—And they buried him in his own tomb, literally, “in his own sepulchres;” comp. 2Ki_22:20; Job_21:32. This preparation of a burial-place or mausoleum, different from the common tombs of the kings, reminds us of the customs of the Egyptian kings, or at all events (comp. our Remark on Job_3:14) indicates a haughty inclination to self-apotheosis incompatible with a genuine theocratic disposition; comp. Isa_22:16 ff.—Laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours of divers kinds. On זְנִים, “kinds,” comp. Ps. 165:13, Dan_3:5; the term may well serve to describe more precisely the foregoing בְּשָׂמִים, “spices” (Son_4:10 ff.).—Compounded by art, properly, “compounded by compounding of work,” by the work of the artificer; comp. Exo_30:25; Exo_30:35, and 1Ch_9:30. מַֽעֲשֶׂה is in this connection מַֽעֲשֵׂה רוֹקֵחַ; the assumption that the latter word is omitted is unnecessary.—And they made a very great burning for him, namely, of the sweet-smelling substances of the kind mentioned. Such burnings of incense were always made at the burial of the kings of Judah, as appears from Jer_34:5. But what the Chronist notices as culpable is the exaggerated splendour and lavish excess with which the custom was observed in the burial of Asa, as if it were the burial of a Pharaoh of Egypt (comp. Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, etc., ii. 385 f.; Uhlemann, Egypt. Alterthumsk. ii. 325). Against the assumption of some, as Michaelis (De combustione et humatione mortuorum apud Hebrœos, in his Syntagma dissertatt. i. 225 sqq.), that the body of the king was burned among the spices, see Geier, De luctu Hebrœor. c. vi, who rightly maintains that such cases as the burning of Saul and his sons were exceptions to the general custom of Hebrew antiquity.
Evangelical and Ethical Reflections and Apologetic Remarks on 2 Chronicles 13-16
1. To much that is original, and in a theological sense important, in the comparatively full account given by our author of the reigns of Abijah and Asa, belong especially the three speeches which it contains, of which the old parallel text presents neither a brief résumé nor even a passing trace. All three are in a high degree characteristic, and point to a primitive tradition, true in all essentials to word and deed as their source. The address of Abijah to the Ephraimites from Mount Zemaraim is strictly an oratio pro domo, a defence of a royal representative of the house of David maintaining the good cause of his theocratic inheritance. With no little skill, and with much diplomatic art as well as downright popular rhetoric, all is put forward that can be said for the legitimate kingdom and worship, and against the usurpation of Jeroboam. There is reference, on the one hand, to the unchangeableness of the covenant with Jehovah (13:5), to the divine origin of the Davidic dynasty (as “a kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David,” 2Ch_16:8), to the beauty and established order of the service of God in the central sanctuary at Jerusalem, and to the hereditary legal chartered dignity of the theocratic priesthood (2Ch_16:10-12); and, on the other hand, to the unworthy aims of the revolution party led by Jeroboam (the men of Belial who took advantage of the tender youth, inexperience, and weakness of Rehoboam, 2Ch_16:7), to the folly of the worship of the golden calves, the illegal and heathenish character of its priesthood, the hopelessness of a contest with Jehovah, the God of their fathers (2Ch_16:8-9; 2Ch_16:12), in the tone now of fine irony, now of bitter scorn, and now of threatening earnest. The whole, inclusive of the partisan, one-sided, and somewhat distorted reference to the procedure in the separation of the kingdom (2Ch_16:7), appears a masterpiece of political eloquence, the present form of which (taken, no doubt, from the Midrasch of the prophet Iddo quoted in 2 Chronicles 16:22) may be ideally conceived; but the chief context and process of thought can scarcely be a pure invention. No less original and characteristic are the two prophetic speeches inserted in the history of Asa’s reign. The speech of Azariah son of Oded (2Ch_15:2-7) unfolds at the moment a gloomy picture of the future godlessness of the people forsaking their God more and more, and of the troubles and judgments arising from their unfaithfulness, where the tone of jubilant gladness for the great victory secured, and the announcement of optimistic expectations, would have seemed most natural. Instead of a panegyristic flatterer courting princely favour, a deeply-earnest prophet of woe greets the king returning in triumph, who has certainly words of acknowledgment for that which has been performed by the conquerors, but clothes his praise in the form of an exhibition of necessary connection between devotion to God and the gracious reward of such devotion, and dwells with visible predilection on the times of apostasy, with its tragic consequences, that were coming notwithstanding all the admonitions of the prophets. The speech appears badly enough to suit the festive moment that forms its occasion; but it testifies to the unusually deep glance into the inmost heart of the people which the speaker filled with the terrible earnest of the coming destiny has long taken. And as such testimony, it fails not also of its effect, but rather proves, as the consequent energy of the king in purifying the form of worship shows, a true comfort and strengthening for good (παράκλησις, confortatio; comp. הִתְחַזַּק, Sept. κατίσχυσεν, 2Ch_16:8), an impulse at least effectual for a time to return to the path of theocratic truth and righteousness, a model (Hos_3:4-5 f., 9:3, 4, where there seems to be an allusion to it) and primitive form held in esteem by later prophets of genuine prediction, the fundamental thought of which, as it recurs (mutatis mutandis) in the woe-foreboding addresses of an Isaiah to Hezekiah (Isaiah 39; 2 Kings 20), and a Huldah to Josiah (2Ch_34:22 ff.), stands forth not essentially different in the pictures of the future presented in the New Testament (Mat_24:5 ff.; 2Th_2:3 ff.; 1Jn_2:18 ff.; Luk_18:8, etc.). In severs rebuke of a temporary departure of the king from the path of theological strictness and conscientiousness marked out for him by the prophetic word of Azariah, proceeds the second of the two prophetic speakers, Hanani (2Ch_16:7-9). With a sharp lecture he treats the king, looking for nothing but praise for his victory over Baasha. That he made not Jehovah but the Syrian heathens his stay, he pronounces not only imprudent but directly “foolish” (2Ch_16:9). His sagacity, not unexercised in political matters, lets him know immediately, under the influence of the illuminating Spirit of God, that the calling in the help of the Syrian power must draw to it the dependence, not merely of the conquered Israelites, but also of the Jews. Wherefore he not only blames the misled prince’s weakness of faith and fear of man, and emphatically lays before him, that the eyes of the Lord are only strong for those who serve Him with entire devotion, but hurls upon, him a hard נִסְכַּלְתָּ, stulte egisti (unduly softened by the Sept. into a weak ἠγνόηκας ἐπὶ τούτῳ). He suffers for this boldness the same punishment which Jeremiah brought upon himself, when he, a no less zealous preacher of the truth that man should not make flesh his arm than Hanani, had spoken hard words against the obstinacy and folly of his contemporaries (Jer_20:2; comp. Jer_17:5; Jer_19:15).—Here again is nothing that is not in the highest degree original and powerful, breathing the stern prophetic spirit of Samuel and Nathan. Both speeches may show in their present form the elaborating hand of the Chronist, but in matter they appear with incontestable evidence as documents taken from the prophetic historical sources of the writer, of a time bordering upon and cognate with the spirit of Elijah and Elisha.
2. In a religious and moral respect, the two kings described in our section appear again somewhat better than Rehoboam, who trod in the paths of the degenerate Solomon. In particular, Asa receives due praise for his theocratic zeal, as he busied himself as a reformer of the worship of God, that had been in several ways disfigured by superstition. The Deuteronomic law, which threatens every partaker in such idolatry with death, he not only binds upon the people by an oath (Deu_15:13-14 f.), but puts in practice the judicial rigour of this statute even against his own mother (grandmother), as he removes her from her dignity as queen-mother on account of her worship of Astarte, and so makes judgment begin at the royal house itself (Deu_16:16). Inasmuch as he certainly does not set aside (Deu_16:17) the worship on the high places, he does not rise to the height of theocratic rigour and purity which was attained in the subsequent reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah. The later time and the end of his reign also were tarnished by bursts of passion and acts of violence towards pious men of God, as the prophet Hanani; and a severe and painful disease is not able to bring him back to the early well-known simplicity of his devotion to Jehovah (2Ch_16:12; comp. 15:17). He seeks not the Lord, but betakes himself to the physicians; the impure juggling method, mingled no doubt with superstition and idolatry, pursued by the medicine men or goetæ of his time, gave him more confidence than the helping hand of the God of truth, with whose witnesses he had also quarrelled. So it fared otherwise with him than with the pious Hezekiah, who without medical aid, by the miraculous help of God obtained through the prophet, was delivered from a dangerous sickness, and had fifteen years added to his life (2 Kings 20; 2Ch_32:24). The word of the wise Sirach was verified in him: “He that sinneth before his Maker shall fall into the hand of the physician” (Sir_38:15). Like the woman having the issue of blood, he must become πολλὰ παθὼν ὑπὸ πολλῶν ἰατρῶν, Mar_5:26. In setting forth the impotence of these human helpers exclusively sought by him (comp. Sir_10:11 : μακρὸν ἁῤῥώστημα σκώπτει ἰατρόν8), there is no absolute condemnation of medical art or science, but merely a gentle hint of the state of his heart, enslaved to worldly and idolatrous lusts, God-estranged and unbelieving, on account of which might justly be addressed to him the question of the prophet Jeremiah: “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why, then, is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” Jer_8:22; or also that question of Elijah: “Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that ye go to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron?” 2Ki_1:3. Comp. also, with respect to Asa’s religious and moral character, the weighty remark of Bengel (Beiträge zum Schriftverständniss, p. 17f.): “Asa was righteous (15:17), and yet he behaved so badly at the last (16:10, 12). How can this be? Answer.—He has not turned to idols all his life long; he has constantly held the Lord to be the right, true, and only God. But it was, as it were, an atheismus practicus, that he withdrew his confidence from Him. He thought, Shall I have been pious so long, and yet now receive a reprimand? If he had only received it like David: I have sinned, etc., all would have been right, etc.”
3. In an apologetic respect, we have to observe, in conjunction with the remarks made under No. 1, that weighty credentials of an internal kind support the two great wars as the Chronist relates them here, in completion of the very imperfect account in the books of Kings of these episodes in the history of the reigns of Abijah and Asa. That Abijah’s conflict with Jeroboam, after the total dissolution of the army of the latter, led to the annexation of the three towns Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron to the southern kingdom (2Ch_13:19), is a notice so definite and concrete, that no scepticism of de Wette and Gramberg, with its assertion of the feigned character of the narrative in question, can be accepted, as, on the other hand, the attempt of Ewald, while admitting a kernel of historical fact, to stamp at least the speech of Abijah on Mount Zemaraim as a free composition of the Chronist, is wrecked on the highly original contents of this speech (see No. 1, and comp. Keil, Commentar, p. 264 f., Remarks). The passage 1Ki_15:15 also, where the things dedicated by Abijah are mentioned, which his son Asa afterwards brought into the house of the Lord along with his own dedicated gifts, affords an indirect proof that both rulers had gained great victories and taken much spoil from their foes (comp. 2Ch_14:12-13 f.), by which must be meant the victory of the former over Jeroboam, and that of the latter over Zerah (comp. Thenius on this passage, and Berth. on Chron. p. 324). The credibility of the account of this last great battle derives support also from what is related at its close of the conquest and spoliation of the cities around Gerar, and the cattle tents of the nomad tribes dwelling south of Palestine, a detail, again, that gives the lie altogether to the suspicion of pure notion.—Only the very high numbers in the account of the slaughter should be regarded as falling beyond the range of the historically exact. They “are perhaps not to be understood according to the nominal value of the numbers given, but only an expression conceived in figures of the contemporaries of these wars, which imports that the two kings (first Abijah and Jeroboam, then Asa and Zerah) had summoned to the field the whole military strength of their kingdoms” (Keil, p. 265). In the war of Abijah with Jeroboam, this is favoured by the approximative accordance of the numbers 800,000 and 400,000 with results of the census by David, as well as the round ideal sum of 500,000 as the number of those who fell on the side of Israel, a number that perhaps only indicates that Jeroboam had lost more than half his force. In the war with the Ethiopian king, the corresponding assumption is favoured by the round number 1,000,000, as well as by the circumstance that exact accounts, resting on actual numbering, and not on a mere estimate, of the strength of the enemy, were not at the command of the observers and reporters on the Jewish side (comp. above on the passages in question). The necessity of a merely ideal and approximate conception of these numbers is evident, if we compare the statements, resting on actual numbering, of the strength of the men-at-arms in the several tribes in the genealogical summaries (1 Chronicles 5-7). The smallest of the numbers there named (for example, 44,760, 87,000, 22,034, 20,200, 17,200, 26,000) are round. It is the same with the numbers referring to the warriors from the several tribes at the elevation of David to the throne in 1 Chronicles 12; comp. the remarks on this in p. 120 f.
Footnotes:
[1]On the probable error of the pen here (מִיכָיָהוּ for מַֽעֲכָה), see Exeg. Expl.
[2]For יְשָׁנָה the Sept. has ’Ιωσυνά (but Josephus, Antiq. viii. 11.3: ’Ισάνας).
[3]For the Kethib עֶפְרוֹן, supported by the Sept. and Vulg., the Keri is עֶפְרַוִן.
[4]For וְכֻתְּתוּ some mss. read וְכִתְּתוּ; but the pual is required by the context.
[5]Sept. cod. Vat.: ’Αδὰδ (’Ωδὴδ) τοῦ προφήτου; on the contrary, c. Al., ed Ald., etc.: ’Αζαρίου τοῦ προφήτου Vulg.: Oded prophetæ. Perhaps the words עדד הנביא should be cancelled as an old gloss. See the Exeg. Expl.
[6]So all the mss. and versions but the Sept., which has ἐν ἔτει ὀγδόω̣ καὶ τριακοστῷ, by a mistake of η for ς, or on the ground of some peculiar chronological reckoning.
[7]Properly, “Darmascus;” see 1Ch_18:5-6, and the Crit. Note thereon. For the υἱὸς τοῦ ’́Αδερ, given by the Sept. for בן הדד, comp. the Exeg. Expl.
[8] ’Iατρόν, we believe, in the notorious corruption of the text (see Fritzcshe’s Libb. apocr. V. T. p. 409), with Hirzig (Der proph. Daniel, p. 142), should be read here instead of ἰατρός.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v2 2. Michaiah — Probably a copyist’s error for Maachah.
2. Michaiah — Probably a copyist’s error for Maachah.
Daughter of Uriel — And granddaughter of Absalom. 1Ki_15:2, note.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Ch. 2Ch_13:1-2 (= 1Ki_15:1-2). Abijah succeeds
Ch. 2Ch_13:1-2 (= 1Ki_15:1-2). Abijah succeeds
1. Abijah] Called Abijam in the Heb. of 1 Kin. (LXX. Ἀβιού, i.e. Abijahu).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–2 (1) Now.—Not in the Hebrew. The verse is nearly…
(1) Now.—Not in the Hebrew. The verse is nearly identical with the parallel in Kings.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–2 The career of Abijah begins and ends with this…
The career of Abijah begins and ends with this chapter, the twenty-one verses of which are paralleled by only eight in 1Ki_15:1-8. 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.
In the eighteenth year. Reading this literally, it will appear that Rehoboam had completed a full seventeen years.
Read full note →
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1-22.
A royal and manly manifesto in the rights of godly truth.
The narrative of Abijah"s short reign of three years is distinguished by one clear account, at any rate, of the wars that had arisen and were prevailing between the two parts of the recently rended and bleeding kingdom, of which a very brief statement only had been made, at the close of the history of Rehoboam"s reign, whether here or in the parallel. It is also, and most chiefly, distinguished by the graphic description of the very forcible manifesto, so dramatically delivered as well, in the name and right of religion, and of the truth handed down to him by his fathers, by Abijah King of Judah, before, as it were, all the dissenting and separate congregation of Israel and their king. This subject awaits below some further analysis. And once more, so far as our Book of Chronicles goes, the narrative of this short reign and public career of Abijah is remarkable, in that we should have supposed certainly, when we shut our book, that they were, as nearly as might be, immaculate every way to the honour of God, and by his grace to the credit of the man and the king, with his heroic challenge to all Israel"s conscience, towering in the midst of all the rest. The parallel, meanwhile, in Kings undeceives us unwelcomely in this impression, and mournfully disabuses our mind, where with startling precision it is recorded that "Abijah walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father," Whether the unrelated sins of his private life, or the chances of war, or the director judgment of God, brought his career to so early a close, we are not told. Meanwhile the contents of this chapter are most interesting. They read like an episode almost unique among even the many and varied, the concise and telling monographs that abound in the pages before us. War is waged, armies are ready, and are already face to face; battle itself is ready to begin, or has already begun, when no spectral figure King Abijah himself stands on Mount Zemaraim; the King of Israel, and the army of Israel, and, as it were, all the rended-off nation of Israel, fortunately and conveniently congregated before him. If ever man "preached," Abijah preached, and for the day and the occasion lifted up his voice worthily, and was "not afraid." Truth and facts are unmistakably on his side. We seem, for a moment, to be under the spell of an Old Testament Demosthenes, and to be listening to the snatch of an earlier philippic. If we seek some analysis of this mingled argument, denunciation, appeal, we notice
I THE SAFE GROUND OF THE CASE MADE AGAINST ISRAEL AND JEROBOAM. "The Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt." Perhaps, indeed, Abijah remembered well the solemn proviso of that covenant, emphatically made, and put into psalm as well, "If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore". (Psa_132:12) Though he neglected to quote it into his argument, and let us say probably by design, yet it was substantially true that the perpetual kingdom was made over so, by divinest engage-merit, to Judah, as against all other comers whomsoever, and up to the coming of the Lord Jesus himself, of whose kingdom there should be indeed no end. For Abijah might, if challenged, have gone on also to quote, (Psa_89:33-37) "Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven." So Abijah begins successfully, putting Israel and Jeroboam essentially in the wrong.
II THE MORAL ELEMENT FLUNG SO EFFECTIVELY AND OPPORTUNELY BY ABIJAH. INTO THE ARGUMENT. "Ought ye not to know this, that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever?" Israel and Jeroboam did know it, knew it well; and Abijah and all Judah knew that their separated brethren knew it, and knew it well. It was a well-conceived addition to the argument of the king of the true line. How many persons know the right most assuredly, to whom, for neglecting to do it, the most telling and most stinging expostulation and rebuke might well be couched in the same form of question, "Ought ye not to know?
III THE PATENT AGGRAVATIONS OF THE CONDUCT OF JEROBOAM. Viz. that:
1. It was a case of a subject rebelling against his own king (ver. 6), not ofone foreign to the kingdom obtaining sway by conquest over a portion of it.
2. It was a case of that subject also taking advantage of the youth and inexperience of the rightful monarch Rehoboam, who was actually in possession of the throne at the time of the schism.
3. It was a case of the usurper relying on a "multitude" (ver. 8) a mere majority! Nothing of a moral kind can safely be decided, on the strength merely of a majority, in this world; or, at any rate, up to the present time, in this world. And often the decision of something of a physical kind, on the strength of a majority, is most uncertain the very ground beneath the feet of that majority being so liable to be undermined on a large scale (as is so notable in the sequel of this very history, ver. 18), or otherwise honeycombed by invisible moral forces. God"s selection of Israel, his whole conduct of them, of their education, of their government and their legislation, was and is one protest against reliance on the many.
4. It was a most iniquitous and crying case of idolatry in the setting up ofthe golden calves. This most glaring instance of the basest sort of supposed expedience did not bear that a word be said on its behalf or in its defence. Had there been not another weak point in the conduct or tactics of Jeroboam and Israel, this carried the sentence of death in itself.
5. Although it were a corollary most readily to be understood, that thepriests and Levites of the true religion"s ministry should find themselves no longer in place or at home in such an Israel, yet Abijah notes this also, probably that first prominence may be given (as great historic interest has certainly been given) to the fact that of the same priests and Levites were found none to sympathize with Jeroboam"s evil doings, to countenance them, or to consent, under any pretext of policy, to uphold them; and secondly, that the flagitious, sacrilegious, and absolutely reckless defiance of the true religion, of which Jeroboam was guilty, in the sham consecration of sham priests, in imitation of heathen nations and in observance of heathen precedents, might be openly made to confront him, and publicly be hurled as the last aggravating charge against him. Jeroboam "cast out the priests of the Lord and the Levites and made priests after the manner of the nations of other lands.
IV THE PRONOUNCED DECLARATION, UNBOASTFUL BECAUSE TRUE, AND READILY ACKNOWLEDGED TO BE ONLY THEIR DUTY AND PRIVILEGE UNITED, WHICH ABIJAH MAKES ON BEHALF OF HIMSELF AND KINGDOM.
1. They scorned golden calves, and had not forsaken the one Lord theirGod.
2. Their priests and Levites are the divinely appointed and consecratedministers of the sanctuary and altar. They do their work. The altar smokes morning and evening, and the odour of the sweet incense ascends. The shewbread is in its place and duly renewed. The golden candlestick burns every evening. They have received the charge of the Lord God, and they keep it faithfully, obediently in each respect, and to each time punctually.
3. God is practically looked to as their Captain, and his ministers arelooked to to sound the alarm alike to themselves and for them "against" their foes.
V THE SHORT PARTING APPEAL. The whole argument, remonstrance, rebuke, has been in an eminent degree addressed to the conscience, and to the distinct and undoubted knowledge of revealed religion, which had been equally the portion of Israel with Judah. And now the parting brief appeal is fully charged with the same spirit. It is an appeal to conscience and religious knowledge and feeling, and legitimately concludes with that warning which has so long been, which is still, the divinely foreshadowed sanction of command or of prohibition. It depends on the faculty of faith, it is part of the discipline of faith, and to be mindfully remembered by all it is some of the most critical and tremblingly anxious exercises of faith. He who believes in nothing but the present does not believe in warning, and he who does not believe in warning is, in one word, the infatuated, and ever liable to be the reckless. In this brief pregnant appeal we seem to notice
(1) that Abijah turns away his address from Jeroboam altogether, anxious if haply he may just move the people;
(2) that there is breathed in it a tender, affectionate, fatherly suasiveness, as with last words of hope, or last words of despair, or as with last dying words; and
(3) that there is the deep earnestness of the true man, who yearns that men shall know the day of their merciful visitation, and not speed on in that "way of transgressors," which is "hard," and which "shall not prosper.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Vers. 1-20.
The folly of unnatural severance, etc.
The whole chapter presents to us a number of lessons, not very closely connected with one another.
I THE FOLLY OF AN UNNATURAL SEVERANCE. The first thing we read about the reign of Abijah is that there "was war between him and Jeroboam" (ver. 2). What else was to be expected? How, in those times, or indeed in any time, could it be otherwise? Tribes descended, as they were, from a common ancestor, speaking the same language, holding the same faith, having the same history, under a sacred obligation to worship at the same sanctuary, with no natural boundary between them, were bound to be united together and form one strong nation, or else to be at perpetual variance. There are two great mistakes, of which one is as foolish and as mischievous as the other to insist upon organic union when everything in constitution and providential ordering points to separation; and, on the other hand, to attempt separation when everything clearly points to union. Whom God hath joined together let no man try to put asunder; if he does, he will certainly reap mischief and misery for his harvest. This will apply not only to nations, but to Churches, to social communities, to families, to individuals.
II THE DUTY AND WISDOM OF REMONSTRANCE, It was right enough of Abijah to utter the strong and effective remonstrance here recorded (vers. 4-12). Perhaps, as one descended by both parents from David, he had a very strong sense of the disloyalty of the two tribes; but he certainly made a very vigorous appeal to them, urging them, by considerations of duty to God and of regard for their own interests, to rally to his side. He did not succeed in the attempt; probably he did not expect to do so. When men have carried disloyal or disobedient thought so far as to be guilty of actual rebellion or active opposition, they are not often moved even by the most cogent and persuasive words. Nevertheless, it is always right to try to move them before resorting to violent measures. We may succeed, as men have succeeded before now, in saving sanguinary strife, or in averting that which is, "in all but the bloodshed, a duel." Remonstrance should be made
(1) in time;
(2) without provocation in tone;
(3) in the sorrow which carries dignity, and not in the passion which only excites contempt;
(4) with a feeling that our common brotherhood is a greater thing than our individual interests.
III THE PLACE FOR STRATAGEM IN THE BATTLE OF THE LORD, Jeroboam seems to have been in the way of succeeding by his stratagem (vers. 13, 14), and had there been no strong and special reason for Divine interposition, he would undoubtedly have prevailed against Abijah. Persuasiveness of speech is good, but sagacity in action is better still in any serious campaign. And while simple straightforwardness is the weapon we should commonly use, there is a guile we may employ when our spirit is wholly unselfish, and when we do not invade inviolable truth. (2Co_12:16)
IV THE SUCCESS OF FAITHFULNESS. After all, it was not the cleverness of the crafty Jeroboam, but the faithfulness, thus far, of the obedient Abijah which secured the victory. The men of Judah "cried unto the Lord," and "God smote Jeroboam and all Israel." As we read the chronicles of the two kingdoms, we are amazed that kings and people failed to see that just as they were obedient to Jehovah they prospered, and just as they were disobedient they were overtaken with national calamity. But it is so much easier to distinguish other people"s duty than to perceive our own, to see where others missed their way than to find or to keep our own. Continually are we tempted to abandon the path of simple Divine wisdom for that which has its own fascinations, but to which no finger-post of duty points us; and invariably we find that "the end thereof" is sorrow and disillusion. Often the path of righteousness is unattractive and unpromising at the outset; but in that way lies success. Further on the prospect brightens; and at the end of that road is victory and joy. Be faithful unto death, and you may make quite sure of the crown of life. C.
HOMILIES BY T. WHITELAW Vers. 1, 2, 21, 22.
The successor of Rehoboam.
I HIS NAME. Abijah, "whose father is Jehovah"; (1Ki_14:1) Abijam, "father of the sea," i.e. a maritime man; (1Ki_14:31 1Ki_15:1) or Abia (LXX). If Abijam be not a clerical mistake, then the hypothesis is at least interesting that the Chronicler adopted the form Abijah because he did not intend to describe this king"s reign as wicked, while the writer of the Kings, having this intention, frequently selected the form Abijam (Kitto).
II HIS MOTHER. Micaiah, or Maacha, (2Ch_11:20) the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah, and the daughter (equivalent to granddaughter by the mother"s side) of Absalom, (2Ch_11:20) or Abishalom. (1Ki_15:2) The notion (Bahr) that Abijah"s wife, the mother of Asa, was also called Maacah (2Ch_15:10) is not necessary, and still less the hypothesis (Bertheau) that in this place the name of Abijah"s wife has been substituted for that of his mother.
III HIS WIVES. Fourteen in number, of whom one was (on the supposition just named) Maacah, the names of the others being unknown. Like his father Rehoboam, grandfather Solomon, and great-grandfather David, Abijah practised polygamy. A parent"s vices are considerably easier to copy than his virtues. Those also are likelier than these to be transmitted by heredity.
IV HIS OFFSPRING. Twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. Of the former only one is known, Asa his successor, the rest having disappeared from the stage of history as from that of time. Obscurity, the common lot of men; yet not always a disadvantage in itself, or a proof of inferior merit. Some of the world"s greatest men have been unknown to their contemporaries; and Abijah"s unnamed sons may have been superior persons to Asa.
V HIS REIGN.
1. Its sphere. Judah, the southern kingdom, Jeroboam still exercising sovereignty over the northern.
2. Its seat. Jerusalem, the capital of Israel being Samaria.
3. Its duration. Three years, beginning in the eighteenth and ending in the twentieth year of Jeroboam.
4. Its character. Troubled. "There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.
VI HIS END.
1. His death. "He slept with his fathers". (2Ch_14:1)
2. His burial. "He was laid in the city of David.
3. His biography. The story of his life, of his acts, ways, and sayings, was written by the Prophet Iddo.
VII HIS CHARACTER.
1. His ability. Undoubted.
1. A vigorous ruler (ver. 21);
2. an able speaker (ver. 4);
3. a powerful reasoner (vers. 8-12); and
4. a valiant leader.
1. His piety. Decided. Notwithstanding his polygamy, he was
1. sincere (vers. 10, 11),
2. lively (ver. 12),
3. trustful (ver. 18), and
4. courageous (ver. 12), tho%h
5. not perfect. (1Ki_15:3)
LESSONS.
1. Jehovah in the heart is better than Jehovah in the name.
2. A weak and wicked father may have a capable and good son.
3. The value of a man"s life is not determined by the length of hisdays.
4. One may have faults and yet be religious.
5. Every one should strive to live so as to be remembered for goodafter death. W.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL NOTES.] This chapter parallel to 1Ki_15:1-8. Abijah succeeds…
CRITICAL NOTES.] This chapter parallel to 1Ki_15:1-8. Abijah succeeds and wars against Jeroboam (2Ch_13:1-4); declares the right of his cause (2Ch_13:4-12); his victory and end (2Ch_13:13-22).
2Ch_13:1-3.—The opening war of Abijah. Abijah, Abijam in Kings. 2Ch_13:2. Michaiah, variation of Maachah (2Ch_11:10; 1Ki_15:2); daughter of Uriel and Tamar, daughter of Absalom. Hence called daughter, i.e., granddaughter of Absalom. 2Ch_13:3. War. Probably Jeroboam sought to wrest whole country from Abijah. Array, i.e., took the field and began war. “The numbers are doubtless large, 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 the 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 explanation; for we know, by the census of David, the immense amount of the population that was capable of bearing arms (2Ch_21:5; cf. ch. 2Ch_14:8; 2Ch_17:14) [Jamieson].
Read full note →
2Ch_13:4-12.—Abijah’s address to Jeroboam. 2Ch_13:4. Zemaraim, a mount not identified, amid the great range of Central Palestine; upon borders of the two kingdoms. 2Ch_13:5. Gave. Divine right claimed, but conditions omitted (Psa_132:12; Psa_89:30-32). Salt, i.e., a covenant inviolable, irrevocable (Lev_2:13; Num_18:19). Salt emblem of perpetuity. 2Ch_13:6. Rebelled. Jeroboam upbraided as a usurper, and his subjects as rebels. 2Ch_13:7. Vain men, i.e., “low fellows,” “persons of the baser sort” (cf. Jdg_9:4; 2Sa_6:20). Belial, profitless and evil (Deu_13:13). Young, i.e., new to his work, inexperienced. Tender-hearted, wanting in resolution and spirit. 2Ch_13:8. Religious condition of two kingdoms now contrasted. Enemy proud of a great multitude, and with them golden calves, proofs of apostasy. 2Ch_13:9. Cast out (ch. 2Ch_11:14). Seven, “a bullock and two rams” the offering required at original consecration of sons of Aaron (Exo_29:1; Lev_8:2). It appears that Jeroboam, for reasons of his own, enlarged the sacrifice and required it at the consecration of every priest [Speak. Com.]. 2Ch_13:10. Judah had pure and regular observance of ordinances of Moses. Not forsaken. God with them (only in a certain degree). They had daily sacrifice with all its accompaniments. 2Ch_13:11. God himself their captain. Priests with their trumpets brought to war in remembrance of God’s command (Num_10:9), and example of Moses (Num_31:6). The war, therefore, sacred war.
2Ch_13:13-20.—Abijah’s victory. Ambush. To surprise in front and rear; made while Abijah was haranguing. 2Ch_13:14. Cried. A panic might have ensued if leaders had not looked to God and “sounded trumpets,” which was a pledge of victory and help to the men (Num_10:9; Num_31:6). Judah responded, and the rush was resistless. 2Ch_13:17. Great slaughter. Nothing in original to indicate this was all in one day. The writer is probably compressing into a few words the circumstances of the whole war [Speak. Com.]. 2Ch_13:18. Under. Humbled, defeated, not made tributary. 2Ch_13:19. Bethel. Frontier town in which one of calves placed. Towns, villages or suburbs. 2Ch_13:20. Defeat so great that Jeroboam did not recover in Abijah’s time. He died in second year of Asa (1Ki_15:25). Struck. Probably the message of the prophet Ahijah (1Ki_14:10; 1Ki_12:15).
2Ch_13:21-22.—Abijah’s end. Mighty. “Took courage, grew bold,” after security; like his father and grandfather, gave himself to indulgence and multiplied wives. 2Ch_13:22. Story, commentary, “the midrash or memoir, which was extant in the time of the chronist, or the original form from which he drew his information” [Murphy].
HOMILETICS
ATTEMPT TO REVERSE DIVINE ARRANGEMENTS.—2Ch_13:3-19
God permitted revolt of ten tribes and Rehoboam forbidden to regain them (ch. 2Ch_10:15). Frequent skirmishes between kings of Judah and Israel (ch. 2Ch_12:15). Jeroboam now takes advantage of Abijah’s youth, and judging from the speech, claims the crown and invades the territory of Judah. No prophet forbade the war, Jeroboam had forfeited all claims to protection, his effort in vain, the Divine arrangements could not be upset.
I. An attempt most daring in its design. “Now ye think to withstand the kingdom of the Lord” (2Ch_13:8). A kingdom not set up by men, but established and perpetuated by Divine decree in the house of David. The design indicates pride, presumption, and impiety. Might as well withstand, resist the rolling planet or the rising tide. “If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought (be overthrown); but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, &c.” (Act_5:39).
II. An attempt depending upon numbers for its success. “Ye be a great multitude” (2Ch_13:8). “There is no king saved by the multitude of an host; a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.” “Behold the multitude melted away” in the armies of Xerxes, Sennacherib, and Napoleon, before the presence and purpose of God. “Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces.”
III. The numbers employed in the attempt were men of worthless character. The best soldiers, men of courage and character, generally selected for daring enterprises (Cromwell’s Ironsides, Havelock’s Saints). But the army of Jeroboam composed of worthless men.
1. The king himself stained with ungodly actions. Jeroboam an idolater and innovator in past. Now found rebelling against God and taking advantage of Abijah’s youth, as he did of Rehoboam’s weakness (2Ch_13:8).
2. The men employed were a mixed mob. (a) “Vain men,” loose in character and useless in war (Cataline’s comrades). Plenty such now, “empty fellows,” ready to join any cause, follow any leader who pays best. “I have not sat with vain persons.” (b) The children of Belial, wicked men, hating all control and setting up any that would carry out their wishes. Abimelech hired “vain and light persons, which followed him” (Jdg_9:4).
IV. Hence the utter failure of the attempt. “God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah” (2Ch_13:15). “When omnipotence goes forth to war, what can be the issue of the battle? When God takes the glittering sword, and his hand lays heavy in judgment, can grasshoppers stand before him?” “There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord.” Julian the Apostate could not falsify prediction. The word was uttered and the secession a fact. The powers of earth and hell could not change that. “For he spake and it was done; he commanded and it stood fast.” Hence beware “lest haply ye be found,” in daily life and moral conduct, “even to fight against God.”
A GREAT SPEECH.—2Ch_13:4-13
Abijah had entered the enemies’ territory—stood upon eminence. Jeroboam’s army at foot of the hill, and according to ancient custom Abijah harangued, poured out invective and abuse upon the enemy and extolled his own merits.
I. Its claims concerning Judah. God recognised in the gift of the kingdom; in the worship of the temple, with its legal priesthood and regular sacrifices; in the warfare of life. “The Lord is our God and we have not forsaken him.” He claims the right position and obeys the true commands. Conceptions of God affect doctrine and practice. Custom, law, and outward restraints may keep right in some things; but only feeling of dependence upon God, sense of responsibility to him and constant acknowledgment of him, will give security, strength, and dignity to inheritance.
II. Its accusations against Israel. Jeroboam a rebel and usurper, and must be put down. He was leading a revolutionary party, “sons of Belial.” He had not the beauty and established order of worship, the legal priesthood; but golden calves, illegal and heathen priests, desecrated altars, and a hopeless cause. Abijah no usurper nor idolater! Whatever the corruptions of his kingdom, it was better than Israel, &c.! Thus men may deny the power of religion and boast of its form—view themselves not in their defects and infirmities, but in their good qualities and virtues. In lofty and contemptuous tones recite their merits and condemn their adversaries. Trust in themselves that they are righteous and despise others.
III. Its passionate appeal to the people. “O children of Israel, fight ye not against the Lord God of your fathers” (2Ch_13:12). Religion is appealed to. God is concerned; the war sacred and religious. History appealed to. Abijah in historic line, they were cutting themselves off from its unity, currents, and privileges, and setting the God of their fathers at nought. Humanity appealed to; why engage in a fruitless war? “For ye shall not prosper.” What folly, base ingratitude to fight against God!
A GREAT BATTLE.—2Ch_13:13-20
Jeroboam planning while Abijah speaking. Address unheeded. A detachment sent quietly round foot of the hill. Abijah and his men found themselves surrounded. Leaders “cried unto the Lord,” Judah rallied, responded with a war-shout, which preserved from panic and led to victory.
I. Fought with unequal forces.
1. Human aid on one side. A proud king, immense multitudes, skill and generalship.
2. God’s presence on the other side. Presence in temple, on field of battle, and with symbols of victory (Num_10:9; Num_31:6). No wise king enters upon war without due preparation to stand his ground, despite formidable odds. “What king going to make war against another king sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?” Common sense should teach us not to begin any costly work without materials to finish it; not to undertake what we have neither strength nor will to achieve, nor that in which we are not prepared, if need be, to sacrifice life itself.
II. Fought for an impossible end. “For the cause was of God” (ch. 2Ch_10:15). If the decree of Darius and the superscription of Pilate could not be altered, neither could the established fact, the fixed arrangements of God. All opposition abortive, can never set aside the plans and processes of Divine government, and will re-act upon the rebel himself. The Great Maker and Ruler of the universe does not act by necessity nor by caprice, but by intelligent plan. Man may change his purpose, because defective or impracticable. God is absolutely perfect. “He is in one mind, and who can turn him?”
III. Hence utter failure in the attempt. “The children of Judah prevailed” (2Ch_13:18). Terrible slaughter, towns and cities captured. “The children of Israel were brought under at that time,” utterly defeated in their purpose. “Ambushment,” stratagems cannot thwart God. “Eight hundred thousand chosen men” no more avail than one thousand. Folly to resist God and harden ourselves in sin, by disobeying his commands, by rebelling against his providential dealings, and by refusing the offers of mercy. “He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength; who hath hardened himself against him and prospered?” “Ye shall not prosper” (2Ch_13:12).
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE AND PRACTICAL APOSTASY
Abijah here at his best; eloquent in speech, religious in appearance, and victorious in conflict. Read account in Kings to form a true estimate. He walked in the sins of Rehoboam, and his heart “was not perfect before God.” He boasted of religious observances, yet guilty of idolatry and its attendant immoralities (1Ki_14:23-24). Learn—
I. The folly of judging men by outward forms or special occasions. Forms may be assumed, put on like clothes for the occasion. Circumstances may call forth the best of the man. Religious for the occasion.
II. Men may hide their sins under the garb of religious practices. Domestic evils and personal inconsistency hidden by outward worship, liberal giving, &c. The dark side covered with the bright side, truth defended and its claims resisted.
III. Men may reproach others for sins of which they are guilty themselves. Abijah blamed Jeroboam for casting off God, when he was not right with God himself. His own character not better than that of his enemy. The Jews condemned the Gentiles for doing the same things which they virtually did themselves. Greville, in his memoirs, exhibits the very faults, critics say, which he freely condemns in kings, queens, and nobles. “Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art, that judgest: for wherein (the matter in which) thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest (substantially) the same things” (Rom_2:1).
“Be not too rigidly censorious:
A string may jar in the best master’s hand,
And the most skilful archer miss his aim” [Roscommon].
ABIJAH’S RELIGION
1. Defective in its source. Springing from a divided heart. “His heart was not perfect” and “he walked in the sins of his father.”
2. Occasional in its appearance. Called into vigour by special exigency, fitful in operation, a religion for special seasons. Much loud and spurious religion now; demonstrative on extraordinary occasions, at ordinary times lukewarm and languid. In times of war many awake, put on armour; in time of quietness at home and early life they are found in enemy’s camp.
3. Prominent in its display. Great in reform, eloquent in speech, prominent in actions. Circumstances brought him to the front. But only a religion of place and occasional service.
4. Uncertain in its duration. David before the giant, Judas Maccabæus before the host of Epiphanes could not have been more prominent and more ready, but piety no vital, lasting hold upon him. A heart weakened and dissipated by double allegiance, became alienated; service a vicious compromise; religion a mere episode, an interlude in a life of flagrant idolatry!
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
2Ch_13:5. Covenant of salt.
1. A bond of intimate friendship. “To eat salt together an act of sure friendship and mutual attachment,” friendship inviolable, incorruptible.
2. A pledge of perpetuity. Salt consolidates and preserves. The “lamp” or “torch” of David was always to burn (1Ki_2:36; 2Ki_8:19). Often on verge of extinction through sins within and darkness without, but house of David never perished. “It is the struggle between these contending elements to which, after the shock of the disruption, the kingdom and church of Judah was exposed, that gives the main interest to the period of the seven first successors of Solomon. Both kingdom and church were menaced with destruction at its commencement. At its close both were established on a basis sufficiently solid to withstand the dangers of the later period for two more centuries” [Stanley].
2Ch_13:6-12. Abijah’s remonstrance with Jeroboam. I. We shall consider the words of our text—
1. In reference to the contest then pending between Judah and Israel;
2. Abijah’s address was certainly striking and judicious;
3. The event justified his expectations. II. In reference to the contest now existing between God and sinners.
1. There is a contest now pending;
2. Suffer the word of exhortation;
3. From the former view of this subject we may learn how to obtain the blessing of God upon our aims;
4. From the latter view of this subject we may learn how to escape the destruction to which we are exposed [C. Simeon, M.A.].
2Ch_13:13-17. Man’s extremity and God’s power to help. Judah in very great danger inveigled by ambushment. I. God’s people often brought into extremities.
1. By their own foolish enterprises.
2. By the temptations of their enemies.
3. By the providence of God leading them to test and train them. “Their defence (Heb. shadow. God a shadow from heat and tempest) departed from them (Num_14:9). II. God’s people delivered by him in extremities. Jeroboam had two to one against Abijah, but lost the day. Sense sees no deliverance, reason declares it unlikely, but faith assures it will come. “The Lord is with us.”
1. By prayer. “They cried unto the Lord.”
2. By supernatural power. “God delivered them into their hand.” Israel at Red Sea against the Ethiopians (2Ch_14:11). In the day of great distress and great danger to God’s people in Germany, Luther cried in his closet, and came out, declaring to friends “Vicimus, vicimus,” we have overcome, we have overcome. From that day Charles the Fifth issued a proclamation that none should be further molested for religion. “Thou art my deliverer: God is the Lord of Hosts, with him alone is strength and power to deliver Israel.”
2Ch_13:20-22. Death a common lot.
1. It is inevitable. Knocks with impartial step at the door of the cottage and the palace of the prince, says Horace. It is appointed unto all men. Cannot be bribed by prosperity (“Abijah waxed mighty”), nor postponed by adversity (“neither did Jeroboam recover strength”).
2. It is peculiar in method. Abijah’s a natural death, “slept with his fathers.” Jeroboam “struck.” He never survived defeat; stung by accusing conscience, or inflicted by lingering, incurable disease (like Jehoram, 2Ch_21:19) which at last killed him. Death terminates all earthly glory.
“Death hath ten thousand several doors
For men to take their exits”
[John Webster].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 13
2Ch_13:5. Salt. The Orientals were accustomed to ratify their federal engagements by salt. This substance has, among the ancients, the emblem of friendship and fidelity, and therefore used in all their sacrifices and covenants. It is a sacred pledge of hospitality which they never venture to violate. Numerous instances occur of travellers in Arabia, after being plundered and stripped by the wandering tribes of the desert, claiming the protection of some civilised Arab who, after receiving him into his tent and giving him salt, instantly relieves his distress, and never forsakes him till he has placed him in safety. An agreement thus ratified is called in Scripture “a covenant of salt” [Paxton].
2Ch_13:6-12. Religion. When some people talk of religion they mean they have heard so many sermons and performed so many devotions, and thus mistake the means for the end. But true religion is an habitual recollection of God, and intention to serve Him, and thus turns everything into gold [John Newton]. For in religion as in friendship, they who profess most are ever the least sincere [Sheridan]. The dispute about religion and the practice of it seldom go together [Young].
2Ch_13:13-17. God delivered. The craft of the Church’s enemies is never but accompanied with cruelty, and their cruelty is seldom without craft. But in things wherein they deal proudly, God is above them, and by his presence with his people he brings all their plots, counsels, and enterprises to nought. The enemies of the Jews in Nehemiah’s time made great brags at first what they would do, but when they saw their plots discovered, and their purposes defeated, they are presently crestfallen, and have no mind nor courage to advance at all. To plotters may be applied what is said of Charles VIII., King of France, in his expedition against Naples: “That he came into the field like thunder and lightning, but went out like a snuff; more than a man at first, and less than a woman at last.” In all ages of the world, God’s signal presence with his people hath delivered them and frustrated the designs and counsels of the wicked [Thomas Brooks].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Reign of Abijah
Reign of Abijah
This chapter expands the account given of Abijah (Abijam) in 1Ki_15:1-8 by giving details of his war with Jeroboam, which is there only briefly mentioned.
Read full note →
2. Michaiah] In 2Ch_11:21 and 1Ki_15:2 she is called 'Maachah,' and was probably daughter of Uriel and granddaughter of Absalom.
3. Four hundred thousand, etc.] These numbers (see also 2Ch_13:17) are in keeping with the large figures that appear elsewhere in Chronicles: see 2Ch_14:8-9; 2Ch_17:14-18.
4. Zemaraim] Possibly a hill near the place of the same name in Benjamin: Jos_18:22.
5. A covenant of salt] cp. Num_18:19. The use of salt in connexion with sacrifice (see Lev_2:13) probably arose from its association with a meal; and 'there is salt between us' is said to be a phrase still employed to denote the bond which secures, for any one who has partaken of an Arab's hospitality, protection and (in case of need) assistance.
7. Children of Belial] i.e. worthless persons.
Young] That Rehoboam was young when the Ten Tribes revolted is implied in 2Ch_10:8, though in 2Ch_12:13 his age is given as 41.
8. The kingdom of the Lord] The high prerogative that once belonged to all Israel (1Ch_28:5; 2Ch_9:8) was now confined to Judah.
9. After the manner, etc.] The LXX has 'out of the people of all the land,' which agrees with the true sense of 1Ki_12:31.
12. Sounding trumpets] cp. Num_10:9; Num_31:6.
19. Jeshanah.. Ephrain] The first is not known, the second is identified by some with the 'Ephraim' mentioned in Joh_11:54.
20. The mention of Jeroboam's death here is chronologically out of place, since he outlived Abijah.
22. In the story] RV 'in the commentary.' The original term ('midrash') meant the didactic treatment of a subject or narrative; and in the 'midrash' of Iddo the reign of Abijah was presumably related with a view to moral instruction rather than historic accuracy. Possibly the account of Abijah's speech in 2Ch_13:4-12 has been taken from it: contrast 1Ki_15:3.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v2 Probably a grandchild of Absalom, called Abishalom, Cf. 2Ch…
Michaiah
Probably a grandchild of Absalom, called Abishalom, Cf. 2Ch 11:20; 1Ki 15:2.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 13 The Reign of Abijah
CHAPTER 13 The Reign of Abijah
1. The beginning of his reign (2Ch 13:1-2)
Read full note →
2. War with Jeroboam (2Ch 13:3-19)
3. Death of Jeroboam (2Ch 13:20)
4. Abijah’s family (2Ch 13:21-22)
Abijah is called in Kings, Abijam, and in 2Ch 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 (2Ch 11:20). She is called here Michaiah, probably because she was the queen-mother. There is no discrepancy between chapter 11:20 and the second verse of this chapter, in which she is called the daughter of Uriel of Gibeath. Josephus is probably correct when he states that Uriel was the husband of Tamar, the daughter of Absalom. In 2Ch 11:20, she is called a daughter of Absalom or rather grand-daughter, for one word is used in Hebrew for daughter and grand-daughter. (Abishalom in 1Ki 15:2 is the same as Absalom.)
Of Abijah’s evil walk, and that his heart was not perfect with the LORD, the Chronicles has nothing to say. That is found in Kings. That things went from bad to worse under Abijah’s brief reign may be learned from the fact that his son Asa had to institute a reformation, and Maachah, the mother of Abijah and grandmother of Asa, had to be put away, because she had put up an Asherah, a vile idol-image in a grove (1Ki 15:13; 2Ch 15:16). Chronicles gives an account of Abijah’s war with Jeroboam. The two armies of Judah and Israel faced each other; Abijah had 400,000 men and Jeroboam 800,000. There is no reason to doubt the accuracy of these figures, as some critics have done. Both sides were confident of victory. Jeroboam had twice as many men as Abijah, and they were “mighty men of valor.” He trusted in his superior number. It was different with Abijah, King of Judah. Before the battle began the king delivered a remarkable address in which he expressed his confidence in Jehovah. The LORD had given the kingdom to David and to his sons by a covenant of salt, said Abijah. The covenant of salt refers to a very ancient custom. When a guest had been entertained in a tent and partaken of salt with his host, the obligation of the latter towards his guest was one of inviolable sanctity. The covenant of Jehovah with David was like a covenant of salt, that is, inviolable. Abijah believed in that covenant. Then he mentioned Jeroboam, whom sarcastically he calls “the servant of Solomon,” his revolt, his idolatry, his opposition to the priesthood. He closed his address with a confident statement. “Behold, God Himself is with us for our captain, and His priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you.” Then the warning: “O children of Israel, fight ye not against the LORD God of your fathers, for ye shall not prosper.” Abijah won the battle. When they were encircled by the enemy they cried to Jehovah in their hour of need, and He was faithful to His own word (Numb. 10:9). When the priests sounded with the trumpets, when they shouted, no doubt in faith and anticipation of Jehovah’s interference, then God smote Jeroboam and all Israel and delivered them into their hands. They had prevailed because they relied upon the LORD God, and so shall we prevail if we trust in the Lord. With that battle Jeroboam’s strength was broken. The wicked king, whose awful idolatry was the ruin of Israel, never recovered his strength. The LORD struck him and he died.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Abijah’s Warning to Israel
Abijah’s Warning to Israel
v. 1. Now, in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Rehoboam having died after a reign of fully seventeen years, began Abijah to reign over Judah.
Read full note →
v. 2. He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Michaiah (or Maachah, 2Ch 11:20), the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah, who had married Tamar, the daughter of Absalom. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam, not merely a state of hostility, where each side rested on its arms, but actual, bitter warfare.
v. 3. And Abijah, apparently in an effort to regain the northern territory for the house of David, set the battle in array with an army of valiant men of war, experienced, veteran troops, even four hundred thousand chosen men, for most men in those days were trained in the use of arms. Jeroboam also set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men, being mighty men of valor. It was civil war in dead earnest, with no prophet interfering in behalf of Israel, since Jeroboam, on account of his idolatry, had forfeited all claims for protection.
v. 4. And Abijah stood up upon Mount Zemaraim, which is in Mount Ephraim, probably in the neighborhood of Bethel, and said, Hear me, thou Jeroboam and all Israel!
v. 5. Ought ye not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, 2Sa 7:12-16, even to him and to his sons, by a covenant of salt? He pictured the covenant as an unchangeable and irrevocable promise on the part of Jehovah, substantiated by the meat-offering, which was always prepared with salt, Lev 2:13; Num 18:19.
v. 6. Yet Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon, the son of David, is risen up and hath rebelled against his lord, Jeroboam thus being represented as a miserable usurper, who had taken advantage of Rehoboam’s youth and inexperience.
v. 7. And there are gathered unto him vain men, literally, "sons of worthlessness," the children of Belial, vain, useless fellows, loose, fickle, and unreliable, and have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tender-hearted and could not withstand them, they showed themselves strong against him while he was as yet unstable and unable to resist them.
v. 8. And now ye think to withstand, by making themselves strong, the kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David; and ye be a great multitude, and there are with you golden calves, which Jeroboam made you for gods, this being a sharp censure of the gross idolatry which now had official recognition in the northern kingdom, 1Ki 12:28.
v. 9. Have ye not, in consequence of the gross idolatry introduced by Jeroboam, cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, all these having been put out of office and expelled from the country when Jeroboam selected priests for his cult who were not of the sons of Levi, 1Ki 12:31; 2Ch 11:14, and have made you priests after the manner of the nations of other lands? so that whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, changing the requirements of the law also in this respect and making it a priesthood of ungods, Exodus 29; Deu 32:21, the same may be a priest of them that are no gods.
v. 10. But as for us, the members of the southern nation, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken Him, the pure and regular observance of the true religion was found only in Judah; and the priests which minister unto the Lord are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business;
v. 11. and they burn unto the Lord every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices and sweet incense; the showbread also set they in order upon the pure table, the special table overlaid with gold in the Holy Place, and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof to burn every evening; for we keep the charge of the Lord, our God, performing all the acts of public worship in strict conformity with His regulations; but ye have forsaken Him.
v. 12. And, behold, God Himself is with us for our Captain, the army of Judah had placed itself entirely under His leadership and protection, and His priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you, for that was one of the functions of the priests, to sound the clanging trumpets and thereby call upon the Lord to help His people in war, Num 10:9. Abijah ended with one last fervent appeal: O children of Israel, fight ye not against the Lord God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper. It is only where the Word of God is the lamp to a community or nation that He will truly bless and prosper the people.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v1 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam
In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam
This refers to the eighteenth year of Jeroboam's reign as king. AT: "In the eighteenth year that Jeroboam was king" or "in year 18 of King Jeroboam's reign" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Ordinal Numbers)
Read full note →
Macaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah
"Macaiah" is the name of a woman. "Uriel" is the name of a man. (See: How to Translate Names)
There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam
The names of the kings represent the armies that they led. AT: "There was war between the army of Abijah and the army of Jeroboam" (See: Synecdoche)
400,000 chosen men ... 800,000 chosen men
"Four hundred thousand chosen men ... eight hundred thousand chosen men." The phrase "chosen men" is an idiom that refers to elite soldiers who were skilled in battle. AT: "400,000 skilled men ... 800,000 skilled men" (See: Numbers and Idiom)
translationWords
king
Jeroboam
reign
kingdom of Judah
rule
Jerusalem
name
Abijah
chosen one
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–2 13:1 Abijah is called Abijam in Kings (e.g., 1…
13:1 Abijah is called Abijam in Kings (e.g., 1 Kgs 15:1). Abijam, possibly the Canaanite form of his name, would mean “my father is Yam.” Yam was the Canaanite sea-god prominent in the Baal stories (see study note on Job 7:12). Abijah means “my father is Yah,” the usual short form for Yahweh, the God of Judah. Abijah reigned from 913 to 910 BC.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.