When Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind them; and they cried to Yahweh, and the priests sounded with the trumpets. Then the men of Judah gave a shout. As the men of Judah shouted, God struck Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. The children of Israel fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hand. Abijah and his people killed them with a great slaughter, so five hundred thousand chosen men of Israel fell down slain. Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied on Yahweh, the God of their fathers.
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2 Chronicles 13:14-18 sits inside this longer paragraph.
But Jeroboam caused an ambush to come about behind them; so they were before Judah, and the ambush was behind them. When Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind them; and they cried to Yahweh, and the priests sounded with the trumpets. Then the men of Judah gave a shout. As the men of Judah shouted, God struck Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. The children of Israel fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hand. Abijah and his people killed them with a great slaughter, so five hundred thousand chosen men of Israel fell down slain. Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied on Yahweh, the God of their fathers. Abijah pursued Jeroboam, and took cities from him, Bethel with its villages, Jeshanah with its villages, and Ephron with its villages.
Parallel Translations
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When Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind them; and they cried to Yahweh, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.
Then the men of Judah gave a shout. As the men of Judah shouted, God struck Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.
The children of Israel fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hand.
Abijah and his people killed them with a great slaughter, so five hundred thousand chosen men of Israel fell down slain.
Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied on Yahweh, the God of their fathers.
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And when Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind: and they cried unto the LORD, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.
Then the men of Judah gave a shout: and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass, that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.
And the children of Israel fled before Judah: and God delivered them into their hand.
And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter: so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men.
Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the LORD God of their fathers.
Show all 3 translations
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And when Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind them; and they cried unto the LORD, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.
Then the men of Judah gave a shout; and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass, that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.
And the children of Israel fled before Judah; and God delivered them into their hand.
And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter; so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men.
Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the LORD, the God of their fathers.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Science (1)
Historical claims about the natural world, weighed against the scientific record.
Cross-references (47)
- 2 Chronicles 14:11 (vv14, 18) Asa cried to Yahweh his God, and said, “Yahweh, there is no one besides you to help, between the mighty and him who has no strength. Help…
- 1 Chronicles 5:20 (v18) They were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them; for they cried to God in the…
- Nahum 1:7 (v18) Yahweh is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in him.
- 2 Kings 18:5 (v18) He trusted in Yahweh, the God of Israel; so that after him was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were…
- 2 Chronicles 14:12 (v15) So Yahweh struck the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled.
Show all 45 cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 16:8-9 (v18) Weren’t the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge army, with chariots and exceedingly many horsemen? Yet, because you relied on Yahweh, he…
- 2 Chronicles 20:20 (v18) They rose early in the morning, and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. As they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me,…
- Psalms 22:4-5 (v18) Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them. They cried to you, and were delivered. They trusted in you, and were not…
- Psalms 146:5 (v18) Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Yahweh, his God:
- Daniel 3:28 (v18) Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel, and delivered his servants…
- Exodus 14:10 (v14) When Pharaoh came near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them; and they were very…
- Ephesians 1:12 (v18) to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.
- Joshua 8:20 (v14) When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee…
- Judges 20:33-43 (v14) All the men of Israel rose up out of their place and set themselves in array at Baal Tamar. Then the ambushers of Israel broke out of their…
- 2 Samuel 10:8-14 (v14) The children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entrance of the gate. The Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob, and the men of…
- 2 Chronicles 16:8 (v16) Weren’t the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge army, with chariots and exceedingly many horsemen? Yet, because you relied on Yahweh, he…
- Psalms 50:15 (v14) Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
- Psalms 91:5 (v14) You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day,
- Isaiah 37:36 (vv15, 17) Then Yahweh’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the…
- Genesis 14:20 (v16) Blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” Abram gave him a tenth of all.
- Numbers 32:4 (v15) the land which Yahweh struck before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock; and your servants have livestock.”
- Deuteronomy 2:36 (v16) From Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was not a city too…
- Deuteronomy 3:3 (v16) So Yahweh our God delivered into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people. We struck him until no one was left to him…
- Joshua 6:16 (v15) At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for Yahweh has given you the city!
- Joshua 6:20 (v15) So the people shouted and the priests blew the trumpets. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great…
- Joshua 10:12 (v16) Then Joshua spoke to Yahweh in the day when Yahweh delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel. He said in the sight of Israel,…
- Joshua 11:8 (v15) Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Israel, and they struck them, and chased them to great Sidon, and to Misrephoth Maim, and to the…
- Joshua 21:44 (v16) Yahweh gave them rest all around, according to all that he swore to their fathers. Not a man of all their enemies stood before them. Yahweh…
- Judges 1:4 (v16) Judah went up, and Yahweh delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand. They struck ten thousand men in Bezek.
- Judges 4:15 (v15) Yahweh confused Sisera, all his chariots, and all his army, with the edge of the sword before Barak. Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled…
- Judges 7:18-22 (v15) When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and shout, ‘For Yahweh and…
- Judges 11:21 (v16) Yahweh, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them. So Israel possessed all the…
- 1 Samuel 23:7 (v16) Saul was told that David had come to Keilah. Saul said, “God has delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in by entering into a town that…
- 2 Kings 5:1 (v15) Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Yahweh had given…
- 2 Chronicles 13:3 (v17) Abijah joined battle with an army of valiant men of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men; and Jeroboam set the battle in array…
- 2 Chronicles 13:12 (v17) Behold, God is with us at our head, and his priests with the trumpets of alarm to sound an alarm against you. Children of Israel, don’t…
- 2 Chronicles 18:31 (v14) When the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “It is the king of Israel!” Therefore they turned around to fight against…
- 2 Chronicles 20:21 (v15) When he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to Yahweh, and give praise in holy array, as they go out…
- 2 Chronicles 28:6 (v17) For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed in Judah one hundred twenty thousand in one day, all of them valiant men, because they had forsaken…
- Psalms 47:1 (v15) Oh clap your hands, all you nations. Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
- Psalms 47:5 (v15) God has gone up with a shout, Yahweh with the sound of a trumpet.
- Psalms 118:4-7 (v15) Now let those who fear Yahweh say that his loving kindness endures forever. Out of my distress, I called on Yah. Yah answered me with…
- Isaiah 10:16-19 (v17) Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning…
- Nahum 1:5 (v17) The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.
- 1 Corinthians 10:22 (v17) Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
45 distinct cross-references across this passage (47 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (16 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 vv15, 18 Or, gave him the overthrow.
Or, gave him the overthrow.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 17, 18 2Ch 13:14 And when Judah looked back, behold, the…
2Ch 13:14 And when Judah looked back, behold, the battle [was] before and behind: and they cried unto the LORD, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.
Ver. 14. And when Judah looked back.] For till then, they suspected not any such treachery.
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And they cried unto the Lord.] Inter arma silent leges: preces non sileant. Prayers are the soldier’s surest great ordnance.
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 vv15, 17, 18 By strengthening the hearts and hands of the men…
By strengthening the hearts and hands of the men of Judah, and taking away the spirits and power of their enemies; and, it may be, by some extraordinary assistance.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv14–18 Then the men of Judah gave a shout,.... Taking…
Then the men of Judah gave a shout,.... Taking heart at the sound of the trumpets, and in order to encourage one another, and intimidate the enemy; See Gill on Sa1 17:20,
and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass, that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah; possessed them with a panic, so that they fled at once, as follows.
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 v15 Gave a shout - It is unspeakable comfort, that…
Gave a shout - It is unspeakable comfort, that no stratagem or ambush can cut off our communication with heaven. To the cry of prayer they added the shout of faith, and so became more than conquerors.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv17–18 Verse 17. Slain - five hundred thousand chosen men.]…
Verse 17. Slain - five hundred thousand chosen men.] Query, fifty thousand? This was a great slaughter: 2Ch 13:3, where all these numbers are supposed to be overcharged.
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 vv14, 15, 18 2Ch 13:14. Behold, the battle was before and behind…
2Ch 13:14. Behold, the battle was before and behind — Thus Judah was unexpectedly brought into a great strait, and put into great fear. A good cause, and one which is designed to be victorious, may be involved in difficulty and distress. And they cried unto the Lord — For when danger was on every side, which way should they look but upward for deliverance? It is an unspeakable comfort, that no enemy, not the most powerful or politic, and no stratagem or ambushment, can cut off our communication with heaven. Our way thitherward is always open. We may hope they cried unto the Lord before they engaged in this war; but the distress they were in made them renew their prayers, and quickened them to be more importunate. God brings his people into straits, that he may teach them to cry unto him.
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 vv17–18 Slain - The word means strictly “pierced,” and will…
Slain - The word means strictly “pierced,” and will include both the killed and the wounded. It is translated “wounded” in Lam 2:12.
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 vv14, 15, 17 Trumpets, to invoke God’s aid, Numbers x. 9. (Menochius)
Trumpets, to invoke God’s aid, Numbers x. 9. (Menochius)
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).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv17–18 17. There fell down slain of Israel five hundred…
17. There fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men — These many slain (חללים, pierced, wounded) probably include both killed and wounded during the whole war; not those who fell in any one engagement.
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 vv15, 17, 18 15. gave a shout] This shout had the character…
15. gave a shout] This shout had the character of a religions function; cp. Jos_6:10; Jos_6:16, where the same Heb. word is used.
God smote Jeroboam] Cp. 2Ch_14:12.
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 vv14, 15, 17, 18 (14) And when Judah looked back, behold the battle…
(14) And when Judah looked back, behold the battle was before and behind.—Comp. the account of the ambuscade by which Ai was taken (Joshua , 8); and Gibeah (Judges 20),
Judah looked back.—Not prepared (Bertheau) (See Jos_8:20).
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Sounded.—Were sounding. Literally, trumpeting.
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 v17 Slain; Hebrew, Even if we accept for a moment…
Slain; Hebrew, Even if we accept for a moment the immense numbers written here and elsewhere as authentic, a considerable deduction may be made from our difficulty by virtue of the fact that this word need not mean to describe the actually slain. It occurs about ninety-one times. Of these, in our Authorized Version, it is found rendered, including marginal options, as many as fifteen times "wounded," or by even a less severe meaning. However, whether "slain" or "wounded and slain," the alleged, numbers of our present text are, in our opinion, incredibly enormous.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v18 2 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
THE SECRET OF VICTORY
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2Ch 13:18.
These words are the summing-up of the story of a strange old-world battle between Jeroboam, the adventurer who rent the kingdom, and Abijah, the son of the foolish Rehoboam, whose unseasonable blustering had played into the usurper’s hands. The son was a wiser and better man than his father. It is characteristic of the ancient world, that before battle was joined Abijah made a long speech to the enemy, recounting the ritual deficiencies of the Northern kingdom, and proudly contrasting the punctilious correctness of the Temple service with the irregular cult set up by Jeroboam. He confidently pointed to the priests ‘with their trumpets’ in his army as the visible sign that ‘God is with us at our head,’ and while charging Israel with having ‘forsaken the Lord our God,’ to whom he and his people had kept true, besought them not to carry their rebellion to the extreme of fighting against their fathers’ God, and assured them that no success could attend their weapons in such a strife. The passionate appeal had no effect, but while Abijah was orating, Jeroboam was carrying out a ruse, and planting part of his troops behind Judah, so as to put them between two fires and draw a net round the outnumbered and outmanoeuvred enemy.
Abijah and his men suddenly detected their desperate position, and did the only wise thing. When, with a shock of surprise, they saw that ‘behold! the battle was before and behind them,’ they ‘cried unto the Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.’ The sharp, short cry from thousands of agitated men ringed round by foes, and the blare of the trumpets were both prayers, and heartened the suppliants for their whirlwind charge, before which the men of Israel, double in number as they were, broke and fled. The defeat was thorough, and, for a while, Rehoboam and his kingdom were ‘brought under,’ and a comparatively long peace followed. Our text gathers up the lesson taught, not to Judah or Israel alone, by victory and defeat, when it declares that to rely upon the Lord is to prevail. It opens for us the secret of victory, in that old far-off struggle and in to-day’s conflicts.
I. We note the faith of the fighters.
‘They relied,’ says the chronicler, ‘upon the Lord.’ Now the word rendered ‘relied’ is one of several picturesque words by which the Old Testament, which we are sometimes told, with a great flourish of learning, has no mention of ‘faith,’ expresses ‘trust,’ by metaphors drawn from bodily actions which symbolise the spiritual act. The word here literally signifies to lean on, as a feeble hand might on a staff, or a tremulous arm on a strong one. And does not that picture carry with it much insight into what the essence of Old Testament ‘trust’ or New Testament ‘faith’ is? If we think of faith as leaning, we shall not fall into that starved misconception of it which takes it to be nothing more than intellectual assent. We shall see there is a far fuller pulse of feeling than that beating in it. A man who leans on some support, does so because he knows that his own strength is insufficient for his need. The consciousness of weakness is the beginning of faith. He who has never despaired of himself has scarcely trusted in God. Abijah’s enemies were two to one of his own men. No wonder that they cried unto the Lord, and felt a stound of despair shake their courage. And who of us can face life with its heavy duties, its thick-clustering dangers and temptations, its certain struggles, its possible failures, and not feel the cold touch of dread gripping our hearts, though strong and brave? Surely he has had little experience, or has learned little wisdom from the experience he has had, who has yet to discover his own weakness. But the consciousness of weakness is by itself debilitating, and but increases the weakness of which it is painfully aware. There is no surer way to sap what strength we have than to tell ourselves what poor creatures we are. The purpose and end of self-contemplation which becomes aware of our own feebleness is to lead us to the contemplation of God, our immortal strength. Abijah’s assurance that ‘God is with us at our head’ rang out triumphantly. Faith has an upper and an under side: the under side is self-distrust; the upper, trust in God. He will never lean all his weight on a prop, who fancies that he can stand alone, or has other stays to hold him up.
But Abijah’s example teaches us another lesson-that for a vigorous faith, there must be obedience to all God’s known will. True, thank God! faith often springs in its power in a soul that is conscious but of sin, but a continuance in disobedience will inevitably kill faith. It was because Abijah and his people had kept ‘the charge of the Lord our God,’ that they were sure that God was with them. We can only be sure of God to lean on when we are doing His will, and we shall do His will only as we are sure that we lean on Him. Our trust in Him will be strong and operative in the measure in which our lives are conformed to His commandments. Much elaborate dissertation has been devoted to expounding what faith is, and the strong, vivid Scriptural conception of it has been woefully darkened and overlaid with cobwebs of theology, but surely this eloquent metaphor of our text tells us more than do many learned volumes. It bids us lean on God, rest the whole weight of our needs, our weaknesses, and our sins on Him. Like any human friend or helper, He is better pleased when we lean hard on Him than when we gingerly put a finger on His arm, and lay no pressure on it, as we do when in ceremonial fashion we seem to accept another’s support, and hold ourselves back from putting a weight on the offered arm. We cannot rely too utterly on Him. We honour Him most when we repose our whole selves on His strong arm.
II. The increase of faith by sudden fear.
‘When Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind them.’ The shock of seeing the flashing spears in the rear would make the bravest hold their breath for one overwhelming moment, but the next moment their faith in God surged back with tenfold force, increased by the sudden new peril. The sharp collision of flint and steel struck out a spark of faith. ‘What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee,’ said an expert in the genesis and growth of trust. Peril kills a feeble trust, but vivifies it, if strong. The recognition of danger is meant to drive us to God. If each fresh difficulty or danger makes us tighten our clasp of Him, and lean the harder on Him, it has done its highest service to us, and we have conquered it, and are the stronger because of it. The storm that makes the traveller, fighting with the wind and the rain in his face, clasp his cloak tighter round him, does him no harm. The purpose of our trials is to drive us to God, and a fair-weather faith which had all but fallen asleep is often roused to energy that works wonders, by the sudden dash of danger flung into and disturbing a life. It is wise seamanship to make a run to get snugly behind the breakwater when a sudden gale springs up.
III. The expression of faith in appeal to God.
When the ambush was unmasked, the surrounded men of Judah ‘cried unto the Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets,’ before they flung themselves on the enemy. We may be sure that their cry was short and sharp, and poignant with appeal to God. There would be no waste words, nor perfunctory petitions without wings of desire, in that cry. Should we not look for the essential elements of prayer rather to such cries, pressed from burdened hearts by a keen sense of absolute helplessness, and very careless of proprieties so long as they were shrill enough to pierce God’s ear and touch His heart, than to the formal petitions of well-ordered worship? A single ejaculation flung heavenward in a moment of despair or agony is more precious in God’s sight than a whole litany of half-hearted devotions.
The text puts in a striking form another lesson well worth learning, that, in the greatest crises, no time is better spent than time used for prayer. A rush on the enemy would not have served Abijah’s purpose nearly so well as that moment’s pause for crying to the Lord, before his charge. Hands lifted to heaven are nerved to clutch the sword and strike manfully. It is not only that Christ’s soldiers are to fight and pray, but that they fight by praying. That is true in the small conflicts and antagonisms of the lives of each of us, and it is true in regard to the agelong battle against ignorance and sin. Christian’s sword was named ‘All-prayer.’
The priests, too, blew a prayer through their trumpets, for the ordinance had appointed that ‘when ye go to war . . . then shall ye sound an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies.’ The clear, strident blare was not intended to hearten warriors, or to sing defiance, but to remind God of His promises, and to bring Him on to the battlefield, as He had said that He would be. The truest prayer is that which but picks up the arrows of promise shot from heaven to earth, and casts them back from earth to heaven. He prays best who fills his mouth with God’s words, turning every ‘I will’ of His into ‘Do Thou!’
IV. The strength that comes through faith.
‘As the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.’ There is no such quickener of all a man’s natural force as even the lowest forms of faith. He who throws himself into any enterprise sure of success will often succeed just because he was sure he would. The world’s history is full of instances where men, with every odds against them, have plucked the flower safety out of the nettle danger, just because they trusted in their star, or their luck, or their destiny. We all know how a very crude faith turned a horde of wild Arabs into a conquering army, that in a century dominated the world from Damascus to Seville. The truth that is in ‘Christian Science’ is that many forms of disease yield to the patient’s firm persuasion of recovery. And from these and many other facts the natural power of faith is beginning to dawn on the most matter-of-fact and unspiritual people. They are beginning to think that perhaps Christ was right after all in saying ‘All things are possible to him that believeth,’ and that it is not such a blunder after all to make faith the first step to all holiness and purity, and the secret of victory in life’s tussle. Leaving out of view for the moment the supernatural effects of faith, which Christianity alleges are its constant consequences, it is clear that its natural effects are all in the direction of increasing the force of the trusting man. It calms, it heartens for all work, effort, and struggle. It imparts patience, it brightens hope, it forbids discouragement, it rebukes and cures despondency. And besides all this, there is the supernatural communication of a strength not our own, which is the constant result of Christian faith. Christian faith knits the soul and the Saviour in so close a union, that all that is Christ’s becomes the Christian’ s, and every believer may hear His Lover’s voice whispering to him what one of His servants once heard in an hour of despondency, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Faith joins us to the Lord, and ‘he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit’; and that Lord has said to all His disciples, ‘I give thee Myself, and in Myself all that is Mine.’ We do not go to warfare at our own charges, but there will pass into and abide in our hearts the warlike might of the true King and Captain of the Lord’s host, and we shall hear the ring of His encouraging voice saying, ‘Be of good cheer! I have overcome the world.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v17 (See Scofield "1Co 10:8").
five
(See Scofield "1Co 10:8").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v16 fled before Judah
fled before Judah
Here the word "Judah" represents the army of Judah. AT: "fled before the army of Judah" (See: Metonymy)
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God gave them into the hand of Judah
Here the word "hand" represents power. God enabling the army of Judah to defeat the army of Israel is spoken of as if God had put the army of Israel in the hand of the army of Judah. AT: "God enabled Judah to defeat the people of Israel" (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)
killed them with great slaughter
This idiom means that they thoroughly defeated them, or that they killed very many of the soldiers. AT: "thoroughly defeated them" or "slaughtered many of their soldiers" (See: Idiom)
500,000 chosen men
"five hundred thousand chosen men." The phrase "chosen men" is an idiom that refers to elite soldiers who were skilled in battle. AT: "500,000 of the best soldiers" (See: Numbers and Idiom)
the people of Israel were subdued
This can be stated in active form. AT: "the army of Judah subdued the people of Israel" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
hand
slaughter
chosen one
die
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.