2 Chronicles 13:15
Ver. 15. 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 "1Sa 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. 2 Chronicles 13:16Ver. 16. And the children of Israel fled before Judah,.... Were in such a fright and consternation, that they could not stand their ground, or engage at all; but took to flight immediately:and God delivered them into their hand; to be taken and slain by them. 2 Chronicles 13:17Ver. 17. And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter,.... As they fled, pursuing them:so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men; such a slaughter as is not to be met with in any history, as Josephus {s} observes; though Abarbinel wonders he should say so, and affirms that he had read of larger numbers slain at once; but he is the only man that ever pretended to it; Jerom {t} makes the number but 50,000, and some copies of the Vulgate Latin {u}, and Josephus Ben Gorion, as Abarbinel {w} relates; but the true Josephus, the Targum, and all the ancient versions, agree with the Hebrew text; more than half Jeroboam's army was cut off, and 100,000 more than Abijah had in his.{s} Antiqu. l. 8. c. 11. sect. 3. {t} Trad. Heb. fol. 84. M. {u} So that of Sixtus V. in James's Corruption of the Fathers, p. 294. {w} Comment in 1. Reg. xv. 6. fol. 250. 3. 2 Chronicles 13:18Ver. 18. Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time,.... Humbled and weakened, but not reduced to the government of the house of David:and the children of Judah prevailed; or grew strong:because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers; trusted in him, and not in an arm of flesh; the Targum is,"in the Word of the Lord God of their fathers.'' 2 Chronicles 13:19Ver. 19. And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam,.... As he and his army fled:and took cities from him; the following ones:Bethel with the towns thereof; the villages adjoining to it; here one of the calves was set up, which either Jeroboam took care to remove before this place fell into the hands of Abijah, or Abijah let it remain, and did not destroy it:and Jeshanah with the towns thereof; which Reland {x} thinks is the same that is called by Jerom {y} Jethaba:and Ephraim with the towns thereof; a city so called, thought to be the same that is mentioned in the passage, See Gill on "Joh 11:54"; it is here called, in the Targum, Ephron; so Jerom {z} calls it, and says it was Sichem.{x} Palestin. Illustrat. p. 861. {y} De loc. Heb. fol. 92. L. {z} Trad. Heb. fol. 85. A. 2 Chronicles 13:20Ver. 20. Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days of Abijah,.... So as to bring an army into the field against him, and fight him:and the Lord struck him; by some Jewish writers {a}, this is interpreted of Abijah; and the reason of his being stricken, they say, was because he did not destroy the calf when he took Bethel; but it is best to understand it of Jeroboam, since Abijah is afterwards said to wax mighty:and he died; not immediately, for he lived two years after Abijah, 1Ki 14:20, but continued under a lingering disease he was smitten with, and which issued in his death.{a} Bereshit Rabba, sect. 65. fol. 58. 8. Seder Olam Rabba, c. 16. 2 Chronicles 13:21Ver. 21. But Abijah waxed mighty,.... In his kingdom, increasing in riches and numbers, power and authority, and in his family:and married fourteen wives, and begat twenty and two sons and sixteen daughters; not after the above battle, nor since he began to reign; for he reigned but three years; but he, no doubt, married wives and had children before he came to the throne, as he might have others after. 2 Chronicles 13:22Ver. 22. And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his sayings,.... Not only his warlike actions, and his course of life, but some remarkable sayings of his, he being a man of wisdom and eloquence, as his above speech shows;are written in the story of the prophet Iddo; who might write the history of his own times; see 1Ki 15:7.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.