2 Chronicleschapter 13
22 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Do you not know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt?
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 2 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for a community whose claim to be the true Israel rested on an ordered priesthood. Tradition gives the book to Ezra. It records a war between the two kingdoms and a speech made from a mountain before the fighting starts. Listen to what the king of Judah argues from, because it is worship from start to finish. Weigh the size of the armies and note that the numbers are hard. Then watch what Judah does when it finds itself surrounded.
Context
- Who
- A community whose claim to be the true Israel rested on an ordered priesthood
- What
- Abijah's war against Jeroboam, his speech from Mount Zemaraim, and Judah's victory when it cried to the LORD.
- Where
- Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim, on the border between Judah and Israel.
- When
- The short reign of Abijah, about 913 to 911 BC.
- Why
- To show that the kingdom which kept the LORD's priesthood and worship had God with it at its head.
Historical context
Speaking to an enemy army from a height before a battle was a normal part of ancient warfare. Voices carry across a valley, and the aim was to break the other side's nerve before a blow was struck. Abijah's speech is a legal brief delivered at the top of his lungs.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
His argument is entirely about worship. Judah still has the sons of Aaron and the Levites serving, and the burnt offering goes up morning and evening. The bread is set out on the clean table, the lamps are lit each evening, and the priests sound the trumpets. Israel has golden calves, and priests made by anyone who came with a young bull and seven rams, which is to say a priesthood that could be bought.
The covenant of salt he cites is a real formula. Salt preserved, so agreements sealed with salt were understood to be permanent, and the grain offerings were salted for the same reason.
The battle is a standard ambush. Engage the front, send a force around behind, and catch the enemy between. Judah's advantage in the text is the trumpets the priests blew and the cry the men raised.
The troop figures of four hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand and five hundred thousand killed are enormous, and honesty requires naming the difficulty. The Hebrew word usually translated thousand can also mean a unit, a squad or a clan contingent, and some scholars read the figures as counts of units. Others take them as written, on the ancient practice of stating a great victory in round, resounding numbers. The text leaves it open.
Significance
The first hearers made the same argument Abijah made, in the same terms. Their claim against the rival worship in Samaria rested on the priesthood, the lamp, the bread and the daily offering rather than on strength.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The writer turns that claim into a battlefield speech, so the theology arrives with an army behind it. We are carrying out the requirements of the LORD our God, while you have forsaken Him.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
2 Chronicles is not read in the synagogue. Chronicles stands among the Writings in the Hebrew canon rather than among the Prophets the Haftarah is drawn from. The division into two books came in through the Greek. The book therefore carries neither a weekly Torah portion nor a Haftarah, and this site's own reading table records the same for all thirty-six chapters. Abijah's speech at Mount Zemaraim is met in the commentary and the midrash instead, and the rest of this card is drawn from them.
How it is read
The longest note in this chapter is about a woman's name, and it carries a tradition Rashi names his source for. The king's mother is Micaiah the daughter of Uriel here, and Maacah the daughter of Absalom in the earlier chapter and in Kings. Micaiah was her real name, Rashi says, and it stands here because this book is the genealogical record of Judah. Kings uses the nickname instead. The nickname came from her daughter-in-law, "who was a valiant woman, a heroic woman" (Rashi on II Chronicles 13:2:2, the Judaica Press Tanach with Rashi, CC-BY). The mother-in-law was called by the younger woman's name in her honour.
Rashi then gives the rule behind it, and says where he had it. The tradition is in the name of Rabbi Eliezer, who told it to him in his father's name, and he found it in his father's commentary. "Wherever a 'vav' is added to the name of a woman, this is to her praise" (Rashi on II Chronicles 13:2:2). He gives Athaliah as one instance, because she was a valiant woman who reigned over the land. He gives Jecoliah as another, and tells her story to prove it. Her husband Amaziah fled to Lachish and stayed there fifteen years until he died, and she judged the people through all fifteen. This is a saying of the rabbis carried inside the commentary, and it is reported here as theirs.
The reign itself he cuts short by arithmetic. Three years in Jerusalem and no more, which he proves from the year of Asa's accession in Kings (Rashi on II Chronicles 13:2:1). The battle he places in Jeroboam's own territory on Mount Ephraim, because Abijah went up to him (Rashi on II Chronicles 13:4:1).
The speech Rashi reads phrase by phrase as a legal case. The covenant of salt he glosses as endurance and permanence (Rashi on II Chronicles 13:5:1). Jeroboam rising against his master he marks as a stigma, since the man was the servant of Solomon the son of David (Rashi on II Chronicles 13:6:1). Those who gathered to him were worthless and wicked (Rashi on II Chronicles 13:7:1). The charge about the northern priesthood he makes concrete. Anyone who wished to be initiated as a priest to a golden calf brought a young bull and seven rams "and be accepted" (Rashi on II Chronicles 13:9:1). Against that he sets the order in Jerusalem, where every man keeps the work David prepared for him, this one to sing and that one to guard the gates (Rashi on II Chronicles 13:10:1). The blow at the twentieth verse he assigns plainly to Jeroboam himself (Rashi on II Chronicles 13:20:1).
Radak, Metzudat David and Malbim comment across this chapter as well. The corpus carries their refs with the reason that Sefaria holds no English version of them, so they stand here cited and unquoted. Metzudat David on II Chronicles 13:1:1, 13:3:1, 13:8:1, 13:11:1, 13:12:1, 13:13:1, 13:14:1, 13:15:1, 13:21:1 and 13:23:1. Radak on II Chronicles 13:1:1, 13:17:1 and 13:22:1. Malbim on II Chronicles 13:16:1 and 13:18:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries twenty-three rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none. Each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. The covenant of salt draws the heaviest run. The fifth verse carries six. They are Bereshit Rabbah 71:5, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 1:12, Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 20:6, Midrash Tehillim 132:1, Vayikra Rabbah 24:2 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 187:2.
The service in Jerusalem that Abijah sets against the north draws the next. The eleventh verse, the burnt offerings morning and evening and the showbread on the pure table, carries five. Two are talmudic, at Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 6:3:4 and Menachot 99a:6. Three are midrashic: Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Melechet HaMishkan 1:42, Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair 1:4, and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 369:5. The tenth verse carries Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 756:1.
The battle and its aftermath carry the rest. The thirteenth verse, the ambush set behind Judah, carries Jerusalem Talmud Yevamot 16:3:3. The seventeenth, the five hundred thousand chosen men fallen, carries Vayikra Rabbah 33:5. The nineteenth, the towns taken from Jeroboam, carries five. They are Bereshit Rabbah 65:20, Bereshit Rabbah 73:5, Midrash Shmuel 18:5, Ruth Rabbah 7:12 and Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 7:12:4. The twentieth, where Jeroboam is struck, carries Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 31:3:4 and Seder Olam Rabbah 16:2.
The book of Iddo at the close carries Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introduction to Halakhic Midrashim, Halakhic Midrash 14. One further locator stands in the file, Aggadat Bereshit 30:1, filed under a verse number beyond the twenty-two this chapter holds. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on II Chronicles 13:2:1 to 13:20:1, nine kept notes, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, CC-BY; Rabbi Eliezer, the tradition of the added vav in a woman's name, reported inside Rashi on II Chronicles 13:2:2 in the name of Rabbi Eliezer and of his father's commentary; Radak, Radak on II Chronicles 13:1:1, 13:17:1 and 13:22:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on II Chronicles 13:1:1 to 13:23:1, ten refs cited because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on II Chronicles 13:16:1 and 13:18:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/2-chronicles/13.json, the 23 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; This site's reading table, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed in this lane: 2-chronicles parashot total 0, haftarah uses total 0, hasSynagogueReading true for 0 of 36 chapters, festivalReadingForBook null.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Abijah on Mount Zemaraim: God Himself is with us as captain
2 Chronicles 13:1-3
Abijah became king of Judah: Kings gives this reign three verses and names the king Abijam, a man who walked in his father's sins. The armies of verse 3, 400,000 against 800,000, are reported only here. Barnes ties the gap to the move of northern priests and Levites into Judah that Chronicles recorded at 11:13-17.
2 Chronicles 13:1
“The history of Abijah’s reign is here related far more fully than in Kings (marginal reference), especially as regards his war with Jeroboam.”
he reigned in Jerusalem three years: Abijah reigned three years, and there was war with Jeroboam. Barnes observes that Chronicles tells this reign far more fully than Kings does, above all the war with Jeroboam. Gill adds that the battle this chapter records is absent from the book of Kings.
2 Chronicles 13:2
“He reigned three years in Jerusalem,.... See Gill on 1Ki 15:2, his mother's name also was Michaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah; see 2Ch 11:20; see Gill on 1Ki 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.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 13:2
“His mother’s name - was Michaiah - See on 2Ch 11:20 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Abijah went into battle: Abijah led 400,000 chosen men into battle, and Jeroboam drew up 800,000 mighty men of valor against him. Some editors proposed cutting these figures and those of verse 17 to 40,000, 80,000 and 50,000, following many early editions of the Vulgate. Barnes keeps them by David's census, 1 Chronicles 21:5.
2 Chronicles 13:3
“And Abijah set the battle in array, with an army of valiant man of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men,.... Collected such an army of select men, led them into his enemy's country, and set them in order of battle: and Jeroboam also set the battle in array against him, with eight hundred thousand chosen men, being mighty men of valour; double the number of Abijah s army, he having ten tribes to collect out of, and Abijah but two.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 13:3
“It has been proposed to change the numbers, here and in 2Ch 13:17, into 40,000, 80,000, and 50,000 respectively - partly because these smaller numbers are found in many early editions of the Vulgate, but mainly because the larger ones are thought to be incredible. The numbers accord well, however, with the census of the people taken in the reign of David 1Ch 21:5, joined to the fact which the writer has related 2Ch 11:13-17, of a considerable subsequent emigration from the northern kingdom into the southern one.”
2 Chronicles 13:4-5
Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim: Abijah stands on Mount Zemaraim and addresses the opposing army, as ancient commanders sometimes did, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note. His first claim is the kingship given to David and his descendants “by a covenant of salt”. Clarke ties the phrase, through the Targum, to salt that does not decay.
2 Chronicles 13:4
“Stood up upon Mount Zemaraim - “Which was a mount of the tribe of the house of Ephraim.” - Targum. Jarchi thinks that Abijah went to the confines of the tribe of Ephraim to attack Jeroboam. It could not be Shomeron, the mount on which Samaria was built in the days of Omri king of Israel, 1Ki 16:24.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 13:4
“Abijah stood up upon Mount Zemaraim--He had entered the enemy's territory and was encamped on an eminence near Beth-el (Jos 18:22). Jeroboam's army lay at the foot of the hill, and as a pitched battle was expected, Abijah, according to the singular usage of ancient times, harangued the enemy.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
by a covenant of salt?: Abijah claims the kingship for David by a covenant of salt, one made to last forever. The Targum, which Clarke quotes, draws from the sea: its waters never turn sweet, and the dominion will never leave the house of David. Henry links it to sacrifice, which was always salted.
2 Chronicles 13:5
“By a covenant of salt? - For ever. “For as the waters of the sea never grow sweet, neither shall the dominion depart from the house of David.” - Targum. See my note on Num 18:19 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 13:6-7
rebelled against his master: Abijah names Jeroboam “a servant of Solomon son of David”. The men who backed him were “worthless and wicked men”, and they rose while Rehoboam was “young, inexperienced, and unable to resist them”. Clarke reads that phrase as evidence Rehoboam was younger at his accession than some had reckoned.
2 Chronicles 13:6
“Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, is risen up,.... Notwithstanding it was well known the kingdom was entailed on the posterity of David by an everlasting covenant; Abijah calls Jeroboam Solomon's servant, by way of great contempt, as Jarchi observes, he being the general receiver of his tax in the tribe of Ephraim, 1Ki 11:28. and hath rebelled against his lord; his rightful king and sovereign; the charge is no less than high treason.”
worthless and wicked men: Abijah blames the schism on the men who rallied to Jeroboam. Clarke's text calls them children of Belial, which he defines as men of the most abandoned principles and characters, or men without education or brains. A young and untried Rehoboam gave them their opening.
2 Chronicles 13:7
“When Rehoboam was young and tender-hearted - Therefore he could not be forty-one when he came to the throne; see the note on 2Ch 13:3. Children of Belial here signifies men of the most abandoned principles and characters; or men without consideration, education, or brains.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 13:8-9
the golden calves that Jeroboam made: Abijah points to the golden calves and charges the north with driving out “the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites”. Barnes notes that the law set a young bull and two rams for consecration, and the extra rams were Jeroboam's addition.
2 Chronicles 13:8
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
a young bull and seven: The law set a young bull and two rams for the first consecration of Aaron's sons, at Exodus 29:1 and Leviticus 8:2. Barnes notes that Jeroboam enlarged the offering and then demanded it at the ordaining of every priest. Whoever could provide them, Clarke adds, became a priest.
2 Chronicles 13:9
“Seven rams - “A bullock and two rams” was the offering which God had required at the original consecration of the sons of Aaron Exo 29:1; Lev 8:2. Jeroboam, for reasons of his own, enlarged the sacrifice, and required it at the consecration of every priest.”
2 Chronicles 13:10-11
the LORD is our God: Abijah sets Judah's own: “the priests who minister to the LORD are sons of Aaron, and the Levites attend to their duties”. These are the daily courses set at 1 Chronicles 23-26. He ends, “We are carrying out the requirements of the LORD our God, while you have forsaken Him”.
2 Chronicles 13:10
“The Lord is our God - We have not abandoned the Lord; and we still serve him according to his own law.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 13:10
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the ceremonially clean table: The clean table was made of pure gold, as Exodus 25:23-24 directs. The temple held ten tables and ten lampstands, and Wesley explains Abijah names one of each because only one of each was ordinarily in use. The daily service was still running.
2 Chronicles 13:11
“Pure table - Made of pure gold, Exod. xxv, 23, 24, he saith table and candlestick, though there were ten of each, because ordinarily there was but one of each used at a time for those uses. We keep - Perhaps he flattered himself, that his keeping up the external worship of God would make satisfaction for the errors of his life.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
God Himself is with us: Abijah's speech closes on “God Himself is with us as our head, and His priests with their trumpets sound the battle call against you”. His last words are a plea: “do not fight against the LORD, the God of your fathers, for you will not succeed”.
2 Chronicles 13:12
“God himself is with us - Ye have golden calves; we have the living and omnipotent Jehovah. With - trumpets to cry alarm against you - This was appalling: When the priests sound their trumpets, it will be a proof that the vengeance of the Lord shall speedily descend upon you.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 13:12
“Trumpets - Upon the sounding whereof God hath solemnly promised to assist his people, Num. x, 9. The Lord - You have not only us for your enemies, but God, even the God whom your fathers served. It is folly to fight against the God of almighty power: but it is treachery and base ingratitude, to fight against your father's God.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ambushed, they cry to the LORD, and Jeroboam is struck down
2 Chronicles 13:13-14
sent troops around to ambush: While Abijah speaks, Jeroboam sends troops around behind Judah, and the battle stands “both before and behind them”. Judah answers as the speech said it would. Jehoshaphat's army goes out with worship at its front in the same way in 2 Chronicles 20, a generation later.
2 Chronicles 13:13
“But Jeroboam caused an ambushment - While Abijah was thus employed in reproving them, Jeroboam divided his army privately, and sent a part to take Abijah in the rear; and this must have proved fatal to the Jews, had not the Lord interposed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 13:13
“Jeroboam - While Abijah was discoursing, Jeroboam takes the advantage of it to lay an ambush. It does not appear that he made any answer to all that Abijah said.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
they cried out to the LORD: Henry takes it that Judah had prayed before the battle, and the ambush made the prayer urgent and loud. God brings his people into straits, he writes, to teach them to cry to him. In Henry's words, earnest praying is crying.
2 Chronicles 13:14
“We hope they did this before they engaged in this war, but the distress they were in made them renew their prayers and quickened them to be importunate. God brings his people into straits, that he may teach them to cry unto him. Earnest praying is crying.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Chronicles 13:15-16
Judah raised the battle cry: The shout comes before the victory: “when they raised the cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah”. The same order returns in Jehoshaphat's day, when the rout begins as Judah starts to sing. “God delivered them into their hands”, with no blow recorded before it.
2 Chronicles 13:15
“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.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 13:15
“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 Old Testament (1765)evangelical
So the Israelites fled: God delivers the fleeing Israelites into Judah's hands. Gill pictures an army in such fright and consternation that it took to flight at once, without engaging at all. He adds that they were handed over to be taken and slain.
2 Chronicles 13:16
“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 13:17-18
struck them with a mighty blow: Barnes notes the word slain means pierced, and covers the wounded as well as the dead. Verse 18 gives the reason: “the men of Judah prevailed because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers”. Gill notes the Targum renders it reliance on the Word of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 13:17
“Slain - The word means strictly “pierced,” and will include both the killed and the wounded. It is translated “wounded” in Lam 2:12.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 13:17
“But see the sad effect of division: it was the blood of Israelites that was thus shed like water by Israelites, while the heathen, their neighbours, to whom the name of Israel had formerly been a terror, cried, Aha! so would we have it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
they relied on the LORD: Gill reads subdued as humbled and weakened, and the northern tribes stayed outside the rule of David's house. The word for prevailed can also mean grew strong. Judah trusted the LORD and set aside the arm of flesh.
2 Chronicles 13:18
“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 13:19-20
pursued Jeroboam and captured some cities: Abijah takes border towns, “Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron, along with their villages”, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note Bethel carried associations reaching back to Jacob. Then “the LORD struck him down and he died”. Clarke notes that readers were divided over whether Jeroboam or Abijah is meant.
2 Chronicles 13:19
“Jeshanah is probably identical with the “Isanas” of Josephus, where a battle took place in the war between Antigonus and Herod; but its situation cannot be fixed. For Ephrain, see Jos 18:23 note.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 13:19
“Abijah abandoned his original design of attempting the subjugation of the ten tribes, contenting himself with the recovery of a few border towns, which, though lying within Judah or Benjamin, had been alienated to the new or northern kingdom. Among these was Beth-el, which, with its sacred associations, he might be strongly desirous to wrest from profanation.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the LORD struck him down: Henry suggests the blow was a wasting disease or a heart broken by grief over his losses, which carried Jeroboam in sorrow to the grave. He had escaped the sword of Abijah. God struck him all the same, and Henry adds that there is no escaping that sword.
2 Chronicles 13:20
“The Lord struck him, and he died - Who died? Abijah or Jeroboam? Some think it was Jeroboam; some, that it was Abijah. Both rabbins and Christians are divided on this point; nor is it yet settled. The prevailing opinion is that Jeroboam is meant, who was struck then with that disease of which he died about two years after; for he did not die till two years after Abijah: see 1Ki 14:20; 1Ki 15:9. It seems as if Jeroboam was meant, not Abijah.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 13:20
“The Lord struck him either with some bodily disease, of which he languished, or with melancholy and trouble of mind; his heart was broken, and vexation at his loss brought his head, probably by this time a hoary head, with sorrow to the grave. He escaped the sword of Abijah, but God struck him: and there is no escaping his sword.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Abijah's household and the rest of his acts
2 Chronicles 13:21-22
married fourteen wives: Abijah “married fourteen wives, and became the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters”. Gill notes that most were born before his three-year reign began. The source, “the Treatise of the Prophet Iddo”, uses the Hebrew word midrash, and Clarke calls it the word's first appearance in the Bible.
2 Chronicles 13:21
“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.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 13:21
“Married fourteen wives - Probably he made alliances with the neighboring powers, by taking their daughters to him for wives.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the Treatise of the Prophet Iddo: The word rendered Treatise is midrash, which Clarke translates as commentary, and the acts of Abijah are written there. Clarke adds that the commentary of Iddo is lost, and from the speech Abijah made he judges him a very able speaker. Henry observes that death soon conquered the conqueror.
2 Chronicles 13:22
“Written in the story - במדרש bemidrash, “in the commentary;” this, as far as I recollect, is the first place where a midrash or commentary is mentioned. The margin is right. His ways, and his sayings - The commentary of the prophet Iddo is lost. What his sayings were we cannot tell; but from the specimen in this chapter, he appears to have been a very able speaker, and one who knew well how to make the best use of his argument.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 13:22
“But the number of his months was cut off in the midst, and, soon after his triumphs, death conquered the conqueror. Perhaps he was too much lifted up with his victories, and therefore God would not let him live long to enjoy the honour of them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: Battle oration set inside a narrative, with the speech given more room than the battle, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The harangue from the hill | Verses 4 to 12 are one speech, delivered from Mount Zemaraim to an army drawn up below. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that commanders of the period did address the opposing camp before a battle, since a voice carries across a valley. What Abijah delivers is a legal case rather than a taunt, and it closes with an appeal for the other side to stop.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 2 Chronicles 13:4. | 2 Chronicles 13:4, 2 Chronicles 13:5, 2 Chronicles 13:12 |
| The daily service read out as evidence | Verse 11 lists what Judah does each day: the burnt offerings morning and evening, the fragrant incense, the rows of showbread on the clean table, the lamps of the gold lampstand lit every evening. Matthew Henry reads the list as the argument itself, the courses of 1 Chronicles 23 to 26 still running. The case rests on an unbroken routine rather than on a claim.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Chronicles 13:10 to 12. | 2 Chronicles 13:10, 2 Chronicles 13:11 |
| Forsaken, said twice in one breath | The speech turns on the verb this book weighs every reign with. Verse 10 has Judah saying they have not forsaken the LORD, and verse 11 closes by telling the other army that it has. John Wesley allows that Abijah may have flattered himself here, taking an outward order of worship as covering the faults of his own life.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 2 Chronicles 13:10. | 2 Chronicles 13:10, 2 Chronicles 13:11 |
| The trumpets answering the ambush | Jeroboam sends a force around behind Judah while the sermon is still being spoken, so the trap closes before the appeal can be answered. Judah's response at verses 14 and 15 is the speech acted out: the men cry to the LORD, the priests blow the trumpets, the army raises the cry. The rout follows the cry rather than preceding it, which is the same order the book keeps at 20:22.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 2 Chronicles 13:14. | 2 Chronicles 13:13, 2 Chronicles 13:14, 2 Chronicles 13:15 |
The historical value
14 more paragraphs on the patterns
The ground is named and it can be placed. Mount Zemaraim stands in the hill country of Ephraim, on the border between the two kingdoms, which is why a speech delivered there reaches both armies.
The towns taken at verse 19 are border towns rather than territory. Bethel, Jeshanah and Ephron sit on the frontier, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the campaign as a settling for the strip Jeroboam had absorbed rather than an attempt on the ten tribes. Bethel is the chief of them, and it carries the older associations that reach back to Jacob.
The consecration described at verse 9 has a measurable difference from the law. Albert Barnes notes that the ordination Exodus and Leviticus prescribe uses one ram fewer than the young bull and seven rams named here, so the northern rite is an alteration a reader could check.
Verse 22 names the source, the Treatise of the Prophet Iddo. Adam Clarke notes that the Hebrew word behind it is the word that later becomes midrash, and this is its earliest appearance in the Bible.
The debated concept
The army figures in verses 3 and 17 are the largest difficulty in the chapter, and the site's dossier for this book states three readings with their holders.
The first takes the figures as written, which is the traditional reading and the one commentators follow who report the text's numbers without adjustment.
The second reads the Hebrew word elep as a military unit or clan contingent rather than the number one thousand. George Mendenhall argued this in The Census Lists of Numbers 1 and 26, Journal of Biblical Literature, 1958, and those following him reduce the totals sharply while leaving the text unchanged.
The third holds that numerals were among the most fragile things a scribe handled, so the figures were enlarged or damaged in copying. The dossier notes that the same manuscripts make that fragility visible at 36:9, where Jehoiachin is eight years old in one book and eighteen in the other.
A second question stands at verse 20. Adam Clarke records that both rabbinic and Christian readers divided over whether Jeroboam or Abijah is the one the LORD struck. He reports the majority reading as Jeroboam, since 1 Kings 14:20 and 15:9 have him living about two years past Abijah's own death.
The divine connection
The chapter states its own theology in one clause at verse 18 and then leaves it alone. Judah prevailed because they relied on the LORD, and the army that prevailed was the smaller one by half.
The order of events is the claim. The shout comes first and the rout follows, and the same order returns a generation later when Jehoshaphat's singers go out ahead of the army at 20:22. John Wesley reads the shout as the cry of prayer answered by the shout of faith.
The text is careful about what it credits. Verse 16 says God delivered them into Judah's hand, and the pursuit at verse 19 is all the chapter gives to Abijah's own arms.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 2 Chronicles 13:4, which names the practice of haranguing the opposing camp before a battle; the compiler of Chronicles, read against the compiler of Kings, 2 Chronicles 13:1 to 22, read with 1 Kings 15:1 to 8 and the site's own guide to this book, src/components/book/guides/2-chronicles/Book2ChroniclesGuide.tsx, the LEDGER table, Abijah at 13:1 to 22.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.