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2 Chronicles 14:10

in 2 Chronicles 14

So Asa marched out against him and lined up in battle formation in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Then Asa went out to meet him, and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.

KJV

Then Asa went out against him, and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.

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This verse in 2 Chronicles 14

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
Then Asa went out against him,.... Notwithstanding he brought so great an army with him: and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah; where the Ethiopians were; he did not stay till they got further into his country, but marched against them when on the frontiers of it, and chose the valley to pitch in, as being more to the advantage of his smaller army; see Jdg 1:17.

This site's exposition

Zerah the Ethiopian with an host

on 2 Chronicles 14:9-10

Zerah comes with a thousand thousand, the largest army named anywhere in the Old Testament, and three hundred chariots, advancing to Mareshah in Judah's own lowland. Wesley notes the Hebrew Cush often names an Arabian people rather than African Ethiopia, since Arabia sat far nearer Asa's border, and Barnes identifies Zerah with Osorkon the Second of Egypt's line, an identification offered as the historian's reading rather than a settled fact. Asa meets him at the valley of Zephathah rather than waiting for the advance to reach Jerusalem, choosing ground that favored the smaller army.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

5 Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him. 6 And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had rest, and he had no war in those years; because the L ORD had given him rest.

quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:96%@v5-6

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Though still they sought God, yet this fear came upon them, that their faith in God might be tried, and that God might have an opportunity of doing great things for them. It was a vast number that the Ethiopians brought against him: 1,000,000 men; and now he found the benefit of having an army ready raised against such a time of need.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

The “valley of Zephathah” - not elsewhere mentioned - is probably the broad Wady which opens out from Mareshah (marginal reference) in a northwesterly direction, leading into the great Philistine plain. Zerah, on the advance of Asa, drew off into the wider space of the Wady, where he could use his horsemen and chariots.

The words behind it

8 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֵּצֵ֥אand he went out

    vaiyetze'H3318 →1067 times

  • אָסָ֖אAsa

    ʾasa'H609 →57 times

  • לְפָנָ֑יו<to> before him

    lefanavH6440 →2123 times

  • וַיַּֽעַרְכוּ֙and they drew up in formation

    vaiyaarkhuH6186 →

  • מִלְחָמָ֔הbattle

    milchamahH4421 →320 times

  • בְּגֵ֥יאin [the] valley of

    begei'H1516 →59 times

  • צְפַ֖תָהZephathah

    tzefatahH6859 →

  • לְמָרֵשָֽׁה׃to Mareshah

    lemareshahH4762 →7 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

6 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Judges 1:17

    Then the men of Judah went with their brothers the Simeonites, attacked the Canaanites living in Zephath, and devoted the city to destruction. So it was called Hormah.

    it leads to

    • Numbers 21:3

      And the LORD heard Israel’s plea and delivered up the Canaanites. Israel devoted them and their cities to destruction; so they named the place Hormah.

    • Numbers 14:45

      Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that part of the hill country came down, attacked them, and routed them all the way to Hormah.

    • Joshua 19:4

      Eltolad, Bethul, Hormah,

    • Judges 1:3

      Then the men of Judah said to their brothers the Simeonites, “Come up with us to our allotted territory, and let us fight against the Canaanites. And we likewise will go with you to…

  • Through

    Joshua 19:4

    Eltolad, Bethul, Hormah,

    it leads to

    • Judges 1:17

      Then the men of Judah went with their brothers the Simeonites, attacked the Canaanites living in Zephath, and devoted the city to destruction. So it was called Hormah.

    • Joshua 15:30

      Eltolad, Chesil, Hormah,

About 2 Chronicles

Solomon Receives the Queen of Sheba, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Solomon Receives the Queen of Sheba, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
2 Chronicles: the study guide →Read 2 Chronicles 14 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in 2 Chronicles 14 →