2 Chronicles 25:5

5 Then Amaziah got all Judah together and put them in order by their families, even all Judah and Benjamin, under captains of thousands and captains of hundreds: and he had those of twenty years old and over numbered, and they came to three hundred thousand of the best fighting-men, trained for war and in the use of the spear and the body-cover.

2 Chronicles 25:5 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 25:5

Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together
The inhabitants thereof:

and made them captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds,
according to the houses of their fathers, throughout all Judah and
Benjamin;
he divided the people, according to their families throughout his kingdom, into thousands and hundreds, and out of their respective families appointed captains over them:

and he numbered them from twenty years old and above;
the usual age men were numbered at for war, to the fiftieth, according to Josephus; the Roman law ^F1 obliged none to be soldiers after fifty, nor might any be dismissed before ^F2; the age of military men with the Romans was from seventeen to forty six, or, as some, forty five; but with the Persians from twenty as here to fifty ^F3:

and found them three hundred thousand choice men, able to go forth to
war, that could handle spear and shield;
which shows that their number was greatly decreased since the times of Jehoshaphat, ( 2 Chronicles 17:14-18 ) , occasioned by the wars under Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Joash; some copies of the Vulgate Latin ^F4 have only 30,000.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 Seneca de Brevitate Vitae, c. 20.
F2 Liv. Hist. l. 42. c. 33.
F3 Alex. ab. Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 1. c. 20.
F4 Ed. of Sixtus V. the Lovain and MSS. in James's Corruption of the Fathers, p. 295.

2 Chronicles 25:5 In-Context

3 Now when he became strong in the kingdom, he put to death those men who had taken the life of the king his father.

4 But he did not put their children to death, for he kept the orders of the Lord recorded in the book of the law of Moses, saying, The fathers are not to be put to death for their children or the children for their fathers, but a man is to be put to death for the sin which he himself has done.

5 Then Amaziah got all Judah together and put them in order by their families, even all Judah and Benjamin, under captains of thousands and captains of hundreds: and he had those of twenty years old and over numbered, and they came to three hundred thousand of the best fighting-men, trained for war and in the use of the spear and the body-cover.

6 And for a hundred talents of silver, he got a hundred thousand fighting-men from Israel.

7 But a man of God came to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with you; for the Lord is not with Israel, that is, the children of Ephraim.