2 Chronicles 25:5

Amaziah's Victories

5 Then Amaziah assembled the men of Judah and set them by fathers' houses under commanders of thousands and of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He mustered those ¹twenty years old and upward, and found that they were ² 300,000 choice men, fit for war, ³able to handle spear and shield.

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 And as soon as the royal power was firmly his, he killed his servants who had struck down the king his father.

4 But he did not put their children to death, according to what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the LORD commanded, "Fathers shall not die because of their children, nor children die because of their fathers, but each one shall die for his own sin."

5 Then Amaziah assembled the men of Judah and set them by fathers' houses under commanders of thousands and of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He mustered those twenty years old and upward, and found that they were 300,000 choice men, fit for war, able to handle spear and shield.

6 He hired also 100,000 mighty men of valor from Israel for 100 talents of silver.

7 But a man of God came to him and said, "O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the LORD is not with Israel, with all these Ephraimites.

Cross References

• 1. Numbers 1:3
• 2. [2 Chronicles 11:1; 2 Chronicles 13:3; 2 Chronicles 17:14-18; 2 Chronicles 26:13]
• 3. 1 Chronicles 12:8