2 Chronik 26:15

15 und machte zu Jerusalem kunstvolle Geschütze, die auf den Türmen und Ecken sein sollten, zu schießen mit Pfeilen und großen Steinen. Und sein Name kam weit aus, darum daß ihm wunderbar geholfen ward, bis er mächtig ward. {~} {~} {~}

2 Chronik 26:15 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 26:15

And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to
be on the towers, and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great
stones withal
Such as with the Romans were called "catapultae", "ballistae" ^F21, "scorpiones" ^F23 and by this it appears that these were not first invented in Greece and Rome, but in Judea. It is said ^F24, that the Romans received the machine to batter cities from the Greeks, and that the Trojan horse was no other than a battering ram; but if they did, the invention of them must be ascribed, not to them, but rather to the Syrians and Phoenicians, according to Pliny {y}; though others ^F26 suppose the Carthaginians, who were a colony of theirs, to be the inventors of them; yet, after all, they seem to be the device of some skilful men among the Jews, in the times of Uzziah; according to Diodorus Siculus ^F1, they were not found out when Nineveh was besieged in the times of Sardanapalus:

and his name spread far abroad;
in distant countries, for his warlike dispositions and preparations, which made them stand in fear of him:

for he was helped until he was strong;
he was wonderfully helped by the Lord to build fortified places, raise a numerous army, and provide all sorts of armour for them, and invent such machines as would greatly annoy the enemy, whereby he became very potent, and injected dread round about him.

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 Cicero. Tusculan. Quaest. l. 2. Tacit. Hist. l. 3. c. 23.
F23 Ammian. Marcellin. l. 23.
F24 Vid. Valtrinum de re militari Roman. l. 5. c. 6.
F25 Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 56.
F26 Vitruvius de Architectura, l. 10. c. 19. Tertullian. de Pallio, c. 1. & Salmasius in ib. Vid. Turnebi Adversaria, l. 29. c. 18.
F1 Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 113.

2 Chronik 26:15 In-Context

13 und unter ihrer Hand die Heeresmacht dreihunderttausend und siebentausendundfünfhundert, zum Streit geschickt in Heereskraft, zu helfen dem König wider die Feinde.

14 Und Usia schaffte ihnen für das ganze Heer Schilde, Spieße, Helme, Panzer, Bogen und Schleudersteine

15 und machte zu Jerusalem kunstvolle Geschütze, die auf den Türmen und Ecken sein sollten, zu schießen mit Pfeilen und großen Steinen. Und sein Name kam weit aus, darum daß ihm wunderbar geholfen ward, bis er mächtig ward. {~} {~} {~}

16 Und da er mächtig geworden war, überhob sich sein Herz zu seinem Verderben; denn er vergriff sich an dem HERRN, seinem Gott, und ging in den Tempel des HERRN, zu räuchern auf dem Räucheraltar.

17 Aber Asarja, der Priester, ging ihm nach und achtzig Priester des HERRN mit ihm, ansehnliche Leute,