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.