2 Chronicles 25:8

8 You can make yourself strong for war, but God will defeat you. He has the power to help you or to defeat you."

2 Chronicles 25:8 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 25:8

But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle
An ironical expression; if thou wilt not be advised, take them with thee, and try what thou canst do; exert all thy courage, and use thy military skill, and mark the issue:

God shall make thee fall before the enemy;
notwithstanding the number of thy troops, and those of thy auxiliaries; though some take them to be spoken seriously, and read the words, "but go thou"; that is, alone, without the hired troops, and fight boldly and courageously; or otherwise "God shall make thee fall"

for God hath power to help and to cast down;
to help with a few, and to cast down with many; to help without the hired Israelites, and to cast down with them.

2 Chronicles 25:8 In-Context

6 Amaziah also hired one hundred thousand soldiers from Israel for about seventy-five hundred pounds of silver.

7 But a man of God came to Amaziah and said, "My king, don't let the army of Israel go with you. The Lord is not with Israel or the people from the tribe of Ephraim.

8 You can make yourself strong for war, but God will defeat you. He has the power to help you or to defeat you."

9 Amaziah said to the man of God, "But what about the seventy-five hundred pounds of silver I paid to the Israelite army?" The man of God answered, "The Lord can give you much more than that."

10 So Amaziah sent the Israelite army back home to Ephraim. They were very angry with the people of Judah and went home angry.