2 Chronicles 25:12

12 The army of Judah also captured 10,000 men alive. They took them to the top of a cliff. Then they threw them down. All of them were smashed to pieces.

2 Chronicles 25:12 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 25:12

And other ten thousand left alive did the children of Judah
carry away captive
The rest of the army of the Edomites, which amounted to the same number, fell into their hands, and they took them, and carried them off:

and brought them unto the top of the rock;
very probably the same on which the city Petra, the metropolis of Edom, was built, called also Selah, ( 2 Kings 14:7 ) both which names signify a rock. Josephus ^F7 calls it the great rock in Arabia; that is, Arabia Petraea:

and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they were broken all
in pieces;
burst asunder, bones broken, and limb from limb separated. This sort of punishment was inflicted by the Romans on various malefactors, by casting them down from the Tarpeian rock ^F8; and in Greece, according to the Delphian law, such as were guilty of sacrilege were led to a rock, and cast down headlong from thence ^F9: and now in Turkey, at a place called Constantine, a town situated on the top of a great rock, the usual way of executing great criminals is by pushing them from off the cliff ^F11; see ( Luke 4:29 ) , but to use captives taken in war after this manner seems cruel and barbarous; and what should be the reason of such treatment of them is not easy to say.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Antiqu. l. 9. c. 9. sect. 1.
F8 Liv. Hist. l. 6. c. 20. Patercul. Hist. Roman. l. 2. Aurel. Victor. de Vir. Illustr. c. 27, 70. Vid, Rycquium de Capitol. Roman. c. 4. p. 45
F9 Aelian. Var. Hist. l. 11. c. 5.
F11 Pitt's Account of the Mahometans, ch. 1. p. 10.

2 Chronicles 25:12 In-Context

10 So Amaziah let the troops go who had come to him from Ephraim. He sent them home. They were very angry with Judah. In fact, they were burning with anger when they went home.

11 Then Amaziah showed how strong he was. He led his army to the Valley of Salt. There he killed 10,000 men of Seir.

12 The army of Judah also captured 10,000 men alive. They took them to the top of a cliff. Then they threw them down. All of them were smashed to pieces.

13 The troops Amaziah had sent back attacked some towns in Judah. He hadn't allowed the troops to take part in the war. They attacked towns from Samaria to Beth Horon. They killed 3,000 people. They carried off huge amounts of goods.

14 Amaziah returned from killing the men of Edom. He brought back the statues of the gods of Seir. He set them up as his own gods. He bowed down to them. He burned sacrifices to them.