Divrey Hayamim Bais 25:5

5 Moreover Amatzyahu gathered Yehudah together, and set them in order in Bais Avot by officers of thousands and officers of hundreds, throughout all Yehudah and Binyamin; and he mustered them from esrim shanah and above, and found them three hundred elef bachur, battleready choice men, that could handle spear and shield.

Divrey Hayamim Bais 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.


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.

Divrey Hayamim Bais 25:5 In-Context

3 Now it came to pass, when the mamlachah was established under him, that he slaughtered his avadim that had murdered HaMelech Aviv.
4 But he slaughtered not their banim, but did as it is written in the Torah in the Sefer Moshe, where Hashem commanded, saying, The avot shall not die for the banim, neither shall the banim die for the avot, but every ish shall die for his own chet.
5 Moreover Amatzyahu gathered Yehudah together, and set them in order in Bais Avot by officers of thousands and officers of hundreds, throughout all Yehudah and Binyamin; and he mustered them from esrim shanah and above, and found them three hundred elef bachur, battleready choice men, that could handle spear and shield.
6 He hired also a hundred elef gibbor chayil out of Yisroel for a hundred talents of kesef.
7 But there came an Ish HaElohim to him, saying, O HaMelech, let not the Tzeva Yisroel go with thee; for Hashem is not with Yisroel, not with kol Bnei Ephrayim.
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