2 Chronicles 13:17

17 Therefore Abijah and his people smote them with a great wound, and there felled down of them five hundred thousand of strong men wounded. (And so Abijah and his people struck them down there with a great slaughter, and five hundred thousand strong men of them fell down slain.)

2 Chronicles 13:17 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 13:17

And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter,
&c.] As they fled, pursuing them:

so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men;
such a slaughter as is not to be met with in any history, as Josephus

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 observes; though Abarbinel wonders he should say so, and affirms that he had read of larger numbers slain at once; but he is the only man that ever pretended to it; Jerom ^F20 makes the number but 50,000, and some copies of the Vulgate Latin ^F21, and Josephus Ben Gorion, as Abarbinel ^F23 relates; but the true Josephus, the Targum, and all the ancient versions, agree with the Hebrew text; more than half Jeroboam's army was cut off, and 100,000 more than Abijah had in his.

F19 Antiqu. l. 8. c. 11. sect. 3.
F20 Trad. Heb. fol. 84. M.
F21 So that of Sixtus V. in James's Corruption of the Fathers, p. 294.
F23 Comment in 1. Reg. xv. 6. fol. 250. 3.

2 Chronicles 13:17 In-Context

15 And all the men of Judah cried out, and, lo! while they cried on high, God made afeared Jeroboam and all Israel, that stood even against Judah and Abijah/which stood [over] against Judah and Abijah. (And all the men of Judah cried out, and, lo! while they cried on high, God made Jeroboam and all Israel afraid, who stood opposite, or in front of, Judah and Abijah.)

16 And the men of Israel fled from Judah, and God betook them into the hands of the men of Judah.

17 Therefore Abijah and his people smote them with a great wound, and there felled down of them five hundred thousand of strong men wounded. (And so Abijah and his people struck them down there with a great slaughter, and five hundred thousand strong men of them fell down slain.)

18 And the sons of Israel were made low in that time, and the sons of Judah were comforted full greatly, for they had hoped in the Lord God of their fathers. (And the Israelites were brought low at that time, and the sons of Judah prevailed, for they had hoped in the Lord God of their fathers.)

19 And Abijah pursued Jeroboam fleeing, and took his cities, that is, Bethel and his villages, and Jeshanah with his villages, and Ephron and his villages; (And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam, and took his cities, that is, Bethel, and its villages, and Jeshanah with its villages, and Ephron, and all its villages;)