2 Chronicles 27:5

5 Jotham waged war against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them, and that year they gave him a hundred talents of silver, ^[a] ten thousand cors of wheat, ^[b] and ten thousand cors of barley. ^[c] They paid him the same in the second and third years.

2 Chronicles 27:5 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 27:5

He fought also with the king of the Ammonites, and prevailed
against them
These were brought into subjection by David; but in later times endeavoured to cast off the yoke, and even invaded the land of Judah, as in the days of Jehoshaphat, and now in the reign of Jotham, but succeeded not, see ( Amos 1:13 )

and the children of Ammon gave him the same year one hundred talents of
silver;
he obliged them to pay this tribute annually, and which they began to pay in the present year, and amounted to 35,330 pounds,

and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley;
the measure here is the "cor", the same with the "homer"; which, according to Godwin ^F8, held forty five gallons, or five bushels and five gallons, so that there must be upwards of 50,000 bushels of each of these paid to Jotham; according to Bishop Cumberland ^F9, a "cor", or "homer", held seventy five wine gallons, and upwards of five pints:

so much did the children of Ammon pay both the second year and the
third;
the two following years as well as the present one; why this tribute was not continued to be paid cannot be said with certainty, whether the Ammonites refused and revolted, and could not be obliged, or whether the agreement was only for three years.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 Moses & Aaron, l. 6. c. 9.
F9 Scripture Weights and Measures, ch. 3. p. 86.

2 Chronicles 27:5 In-Context

3 Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the house of the LORD, and he worked extensively on the wall at the hill of Ophel.

4 He also built cities in the hill country of Judah and fortresses and towers in the forests.

5 Jotham waged war against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them, and that year they gave him a hundred talents of silver, ten thousand cors of wheat, and ten thousand cors of barley. They paid him the same in the second and third years.

6 So Jotham grew powerful because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God.

7 As for the rest of the acts of Jotham, along with all his wars and his ways, they are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

Footnotes

• [a] 100 talents is approximately 3.77 tons or 3.42 metric tons of silver.
• [b] 10,000 cors is approximately 62,400 bushels or 2.2 million liters (probably about 1,920 tons or 1,740 metric tons of wheat).
• [c] 10,000 cors is approximately 62,400 bushels or 2.2 million liters (probably about 1,450 tons or 1,315 metric tons of barley).