2 Chronicles 25:12

12 The army of Judah also captured ten thousand and took them to the top of a cliff and threw them off so that they split open.

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

11 Then Amaziah became very brave and led his army to the Valley of Salt in the country of Edom. There Amaziah's army killed ten thousand Edomites.

12 The army of Judah also captured ten thousand and took them to the top of a cliff and threw them off so that they split open.

13 At the same time the Israelite troops that Amaziah had not let fight in the war were robbing towns in Judah. From Samaria to Beth Horon they killed three thousand people and took many valuable things.

14 When Amaziah came home after defeating the Edomites, he brought back the idols they worshiped and started to worship them himself. He bow-ed down to them and offered sacrifices to them.