2 Chronicles 13:14-17

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 2 Chronicles 13:13-22

We do not find that Jeroboam offered to make any answer at all to Abijah's speech. Though it was much to the purpose, he resolved not to heed it, and therefore he heard it as though he heard it not. He came to fight, not to dispute. The longest sword, he thought, would determine the matter, not the better cause. Let us therefore see the issue, whether right and religion carried the day or no. I. Jeroboam, who trusted to his politics, was beaten. He was so far from fair reasoning that he was... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Chronicles 13:14

And when Judah looked back ,.... On hearing a noise behind them: behold, the battle was before and behind ; men were set in battle array, and the battle was begun, and an attack made upon them both ways: and they cried unto the Lord ; for help against their enemies, and to deliver them out of their hands: and the priests sounded with the trumpets ; to inspire them with cheerfulness, and to suggest to them that God was with them and they need not be afraid. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Chronicles 13:15

Then the men of Judah gave a shout ,.... Taking heart at the sound of the trumpets, and in order to encourage one another, and intimidate the enemy; See Gill on 1 Samuel 17:20 , and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass, that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah ; possessed them with a panic, so that they fled at once, as follows. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Chronicles 13:16

And the children of Israel fled before Judah ,.... Were in such a fright and consternation, that they could not stand their ground, or engage at all; but took to flight immediately: and God delivered them into their hand ; to be taken and slain by them. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Chronicles 13:17

And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter ,.... 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 F19 Antiqu. l. 8. c. 11. sect. 3. 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 Trad. Heb. fol. 84. M. makes the... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 2 Chronicles 13:17

Slain - five hundred thousand chosen men - Query, fifty thousand? This was a great slaughter: see the note on 2 Chronicles 13:3 , where all these numbers are supposed to be overcharged. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 2 Chronicles 13:1-20

The folly of unnatural severance, etc. The whole chapter presents to us a number of lessons, not very closely connected with one another. I. THE FOLLY OF AN UNNATURAL SEVERANCE . The first thing we read about the reign of Abijah is that there "was war between him and Jeroboam" ( 2 Chronicles 13:2 ). What else was to be expected? How, in those times, or indeed in any time, could it be otherwise? Tribes descended, as they were, from a common ancestor, speaking the same... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 2 Chronicles 13:1-22

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 2 Chronicles 13:1-22

A royal and manly manifesto in the rights of godly truth. The narrative of Abijah's short reign of three years is distinguished by one clear account, at any rate, of the wars that had arisen and were prevailing between the two parts of the recently rended and bleeding kingdom, of which a very brief statement only had been made, at the close of the history of Rehoboam's reign, whether here or in the parallel. It is also, and most chiefly, distinguished by the graphic description of the very... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 2 Chronicles 13:1-22

The successor of Rehoboam. I. HIS NAME . Abijah, "whose father is Jehovah" ( 1 Kings 14:1 ); Abijam, "father of the sea," i.e. a maritime man ( 1 Kings 14:31 ; 1 Kings 15:1 ); or Abia ( LXX .). If Abijam be not a clerical mistake, then the hypothesis is at least interesting that the Chronicler adopted the form Abijah because he did not intend to describe this king's reign as wicked, while the writer of the Kings, having this intention, frequently selected the form... read more

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