2 Kings 13:7 - Exposition

Neither did he leave of the people to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen. This verse seems to be an exegetical note on 2 Kings 13:4 , which perhaps it once followed immediately, the parenthetic section ( 2 Kings 13:5 and 2 Kings 13:6 ) having been added later, as an afterthought, either by the original writer, or perhaps by a later hand. The meaning seems to be that Hazael limited the standing army of Jehoahaz to fifty horsemen, ton chariots, and ten thousand footmen, not that he slew the entire military population except this small remnant. The policy of limiting the forces to be maintained by a subject-king was one known to the Romans, and has often been adopted in the East. It is still a part of our own policy in the government of India. The limitation left the country at the mercy of all its neighbors (see verse 20). For the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing. Possibly this means no more than an utter destruction—a trampling in the dust, as we phrase it (see Jeremiah 51:33 ; Micah 4:12 , Micah 4:13 ; and perhaps Isaiah 21:10 ). But it may be an allusion to that destruction of prisoners by means of a threshing instrument, which was certainly sometimes practiced ( 2 Samuel 12:31 ; Proverbs 20:26 ), and which is made a special charge against Damascus.