the Week of Proper 23 / Ordinary 28
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2 Chronicles 13:3
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
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- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- CondensedContextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
set: Heb. bound together, 1 Samuel 17:1-3
four hundred: 2 Chronicles 11:1, 2 Chronicles 14:8, 2 Chronicles 17:14-18, 2 Chronicles 26:12, 2 Chronicles 26:13, 1 Chronicles 21:5
eight hundred: 2 Chronicles 14:9
Reciprocal: Numbers 1:46 - General 1 Kings 15:6 - there was war 1 Kings 15:7 - there was war 1 Chronicles 19:9 - put the battle 2 Chronicles 13:17 - five hundred
Cross-References
Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
And Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
Abram traveled through that land as far as the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. The Canaanites were living in the land at that time.
Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree of Moreh at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.)
And Abram passed through the land to the place of Sichem, to the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite [was] then in the land.
Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. The Canaanite was then in the land.
Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the [great] terebinth (oak) tree of Moreh. Now the Canaanites were in the land at that time.
Abram passide thorou the lond til to the place of Sichem, and til to the noble valey. Forsothe Chananei was thanne in the lond.
And Abram passeth over into the land, unto the place Shechem, unto the oak of Moreh; and the Canaanite [is] then in the land.
Abram traveled through the land to the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And Abijah set the battle in array, with an army of valiant man of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men,.... Collected such an army of select men, led them into his enemy's country, and set them in order of battle:
and Jeroboam also set the battle in array against him, with eight hundred thousand chosen men, being mighty men of valour; double the number of Abijah s army, he having ten tribes to collect out of, and Abijah but two.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
It has been proposed to change the numbers, here and in 2 Chronicles 13:17, into 40,000, 80,000, and 50,000 respectively - partly because these smaller numbers are found in many early editions of the Vulgate, but mainly because the larger ones are thought to be incredible. The numbers accord well, however, with the census of the people taken in the reign of David 1 Chronicles 21:5, joined to the fact which the writer has related 2 Chronicles 11:13-17, of a considerable subsequent emigration from the northern kingdom into the southern one. The total adult male population at the time of the census was 1,570, 000. The total of the fighting men now is 1,200, 000. This would allow for the aged and infirm 370, 000, or nearly a fourth of the whole. And in 2 Chronicles 13:17, our author may be understood to mean that this was the entire Israelite loss in the course of the war, which probably continued through the whole reign of Abijah.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 2 Chronicles 13:3. Abijah set the battle in array — The numbers in this verse and in the seventeenth seem almost incredible. Abijah's army consisted of four hundred thousand effective men; that of Jeroboam consisted of eight hundred thousand; and the slain of Jeroboam's army were five hundred thousand. Now it is very possible that there is a cipher too much in all these numbers, and that they should stand thus: Abijah's army, forty thousand; Jeroboam's eighty thousand; the slain, fifty thousand. Calmet, who defends the common reading, allows that the Venice edition of the Vulgate, in 1478; another, in 1489; that of Nuremberg, in 1521; that of Basil, by Froben, in 1538; that of Robert Stevens, in 1546; and many others, have the smaller numbers. Dr. Kennicott says: "On a particular collation of the Vulgate version, it appears that the number of chosen men here slain, which Pope Clement's edition in 1592 determines to be five hundred thousand, the edition of Pope Sixtus, printed two years before, determined to be only fifty thousand; and the two preceding numbers, in the edition of Sixtus, are forty thousand and eighty thousand. As to different printed editions, out of fifty-two, from the year 1462 to 1592, thirty-one contain the less number. And out of fifty-one MSS. twenty-three in the Bodleian library, four in that of Dean Aldrich, and two in that of Exeter College, contain the less number, or else are corrupted irregularly, varying only one or two numbers."
This examination was made by Dr. Kennicott before he had finished his collation of Hebrew MSS., and before De Rossi had published his Variae Lectiones Veteris Testamenti; but from these works we find little help, as far as the Hebrew MSS. are concerned. One Hebrew MS., instead of ארבע מאות אלף arba meoth eleph, four hundred thousand, reads ארבע עשר אלף arba eser eleph, fourteen thousand.
In all printed copies of the Hebrew, the numbers are as in the common text, four hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand, and five hundred thousand.
The versions are as follow: - The Targum, or Chaldee, the same in each place as the Hebrew.
The Syriac in 2 Chronicles 13:3 has four hundred thousand young men for the army of Abijah, and eight hundred thousand stout youth for that of Jeroboam. For the slain Israelites, in 2 Chronicles 13:17, it has [Syriac] five hundred thousand, falsely translated in the Latin text quinque milia, five thousand, both in the Paris and London Polyglots: another proof among many that little dependence is to be placed on the Latin translation of this version in either of the above Polyglots.
The Arabic is the same in all these cases with the Syriac, from which it has been translated.
The Septuagint, both as it is published in all the Polyglots, and as far as I have seen in MSS.. is the same with the Hebrew text. So also is Josephus.
The Vulgate or Latin version is that alone that exhibits any important variations; we have had considerable proof of this in the above-mentioned collations of Calmet and Kennicott. I shall beg liberty to add others from my own collection.
In the Editio Princeps of the Latin Bible, though without date or place, yet evidently printed long before that of Fust, in 1462, the places stand thus: 2 Chronicles 13:3. Cumque inisset certamen, et haberet bellicosissimos viros, et electorum QUADRAGINTA milia: Iheroboam construxit e contra aciem OCTOGINTA milia virorum; "With him Abia entered into battle; and he had of the most warlike and choice men forty thousand; and Jeroboam raised an army against him of eighty thousand men."
And in 2 Chronicles 13:17: Et corruerunt vulnerati ex Israel, QUINQUAGINTA milia virorum fortium; "And there fell down wounded fifty thousand stout men of Israel."
In the Glossa Ordinaria, by Strabo Fuldensis, we have forty thousand and eighty thousand in the two first instances, and five hundred thousand in the last.-Bib. Sacr. vol. ii., Antv. 1634.
In six ancient MSS. of my own, marked A, B, C, D, E, F. the text stands thus: -
A. - Cumque inisset Abia certamen, et haberet bellicosissimos viros, et electorum XL. MIL. Jeroboam instruxit contra aciem LXXX. MIL.
And in 2 Chronicles 13:17: Et corruerunt vulnerati ex Israel L. MIL. virorum fortium. Here we have forty thousand for the army of Abijah, and eighty thousand for that of Jeroboam, and FIFTY thousand for the slain of the latter.
B.-QUADRAGINITA milia, OCTOGINTA milia,
FORTY thousand. EIGHTY thousand.
QUINQUIAGINTA milia,
FIFTY thousand.
The numbers being here expressed in words at full length, there can be no suspicion of mistake.
C.-CCCC milia, DCCC milibus, D milia
400 thousand. 800 thousand. 500 thousand.
This is the same as the Hebrew text, and very distinctly expressed.
D.-xl. m. lxxx. m. l. v. m.
40,000. 80,000. 50 and 5000.
This, in the two first numbers, is the same as the others above; but the last is confused, and appears to stand for fifty thousand and five thousand. A later hand has corrected the two first numbers in this MS., placing over the first four CCCC, thus (cccc/xl.), thus changing forty into four hundred; and over the second thus, (dccc/lxxx.), thus changing eighty into eight hundred. Over the latter number, which is evidently a mistake of the scribe, there is no correction.
E.-xl. m. OCTOGINTA m. l. m.
40,000 EIGHTY thousand. 50,000.
F.-CCCC. m. DCCC. m. D. m.
400,000. 800,000. 600,000.
This also is the same as the Hebrew.
The reader has now the whole evidence which I have been able to collect before him, and may choose; the smaller numbers appear to be the most correct. Corruptions in the numbers in these historical books we have often had cause to suspect, and to complain of.
