2 Chronicles 14:9

Contextual Overview

⁹ Once an Ethiopian named Zerah attacked Judah with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots. They advanced to the town of Mareshah, ⁹ And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an army of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and he came unto Mareshah. ⁹ And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an army of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and he came to Mareshah. ⁹ Then Zerah from Cush came out to fight them with an enormous army and three hundred chariots. They came as far as the town of Mareshah. ⁹ Zerah the Cushite marched against them with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots. He arrived at Mareshah, ⁹ And there came out against them Zerah the Cushite, with a host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came to Mareshah. ⁹ There came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an army of a million troops, and three hundred chariots; and he came to Mareshah. ⁹Now Zerah the Ethiopian (Cushite) came out against Judah with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came as far as Mareshah.⁹ Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots, and came as far as Mareshah. ⁹ Forsothe Zara of Ethiop yede out ayens hem with his oost ten `sithis an hundrid thousynde, and with thre hundrid charis, and cam `til to Masera.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

am 3063, bc 941

Zerah: 2 Chronicles 12:2, 2 Chronicles 12:3, 2 Chronicles 16:8, 2 Kings 19:9, Isaiah 8:9, Isaiah 8:10, Ezekiel 30:5, Revelation 16:14

Mareshah: Joshua 15:44, Micah 1:15

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 28:7 - flee before Judges 7:12 - grasshoppers Judges 10:9 - passed 1 Kings 8:44 - shall pray 1 Chronicles 19:7 - hired 2 Chronicles 6:34 - they pray 2 Chronicles 13:3 - eight hundred 2 Chronicles 13:8 - a great multitude Psalms 33:16 - no king Psalms 46:6 - heathen Psalms 48:3 - General Isaiah 18:2 - to a people Isaiah 43:3 - I gave Jeremiah 21:2 - according

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian, with an host of thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots,.... According to Josephus b, this army consisted of 900,000 foot, and 100,000 horsemen, and certain it is there were horsemen among them, 2 Chronicles 16:8 some say these were not the Ethiopians in Africa, beyond Egypt, being, as is said, too far off for such an army to travel, and it would be hard to say what should induce them to it; and besides it is urged, the king of Egypt would never have suffered them to pass through his dominions, as they must to come to Judea; but that they were the Cushite Arabs, that inhabited Midian, part of Arabia Petraea, and Arabia Felix, near Judaea, 2 Chronicles 16:8- :, but since this great host consisted of Lubim or Libyans, inhabitants of Africa, as well as of Ethiopians, 2 Chronicles 16:8, these Ethiopians seem to be rather those in Africa, who were masters of Egypt and Libya, as well as Ethiopia, quickly after the death of Shishak, or Sesostris, see 2 Chronicles 12:2, which accounts for the size of this army, and their passage through Egypt: that there were two sorts of Ethiopians, the western and eastern ones, the one that dwelt in Africa, the other in Asia, appears clearly from Homer c, Herodotus d, and Heliodorus e, the former of which seem here meant; nor need this army be thought incredible, especially since they were joined by the Lubim or Libyans, and assisted by the Philistines, as appears by what follows; besides, the two armies of Israel and Judah we read of in the preceding chapter, when put together, exceed this; see also 2 Chronicles 17:14, so the armies of Tamerlane and Bajazet, that of the former being 1,600,000, and that of the latter 1,400,000 f:

and came unto Mareshah; a city in the tribe of Judah, on the borders of it, 2 Chronicles 11:8.

b Antiqu. l. 8. c. 12. sect. 1. c Odyss. 1. ver. 23, 24. d Polymnia, sive, l. 7. c. 69, 70. e Ethiopic. l. 9. c. 6. f Laonic. Chalcocond. de rebus Turc. l. 3. p. 98, 102.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Zerah the Ethiopian is probably Usarken (Osorkon) II, the third king of Egypt after Shishak, according to the Egyptian monuments. Osorkon II may have been by birth an Ethiopian, for he was the son-in-law, not the son, of the preceding monarch, and reigned in right of his wife. The object of the expedition would be to bring Judaea once more under the Egyptian yoke.

An host of a thousand thousand - This is the largest collected army of which we hear in Scripture; but it does not exceed the known numbers of other Oriental armies in ancient times. Darius Codomannus brought into the field at Arbela a force of 1,040, 000; Xerxes crossed into Greece with certainly above a million of combatants.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 2 Chronicles 14:9. Zerah the Ethiopian — Probably of that Ethiopia which lay on the south of Egypt, near to Libya, and therefore the Libyans are joined with them, 2 Chronicles 16:8.

A thousand thousand — If this people had come from any great distance, they could not have had forage for such an immense army.