(17) Slew them with a great slaughter.--Literally, Smote in them a great smiting.Numbers 11:33.
Five hundred thousand chosen men.--Or more than half of Jeroboam's entire army.
It is hardly true to say that "there is nothing in the original to indicate that this slaughter was all on one day." (Speaker's Commentary.) On the contrary, it is perfectly evident from the whole narrative that this verse describes the issue of a single great and decisive encounter of the rival hosts.
The result is certainly incredible, if the numbers be pressed; but it seems more reasonable to see in them "only a numerical expression of the belief of contemporaries of the war, that both kings had made a levy of all the fighting men in their respective realms, and that Jeroboam was defeated with such slaughter that he lost more than half his warriors" (Keil). The Syriac reads "five thousand."
The number of slain on the other side is not stated. But it is absurd to talk as Reuss does, of Abijah's 400,000 as being "still intact," and then to ask why they did not proceed to reduce the northern kingdom.
Verse 17. - Slain; Hebrew, חֲלָלִים. Even if we accept for a moment the immense numbers written here and elsewhere as authentic, a considerable deduction may be made from our difficulty by virtue of the fact that this word need not mean to describe the actually slain. It occurs about ninety-one times. Of these, in our Authorized Version, it is found rendered, including marginal options, as many as fifteen times "wounded," or by even a less severe meaning. However, whether "slain" or "wounded and slain," the alleged, numbers of our present text are, in our opinion, incredibly enormous.
13:1-22 Abijah overcomes Jeroboam. - Jeroboam and his people, by apostacy and idolatry, merited the severe punishment Abijah was permitted to execute upon them. It appears from the character of Abijah, 1Ki 15:3, that he was not himself truly religious, yet he encouraged himself from the religion of his people. It is common for those that deny the power of godliness, to boast of the form of it. Many that have little religion themselves, value it in others. But it was true that there were numbers of pious worshippers in Judah, and that theirs was the more righteous cause. In their distress, when danger was on every side, which way should they look for deliverance unless upward? It is an unspeakable comfort, that our way thither is always open. They cried unto the Lord. Earnest prayer is crying. To the cry of prayer they added the shout of faith, and became more than conquerors. Jeroboam escaped the sword of Abijah, but God struck him; there is no escaping his sword.
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 (s) 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 (t) makes the number but 50,000, and some copies of the Vulgate Latin (u), and Josephus Ben Gorion, as Abarbinel (w) relates; but the true Josephus, the Targum, and all the ancient versions, agree with the Hebrew text; more than half Jeroboam's army was cut off, and 100,000 more than Abijah had in his.
(s) Antiqu. l. 8. c. 11. sect. 3.((t) Trad. Heb. fol. 84. M. (u) So that of Sixtus V. in James's Corruption of the Fathers, p. 294. (w) Comment in 1. Reg. xv. 6. fol. 250. 3.
Five hundred thousand chosen men.--Or more than half of Jeroboam's entire army.
It is hardly true to say that "there is nothing in the original to indicate that this slaughter was all on one day." (Speaker's Commentary.) On the contrary, it is perfectly evident from the whole narrative that this verse describes the issue of a single great and decisive encounter of the rival hosts.
The result is certainly incredible, if the numbers be pressed; but it seems more reasonable to see in them "only a numerical expression of the belief of contemporaries of the war, that both kings had made a levy of all the fighting men in their respective realms, and that Jeroboam was defeated with such slaughter that he lost more than half his warriors" (Keil). The Syriac reads "five thousand."
The number of slain on the other side is not stated. But it is absurd to talk as Reuss does, of Abijah's 400,000 as being "still intact," and then to ask why they did not proceed to reduce the northern kingdom.
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 (s) 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 (t) makes the number but 50,000, and some copies of the Vulgate Latin (u), and Josephus Ben Gorion, as Abarbinel (w) relates; but the true Josephus, the Targum, and all the ancient versions, agree with the Hebrew text; more than half Jeroboam's army was cut off, and 100,000 more than Abijah had in his.
(s) Antiqu. l. 8. c. 11. sect. 3.((t) Trad. Heb. fol. 84. M. (u) So that of Sixtus V. in James's Corruption of the Fathers, p. 294. (w) Comment in 1. Reg. xv. 6. fol. 250. 3.