852 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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 comments 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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time,.... Humbled and weakened, but not reduced to the government of the house of David: and the children of Judah prevailed; or grew strong: because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers; trusted in him, and not in an arm of flesh; the Targum is, "in the Word of the Lord God of their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam,.... As he and his army fled: and took cities from him; the following ones: Bethel with the towns thereof; the villages adjoining to it; here one of the calves was set up, which either Jeroboam took care to remove before this place fell into the hands of Abijah, or Abijah let it remain, and did not destroy it: and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days of Abijah,.... So as to bring an army into the field against him, and fight him: and the Lord struck him; by some Jewish writers (a), this is interpreted of Abijah; and the reason of his being stricken, they say, was because he did not destroy the calf when he took Bethel; but it is best to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But Abijah waxed mighty,.... In his kingdom, increasing in riches and numbers, power and authority, and in his family: and married fourteen wives, and begat twenty and two sons and sixteen daughters; not after the above battle, nor since he began to reign; for he reigned but three years; but he, no doubt, married wives and had children before he...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his sayings,.... Not only his warlike actions, and his course of life, but some remarkable sayings of his, he being a man of wisdom and eloquence, as his above speech shows; are written in the story of the prophet Iddo; who might write the history of his own times; see 1 Kings 15:7.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO 2 CHRONICLES 14 This chapter relates the death of Abijah, and the succession of Asa in his stead, 2 Chronicles 14:1, gives a good character of the latter for his reformation in religion, and for the care he took for the safety and protection of his subjects, 2 Chronicles 14:2, and an account is given of a large army of Ethiopians...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So Abijah slept with his fathers, 1 Kings 15:8 and Asa his son reigned in his stead; in his days the land was quiet ten years; the Targum is, the land of Israel; but much better the Septuagint, the land of Judah; these ten years, in which it had rest from war, were the first three years of Asa's reign, and the first seven of Baasha's, according to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Asa did that which was good and right,.... See 1 Kings 15:11.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For he took away the altars of the strange gods,.... Or of a strange people, of the Zidonians, Ammonites, and Moabites, which had remained from the times of Solomon, and which he built for his wives, 1 Kings 11:7 and the high places; built for idols; for as for those on which the true God was worshipped, they were not removed in his days, 1 Kings...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers,.... To pray to him, and him only, and attend his worship and service; this he did by a public edict: and to do the law and the commandment: to observe all the laws of God, moral, ceremonial, and civil.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images,.... Perhaps the high places in 2 Chronicles 14:3 design only the high places and altars in Jerusalem, and near it; these in all the rest of the cities of the land; the "images were", as the word signifies, "sun images", either made in the form of the sun, or dedicated...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he built fenced cities in Judah,.... For his defence against the kingdom of Israel and other nations, as Rehoboam had done before him; and which might have been demolished by Shishak king of Egypt, when he took them, 2 Chronicles 11:5 for the land had rest; according to the Targum, the land of Israel rested, and gave no disturbance to the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore he said unto Judah,.... To the nobles and principal men of the kingdom: let us build these cities; which he, no doubt, particularly mentioned by name, and pointed at; that is, repair and fortify them, and put them into a better condition of defence: and make about them walls and towers, gates and bars; which are always made to fortified...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Asa had an army of men that bare targets and spears, out of Judah three hundred thousand,.... These were armed with a large sort of shield, to protect them, and with spears, to push at an enemy when they came near them, and to close quarters with them: and out of Benjamin, that bare shields and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then Asa went out against him,.... Notwithstanding he brought so great an army with him: and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah; where the Ethiopians were; he did not stay till they got further into his country, but marched against them when on the frontiers of it, and chose the valley to pitch in, as being more to...