every evening burnt offerings and sweet incense: the shewbread also set they in order upon the pure table; and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof, to burn every evening: for we keep the charge of the LORD our God; but ye have forsaken him. 12And, behold, God is with us at our head, and his priests with the trumpets of alarm to sound an alarm against you. O children of Israel, fight ye not against the LORD, the God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper. 13But Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them: so they were before Judah, and the ambushment was behind them. 14And when Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind them: and they cried unto the LORD, and the priests sounded with the trumpets. 15Then the men of Judah gave a shout: and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass, that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. 16And the children of Israel fled before Judah: and God delivered them into their hand. 17And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter: so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand
sweet incense] Ex. xxx. 7.
the shewbread also set they in order] Lit. and an ordering of bread [they set in order]. The Heb. phrase used here for "shewbread" signifies bread arranged as for an offering. Another term is "bread of the presence," i.e. bread set forth continually before the Lord (Ex. xxv. 30). See 1 Chr. ix. 32 (note).
the candlestick] Ex. xxv. 31 ff., xl. 24, 25.
12. the trumpets of alarm] (Num. x. 9). Abijah here threatens his opponents with a jihād or holy war.
13. Jeroboam caused an ambushment] While Abijah was endeavouring to shake the fidelity of the Northern army, the Northern leader secures a tactical advantage. The greater the advantages of the Israelites and the more disastrous the position ascribed to the army of Judah, so much the more glorious is the victory which Judah achieves by its reliance on Jehovah.
15. gave a shout] This shout had the character of a religious function; cp. Josh. vi. 10, 16; Judg. vii. 20, where the same Heb. word is used.
God smote Jeroboam] Cp. xiv. 12. Supernatural aid secures the victory.
17. The Chronicler has little or no interest in military matters as such, and is heedless of probability so far as the numbers he mentions are concerned. They must be sufficiently immense to enhance the power of Jehovah and to convey the impression that the days of old were mighty days. Comparison has been made with the phrase "a
