and he had no war in those years; because the LORD had given him rest. 7For he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars; the land is yet before us, because we have sought the LORD our God; we have sought him, and he hath given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered. 8And Asa had an army that bare bucklers and spears, out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare shields and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand: all these were mighty men of valour. 9And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an army of a thousand
8. that bare bucklers and spears . . . that bare shields and drew bows] LXX., δύναμις ὁπλοφόρων (= ὁπλιτῶν) αἰρόντων θυρεοὺς καὶ δόρατα . . . πελτασταὶ και τοξόται. The Chronicler divides Asa's army into the heavy-armed men belonging to Judah and the light-armed bowmen belonging to Benjamin. Asa apparently had no chariots. "Bucklers" and "shields" should be transposed as in ix. 15.
of Judah three hundred thousand . . . of Benjamin . . . two hundred and fourscore thousand] The total is 580,000. Under Asa's successor, Jehoshaphat, the numbers are (xvii. 14—18), Judah 780,000, Benjamin 380,000, making a total of 1,160,000, i.e. twice the total given above. The moral which the Chronicler would enforce by these figures seems to be that Judah was strong in the early days of Asa, while Asa showed faith in God, and that it became still stronger under his really religious successor, Jehoshaphat. Regarding the exaggeration of these figures, see the notes on xi. 1, and xvii. 14.
9—15 (no parallel in Kings). Asa's victory over Zerah: the
Battle of Mareshah.
The present passage has much the same midrashic character as the account of Abijah's victory related in the previous chapter, and some scholars consider that the story of the raid and defeat of Zerah has no basis in fact. It is, however, more probable that it originates in a genuine tradition of the repulse of some Egyptian, or rather Arabian (see note, ver. 9), inroad, not necessarily, however, in the time of Asa: cp. the Introd. § 7, p. 1.
9. against them] We should expect either against him (i.e. Asa) or against Judah. Perhaps this account has been torn out from some older document without regard to the context, so that the reference of them is lost. Cp. notes on vv. 12, 13, 14.
Zerah the Ethiopian] Rather, Zerah the Cushite ("man of Cush"). Cush (Gen. x. 7) was the ancestor of certain Arabian tribes, including Saba, see 1 Chr. i. 9; and Arabians and Cushites ("Ethiopians" A.V.,
