Asa succeeds his father Abijah as king of Judah. During Asa's reign, the land had peace for ten years. Asa removed idols and idolatrous worship, commanding the people to worship the Lord. He destroyed foreign altars, high places, pillars and Asherim idols. Asa also strengthened defenses by building fortified cities. When threatened by an enormous Ethiopian army led by Zerah, Asa prayed to the Lord for help and was given victory over the Ethiopians, securing further peace during his reign.

1. 2 CHRO ICLES 14 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1 [a]And Abijah rested with his ancestors and was
buried in the City of David. Asa his son succeeded
him as king, and in his days the country was at
peace for ten years.
BAR ES, "Asa his son reigned - If Rehoboam was (1Ki_12:8 note) not more than
21 years old at his accession, Asa, when he mounted the throne, must have been a mere
boy, not more than 10 or 11 years of age.
The land was quiet ten years - The great blow struck by Abijah 2Ch_13:15-19, his
alliance with Syria 1Ki_15:19, and the rapid succession of sovereigns in Israel during the
earlier part of Asa’s reign 1Ki_15:25-33, would naturally prevent disturbance on the part
of the northern kingdom. The tender age of Asa himself would be a bar to warlike
enterprises on the part of Judah.
CLARKE, "The land was quiet ten years - Calmet thinks these years should be
counted from the fifth to the fifteenth of Asa’s reign.
GILL, "So Abijah slept with his fathers, 1Ki_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 Jarchi, and which seems right; after
which there was war between them all their days, see 1Ki_15:32.
HE RY 1-5, "Here is, I. Asa's general character (2Ch_14:2): He did that which was
good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. 1. He aimed at pleasing God, studied to
approve himself to him. Happy are those that walk by this rule, to do that which is right,
not in their own eyes, or in the eye of the world, but in the eyes of God. 2. He saw God's
eye always upon him, and that helped much to keep him to what was good and right. 3.
God graciously accepted him in what he did, and approved his conduct as good and
right.

2. II. A blessed work of reformation which he set on foot immediately upon his accession
to the crown. 1. He removed and abolished idolatry. Since Solomon admitted idolatry, in
the latter end of his reign, nothing had been done to suppress it, and so, we presume, it
had got ground. Strange gods were worshipped and had their altars, images, and groves;
and the temple service, though kept up by the priests (2Ch_13:10), was neglected by
many of the people. Asa, as soon as he had power in his hands, made it his business to
destroy all those idolatrous altars and images (2Ch_14:3, 2Ch_14:5), they being a great
provocation to a jealous God and a great temptation to a careless unthinking people. He
hoped by destroying the idols to reform the idolaters, which he aimed at, rather than to
ruin them. 2. He revived and established the pure worship of God; and, since the priests
did their part in attending God's altars, he obliged the people to do theirs (2Ch_14:4):
He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and not the gods of the
heathen, and to do the law and the commandments, that is, to observe all divine
institutions, which many had utterly neglected. In doing this, the land was quiet before
him, 2Ch_14:5. Though they were much in love with their idols, and very loth to leave
them, yet the convictions of their consciences sided with the commands of Asa, and they
could not, for shame, refuse to comply with them. Note, Those that have power in their
hands, and will use it vigorously for the suppression of profaneness and the reformation
of manners, will not meet with so much difficulty and opposition therein as perhaps they
feared. Vice is a sneaking thing, and virtue has reason enough on its side to make all
iniquity stop her mouth, Psa_107:42.
III. The tranquillity of his kingdom, after constant alarms of war during the last two
reigns: In his days the land was quiet ten years ( 2Ch_14:1), no war with the kingdom of
Israel, who did not recover the blow given them in the last reign for a great while.
Abijah's victory, which was owing, under God, to his courage and bravery, laid a
foundation for Asa's peace, which was the reward of his piety and reformation. Though
Abijah had little religion himself, he was instrumental to prepare the way for one that
had much. If Abijah had not done what he did to quiet the land, Asa could not have done
what he did to reform it; for inter arma silent leges - amidst the din of arms the voice of
law is unheard.
JAMISO , "2Ch_14:1-5. Asa destroys idolatry.
In his days the land was quiet ten years — This long interval of peace was the
continued effect of the great battle of Zemaraim (compare 1Ki_15:11-14).
K&D, "2Ch_14:1-3
Asa's efforts for the abolition of idolatry and the establishment of the kingdom. -
2Ch_14:1-4. The good and right in God's eyes which Asa did is further defined in 2Ch_
14:2-4. He abolished all the objects of the idolatrous worship. The “altars of the
strangers” are altars consecrated to foreign gods; from them the ‫ּות‬‫מ‬ ָ , high places, are
distinguished-these latter being illegal places of sacrifice connected with the worship of
Jahve (see on 1Ki_15:14). The ‫ּוה‬‫ב‬ ֵ ַ‫מ‬ are the statues or monumental columns consecrated
to Baal, and ‫ים‬ ִ‫ר‬ ֵ‫שׁ‬ ֲ‫א‬ the wooden idols, tree-trunks, or trees, which were consecrated to
Astarte (see on 1Ki_14:23 and Deu_16:21). Asa at the same time commanded the people
to worship Jahve, the God of the fathers, and to follow the law.

3. BE SO , "2 Chronicles 14:1. In his days the land was quiet ten years — There was
no war with the kingdom of Israel, which did not recover the blow given in the last
reign for a great while. Abijah’s victory, which was owing, under God, to his
courage and bravery, laid a foundation for Asa’s peace, which was the reward of his
piety, and the reformation he effected. Though Abijah had little religion himself, he
was instrumental in preparing the way for one that had much. If Abijah had not
done what he did to quiet the land, Asa could not have done what he did to reform
it.
ELLICOTT, "(1) So Abijah slept . . . in his stead.—Verbatim as 1 Kings 15:8
(Abijam).
In his days the land was quiet ten years.—Mentioned here as a result of Abijah’s
great victory. “The land was quiet,” or “had rest” (Judges 3:11; Judges 5:31). The
phrase is explained in 2 Chronicles 14:6, “He had no war in those years.”
During this period of repose Asa strengthened the defences of his country (2
Chronicles 14:5, comp. 2 Chronicles 15:19).
The name Asa may perhaps mean “healer;” (comp. the Syriac ’ôsç “physician,” and
2 Chronicles 16:12); or “spices” (Syriac ‘ôsô; comp. 2 Chronicles 16:14).
COFFMA , ""In his days, the land was quiet ten years" (2 Chronicles 14:1). This
was most likely due in large part to the tremendous victory that God had given
Abijah over Jeroboam. Judah had rest, "Until the invasion of Zerah in 896 B.C.;
and this was God's reward for Asa's reforms."[1]
The Chronicler gave much more space to Asa than was given in Kings; but this was
not due to the Chronicler's having derived all of this, "from his Midrashic
source,"[2] a false allegation common enough among critics. Greater and greater
respect among competent scholars for Chronicles tends more and more to the
acceptance of the absolute historicity of every word in it.
"He took away ... the foreign altars ... the high places ... brake down the pillars ...
hewed down the Asherim" (2 Chronicles 14:3). Kings also records other reforms of
Asa, but these are supplementary, not contradictory. Some scholars have fallen into
the error of supposing that the high places, "In earlier years, had been acceptable
secondary places for worshipping Jehovah";[3] but this cannot possibly be true.
God had specifically forbidden all of these pagan things in Deuteronomy 16:21-22,
and had sternly demanded their destruction (Deuteronomy 7:5; 12:3).
We reject the ridiculous emendation by which the RSV translated pillars in this
passage (2 Chronicles 14:5) as incense altars. They were no such thing. The very
height of them would have made them useless as altars of incense; those that
Solomon put in the temple were 35 cubits high! "They were probably the symbols of
the male element in nature ... they and the sacred trees of the Asherah were

4. associated with sexual practices repugnant to the worshippers of God."[4] P.C.
Barker backs up this opinion in the Pulpit Commentary.[5]
While serving as a chaplain in Japan and Korea during the Korean war, this writer
saw some of those `pillars' associated with pagan worship. They were carved
wooden models of the human penis six to eight feet in height; and he still has
photographs of them. They were carried in a procession by young virgins in an
annual parade.
"Three hundred thousand ... two hundred and fourscore thousand" (2 Chronicles
14:8). Payne thought that, "These figures must have included the whole
population";[6] and Ellison rejected the mention of Zerah's million man army in 2
Chronicles 14:9 with the comment that, "A million probably means no more than an
exceedingly large number."[7] Such comments must be rejected, because they are
merely scholarly devices for saying, "Of course, this is not true." Regarding the
numbers in 2 Chronicles 14:8, Canon F. C. Cook observed that, "They correspond
well with the numbers given in 2 Chronicles 13:19. In ten years of peace, the army
had grown from 400,000 to 580,000, as should have been expected in a time of peace
and prosperity."[8]
And, as regards that million man army mentioned in 2 Chronicles 14:9, below, Cook
pointed out that, "This is the largest collected army of which we read in Scripture;
but it does not exceed the known numbers of other Oriental armies of ancient times.
Darius Codomannus brought into the field of Abela a force of 1,040,000; and Xerxes
crossed the Hellespont with more than a million combatants."[9]
Any thoughtful person may see prejudice and bias in the fact than any statement by
any pagan writer whomsover, regardless of how preposterous it may be, is received
as gospel truth, while a malicious skepticism is pointed at every line of the Sacred
Scriptures. The army of Zerah mentioned in the next verse, below, just as certainly
had a million men in it as did the army of Zerxes, a fact that is implicit in Asa's
prayer in which he recognized that his own force of only 580,000 was as nothing
compared with it.
TRAPP, " So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David:
and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years.
Ver. 1. So Abijah slept with his fathers.] See 1 Kings 2:10.
In the city of David.] There David’s sepulchre was to be seen in the apostles’ days;
[Acts 2:29] and there Solomon’s sepulchre, which the Jews had in great esteem, fell
to pieces without force offered to it, a little before the last destruction of Jerusalem
in 132 AD, as Dio testifieth. (a)
POOLE, "Asa is made king; he destroyeth idolatry, 2 Chronicles 14:1-5. Having
peace, he strengtheneth his kingdom with forts and armies, 2 Chronicles 14:6-8. In a

5. strait, calling on God, he overthroweth Zerah, and spoileth the Ethiopians, 2
Chronicles 14:9-15.
i.e. There was no open war, either by Baasha or others; only there were secret
grudges and private hostilities between his and Baasha’s subjects, 1 Kings 15:16.
GUZIK, "A. The characteristics of the reign of Asa.
1. (2 Chronicles 14:1-6) The blessedness of the reign of King Asa.
So Abijah rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then
Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years. Asa did
what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God, for he removed the altars
of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut
down the wooden images. He commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their
fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment. He also removed the high
places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet
under him. And he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest; he had no
war in those years, because the LORD had given him rest.
a. Asa his son reigned in his place: This great-grandson of Solomon took the throne
Judah at the end of Jeroboam’s reign in Israel, after his father’s brief reign.
b. Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD: As is related in 1
Kings 15:11, Asa was more like his ancestor David in his character as a king than he
was like his own father.
c. He removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places: Asa launched a
reform movement that lashed out against idolatry and officially sanctioned sin.
i. 1 Kings 15:12 says that he banished the perverted persons from the land. These
state-sanctioned homosexual idol-temple prostitutes were introduced into Judah
during the reign of Rehoboam (1 Kings 14:24). Asa’s father Abijam didn’t remove
these perversions and idols, but King Asa did.
ii. 1 Kings 15 also tells us that he removed Maachah his grandmother from being
queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. This
demonstrated the thoroughness of Asa’s reforms. He was able to act righteously
even when his family was wrong, in particular his own grandmother (called
Michaiah in 2 Chronicles 13:2). “It is in a man’s own family circle that his
faithfulness is put fairly to the test.” (Knapp)
d. He commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers: King Asa could
not force people to seek the LORD and obey him. Yet he could command them with
moral force and with his own example.

6. e. He also removed the high places: Interestingly, 1 Kings 15:14 says of the reign of
Asa, but the high places were not removed. Since 2 Chronicles 14:3 connects these
high places with altars of the foreign gods. Therefore Asa removed the high places
that were dedicated to idols, but not the ones that were dedicated to the LORD.
f. The kingdom was quiet under him . . . because the LORD had given him rest: 1
Kings 15:14 tells us that Asa’s heart was loyal to the LORD all his days. Here we see
the blessing he and the kingdom of Judah enjoyed from his loyal heart to God.
i. He built fortified cities in Judah: “Though he had no war, yet he provided for it.
So did our Queen Elizabeth; and so must every Christian soldier.” (Trapp)
BI 1-4, "And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.
Asa faithful to his God
We have watched the steady fall of the kingdom of Israel Judah also began in shame and
ended in disaster, but its shame was not so unmixed nor its disaster so complete. The
reason for this better fate is suggested in our text: the saving influence of good men
interposed to hold the people to God and prosperity. Our lesson presents Asa as the
righteous leader of his people.
1. Asa reformed the religion of Judah. Like Gideon, he began his rule with a bold
attack upon the popular idolatry. The worship of Baal and Ashtoreth had clung to the
people ever since they met it when entering Canaan, in spite of God’s warning that
for this very sin the inhabitants were cast out before them. In recent years Solomon
had patronised it, Rehoboam encouraged and Abijah confirmed it; and under these
royal leaders Judah had become fascinated with its worship and debauched with its
hideous vice. But the reformer’s axe went crashing through the groves. He was well
named Asa(“Physician,” “Cure”), for he healed the hurt of his people. We hear of no
resistance to his vigorous measures. The conscience of the nation yet answered to the
conscience of the king: “the land was quiet before him.”
2. Asa advanced the material prosperity of Judah. In the ten years of rest which God
gave him “he built fenced cities, with walls and towers, gates and bars,” to protect
them from Israel on the north and Egypt on the south.
3. Passing now to determine the nature and the extent of Asa’s influence, we find the
cause of his success in his piety. He was a sound reformer, an able king, and a
successful soldier, because he was faithful to his God. “He did that which was right,
and commanded the people to serve the Lord.” So, too, his best work for his subjects
was upon their characters. Asa’s influence was most important and enduring. He
ascended the throne at a crisis in the nation’s history. Israel was already twenty years
along in its fatal transgression, and Judah was hastening after it. His father and
grandfather had forsaken the righteousness of David and perpetuated the iniquity of
Solomon, rather than his splendour or his wisdom. Had the succeeding reign of
forty-one years followed the same course, we must believe that the current toward
wickedness would have been set past turning. Had Asa been like Jeroboam, Judah
would have gone down like Israel. Through Asa’s faithfulness the old man’s dying
blessing has come to pass: “Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy
father’s children shall bow down before thee, and unto him shall the gathering of the

7. people be.” For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler.
The Jewish monarchy fell at last, but the real cause for which Asa struggled shall
never perish. He who reads the story of Israel and Judah will mark with wonder the
controlling power exercised by the king upon the religious faith of the nation. If it is
written of one, “He did evil in the sight of the Lord,” it is always true that “he made
Israel to sin.” If he worshipped Jehovah, his subjects worshipped with him. The
character of the king decided the character of the people. The saving influence of
righteous leaders. The power to lead others may come either from external
circumstances or from personal qualities.
1. The influence given by external circumstances.
(1) Official rank gives authority. Asa did, as king, what he could never have
accomplished as a private citizen. He had direct control over his dependents. A
devout centurion will have a devout soldier to wait upon him. The moral
influence of those in high stations is wide and strong. Eminence makes example
conspicuous.
(2) Wealth brings influence.
(3) Employers have large opportunity for good.
2. Besides the control given by external circumstances, we may notice the influence
of personal qualities. Not what the man has, but what the man is, makes him a
leader. Jeroboam is an instance in point. Beginning life as a common labourer, he
died king of Israel. How continually have gifted, accomplished, and learned men
brought saving help to the Church of God throughout her history. There is a subtle,
mighty influence which should always be consecrated to holy uses—popularity,
power to win the favour of others. Disciplined character has a peculiar mastery over
others for good. Its control is quieter and deeper than any we have marked; it is the
atmosphere of a soul refined to its highest uses. “All high beauty has a moral element
in it. Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but
character gives splendour to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and grey hairs.” God
has been at great pains to fit souls for this service. (Monday Club Sermon.)
PARKER, "Asa: Life and Lessons
2 Chronicles 14 , 2 Chronicles 15
ASA was a good king of Judah; he "did that which was good and right in the eyes of
the Lord his God." ot only "good and right" because these might be variable
terms. There are persons who set themselves to the presumptuous and impious task
of settling for themselves, what is "right" and what is "good." In the case of Asa, he
did not invent a righteousness, nor did he invent a goodness which he could adapt to
his own tempers, ambitions, and conveniences: he was right and good and "did that
which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God." Whilst the land had

8. peace, Asa set to work and built walls and towers and fences, and did all that he
could for the good of his country. Zerah, an Ethiopian warrior, did not understand
silence. He mistook quietness for languor; he made the vulgar mistake of supposing
that quietness was indifference. He did not know that repose is the very highest
expression of power. So he brought against Asa, king of Judah, no fewer than a
million soldiers—"a thousand thousand" —to us a large number, to the Orientals
quite a common array. What was to be done? Asa did not shrink from war, though
he never courted it. He must meet the foe in battle. Before doing so he must pray:
"And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to
help [rather, "it is alike to thee to help the powerful or the weak"—thou canst as
easily, i.e, help the weak as the strong] whether with many, or with them that have
no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go
[comp. 1 Samuel 17:45] against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God; let not
man [or, mortal man] prevail against thee" ( 2 Chronicles 14:11).
Having risen from their knees, they launched themselves against the Ethiopians, and
were mighty as men who answer straw with steel. They fought in God"s name and
for God"s cause, and the thousand thousand of the Ethiopians were as nothing
before the precise and terrific stroke of men who had studied war in the school of
God.
Asa, then, began upon a good foundation; he established himself upon a great
principle. That is what all young people especially should take to heart right
seriously. To such we say: do not make an accident of your lives—a thing without
centre, purpose, certitude, or holiness. Regard it as a trust from God. Be right in
your great foundation lines, and you will build up a superstructure strong, after the
nature and quality of the foundation upon which you build. Do not snatch at life. Do
not take out an odd motto here and there and say, "This will do for the occasion."
Life should be deeply laid in its bases, strongly cemented together in its principles,
noble in its convictions; then it can be charitable in its concessions and recognitions.
On what is your life based? What is the point at which you are aiming? If you have
no broad foundation, no solid rock, no complete purpose and policy, then you are
adventurers, speculators, and the turn of the wheel will mean your present or
ultimate ruin.
"And he [Asa] took courage, and put away the abominable idols [abominations] out
of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from
mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the Lord" ( 2 Chronicles 15:8).
Let us not trifle with the occasion by suggesting that we have no idolatries to uproot,
no heathen groves to examine, to purify, or to destroy. That would indeed be
making light of history, and ignoring the broadest and saddest facts of our present
circumstances. The world is full of little gods, Prayer of Manasseh -made idols,
groves planted by human hands, oppositions and antagonisms to the true theism of
the universe. We are so apt to think that the idols are a long way off, far beyond
seas; or that they existed long centuries ago and spoke languages now obsolete or

9. forgotten. othing of the kind; they live here, they build to-day. Our gods are a
million strong. We do not call them gods, but we worship them none the less. Luck,
Accident, Fortune, Fashion, Popularity, Self-indulgence—these are the base progeny
of idols that did once represent some ideal thought and even some transcendental
religion. Idolatry has retrograded; polytheism has gone quickly backward. To
worship the sun!—Why, there is reason in it; verily, sometimes he looks as if made
to be worshipped, to be hailed with song and to be followed with adoring wonder in
his infinite course of illumination. But we worship accident, fortuitous
circumstances, probabilities. We calculate at the counter of our gods—where the
men we often mock fell down and dumbly worshipped what they did not
understand. Theirs the nobler idolatry! having in it a touch of heavenly philosophy.
Asa said, in effect, "We must be right about our gods before we can be right with
one another." That is true teaching. With a wrong theology we never can have a
thoroughly sound and healthy economical system. To be wrong in our conception of
God is to be wrong in every point in the line of our thinking. The points themselves
may be apparently sustained by great force of reasoning and great witness of
concurrent facts; but when connected with their starting point they are vitiated by
the mistake which was originally made. Looking on all human history we find that
the conception of God—any god—which any people have held, has ultimately
determined their fortunes. We rest on this philosophy. We believe in a God of
righteousness, purity, mercy; a Father-God, loving all, redeeming all, caring for
each as if each were an only child; patient with us, careful about us, studying our
littlenesses, and making our infirmities the starting-points of new beneficences. We
cannot be true to that conception of God, and have along with it a morality that we
can palter with, and duties with which we can trifle. The conviction of a theology so
massive, so substantial, so rational, will make itself felt in every pulsation of
individual thought and social relationship.
This was the corner-stone upon which Asa built his great and gracious policy. What
was the effect of it upon other people? We find that the effect then was what it must
always be:—
"They fell to him out of Israel in abundance [comp. chap. 2 Chronicles 11:16], when
they saw that the Lord his God was with him" ( 2 Chronicles 15:9).
Such is the influence of a great leadership. If Asa had been halting, the people would
have halted too. Asa was positive, and positiveness sustained by such beneficence
begets courage in other people. "They fell to him out of Israel in abundance"—that
Isaiah , they came over to him and were on his side. They ranked themselves with
Asa; they looked for his banner and called it theirs, "when they saw that the Lord
his God was with him." ations perish for want of great leaders. Social reformers
are dependent to a large extent upon the spirit of the leadership which has adopted
them. The Church is always looking round for some bolder Prayer of Manasseh ,
some more heroic and dauntless spirit, who will utter the new truth, if any truth can
be new—say rather, the next truth; for truth has always a next self, a larger and
immediately-impending self, and the hero, who is also martyr, must reveal that next
phase of truth and die on Golgotha for his pains. Can we not, in some small sense,

10. be leaders in our little circles, in our business relations, in our family life, in our
institutional existence? Many people can follow a tune who cannot begin one. That
is the philosophy we would unfold and enforce. You would suppose from the
immediate answer to the leader that any man in the whole thousand could have
begun the tune—the reality of the case being, that the leader alone, perhaps, might
be able to start it; yet, the moment his clear, dominating tone is heard, a thousand
men took it up as if they had begun it. It is so in morals. Many persons can feel a
speech who cannot make one. That is the secret of true speaking. So the reporter
does not report the speech only; he reports the whole proceedings. Hence the
interruptions are as essential to the understanding of a meeting as is the eloquence
itself. We must know who applauded, where they applauded, how much they
applauded; so that, having read the reporter"s notes, we know what a thousand
men or more felt and said, for every hearer in a great and responsive audience is as
truly a speaker as is the one man who gives articulation to the common sentiment of
the multitude. We want leaders—men who will have the courage to say now and
then, "Let us pray." The people are waiting for good leadership. They know the
shepherdly voice when they hear it; "There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of
the Almighty giveth him understanding," and you might have had a more
unanimous following if your leadership had been less marked by ambiguity and
equivocation. Your family might have been more united if to firmness you had
added grace—if to grace you had added firmness. Regard all leaders with prayerful
hopefulness in so far as they want to do good and to be good. Sympathise with them,
say to Asa, even the king, "What thou hast done thou hast well done; in God"s
name we bless thee for the purification of the land and for the encouragement of all
noble things."
Asa showed the limits of human forbearance and human philosophy. He broke
down in the very act of doing that which was right because he went too far. He made
a covenant and the people made it along with him.
"And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all
their heart and with all their soul; that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of
Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman" ( 2
Chronicles 15:12-13).
That is the danger. You cannot make men religious by killing them, by threatening
them, by inflicting upon them any degree of penalty. Do not force a child to church.
Lead it; lure it; make the church so bright and homelike and beautiful that the child
will eagerly long for the time to come when the door will be opened. We conquer by
love. The Christian cause advances, not by persecution but by charity; not even by
argument but by love. Controversy has done nothing for the truth compared with
what has been done by holiness, purity, nobleness, patience, and the quiet heroisms
which can only be accounted for by the existence of deep and real religious
convictions.
Asa was impartial. There was a touch of real grandeur about the man. He would not
even allow his mother to keep an idol. The queen had an idol of her own "in a

11. grove."
"And also concerning Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from
being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove: and Asa cut down her idol,
and stamped it and burnt it at the brook Kidron" ( 2 Chronicles 15:16).
Thus ruthlessly Asa disestablished that little royal church. See how burningly in
earnest the man was; and what a man will do when his earnestness is fervent! He
knows nothing about fathers, mothers, partialities, or concessions. He says, "Light is
the foe of darkness, and you cannot have any little dark corner of your own. This
light must find you out, chase away every shadow and purify every secret place in
human life and thought." Many men fail to follow Asa just at that point. They are
great reformers upon a public scale; but their own houses are stables that need to be
cleansed. They are quite violent progressists in all national matters; but the moment
they go home and shut the house-gate upon themselves they fall into all kinds of
confusion and tumult and false relationship. " ow," said Asa, in effect, "what is
good for the public is good for the individual; what is good for the subject is good
for the queen. Cut down the queen"s idol, cut down the queen"s grove; and when
you have got the little god, stamp on it, burn it, throw the ashes into the brook; and
because the queen no longer repents of her idolatry, she must leave her throne." We
want more men of that kind. They will have uncomfortable lives, they will not be
popular men; they will be fools according to the world"s arithmetic, they will be
madmen in the estimation of cold minds; but they are God"s sons, children of the
light, born not of men, not of blood, but born of God, born in heaven.
Let us consider this man"s case well, and apply it to ourselves. We must have no
persecution, no threatening, no driving; only prayer, reasoning, hope, love; inform
the mind, guide the reason, multiply the schools, double the circulation of all good
books, inspire the affections, purify the very source and spring of the will; and our
victories will not be so many coarse and costly destructions, but will be as the
triumph of light over darkness, fair as the morning and beneficent as the summer.
EBC, "ASA: DIVI E RETRIBUTIO
2 Chronicles 14:1-15; 2 Chronicles 15:1-19; 2 Chronicles 16:1-14
ABIJAH, dying, as far as we can gather from Chronicles, in the odor of sanctity,
was succeeded by his son Asa. The chronicler’s history of Asa is much fuller than
that which is given in the book of Kings. The older narrative is used as a framework
into which material from later sources is freely inserted. The beginning of the new
reign was singularly promising. Abijah had been a very David, he had fought the
battles of Jehovah, and had assured the security and independence of Judah. Asa,
like Solomon, entered into the peaceful enjoyment of his predecessor’s exertions in
the field. "In his days the land was quiet ten years," as in the days when the judges
had delivered Israel, and he was able to exhort his people to prudent effort by
reminding them that Jehovah had given them rest on every side. This interval of

12. quiet was used for both religious reform and military precautions. The high places
and heathen idols and symbols which had somehow survived Abijah’s zeal for the
Mosaic ritual were swept away, and Judah was commanded to seek Jehovah and
observe the Law; and he built fortresses with towers, and gates, and bars, and
raised a great army "that bare bucklers and spears,"-no mere hasty levy of half-
armed peasants with scythes and axes. The mighty array surpassed even Abijah’s
great muster of four hundred thousand from Judah and Benjamin: there were five
hundred and eighty thousand men, three hundred thousand out of Judah that bare
bucklers and spears and two hundred and eighty thousand out of Benjamin that
bare shields and drew bows. The great muster of Benjamites under Asa is in
striking contrast to the meager tale of six hundred warriors that formed the whole
strength of Benjamin after its disastrous defeat in the days of the judges; and the
splendid equipment of this mighty host shows the rapid progress of the nation from
the desperate days of Shamgar and Jael or even of Saul’s early reign, when "there
was neither shield nor spear seen among forty thousand in Israel." These references
of buildings, especially fortresses, to military stores and the vast numbers of Jewish
and Israelite armies, form a distinct class amongst the additions made by the
chronicler to the material taken from the book of Kings. They are found in the
narratives of the reigns of David, Rehoboam, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Jotham,
Manasseh, in fact in the reigns of nearly all the good kings; Manasseh’s building
was done after he had turned from his evil ways. [1 Chronicles 12:1-40, etc.; 2
Chronicles 11:5 ff; 2 Chronicles 17:12 ff; 2 Chronicles 26:9 ff; 2 Chronicles 27:4 ff;
2 Chronicles 28:23-24 ;, 2 Chronicles 33:14] Hezekiah and Josiah were too much
occupied with sacred festivals on the one hand and hostile invaders on the other to
have much leisure for building, and it would not have been in keeping with
Solomon’s character as the prince of peace to have laid stress on his arsenals and
armies Otherwise the chronicler, living at a time when the warlike resources of
Judah were of the slightest, was naturally interested in these reminiscences of
departed glory; and the Jewish provincials would take a pride in relating these
pieces of antiquarian information about their native towns, much as the servants of
old manor-houses delight to point out the wing which was added by some famous
cavalier or by some Jacobite Squire.
Asa’s warlike preparations were possibly intended, like those of the Triple Alliance,
to enable him to maintain peace; but if so, their sequel did not illustrate the maxim,
"Si vis pacem, para bellum." The rumour of his vast armaments reached a powerful
monarch: "Zerah the Ethiopian." (2 Chronicles 14:9-15) The vagueness of this
description is doubtless due to the remoteness of the chronicler from the times he is
describing. Zerah has sometimes been identified with Shishak’s successor, Osorkon
I, the second king of the twenty-second Egyptian dynasty. Zerah felt that Asa’s
great army was a standing menace to the surrounding princes, and undertook the
task of destroying this new military power: "He came out against them." umerous
as Asa’s forces were, they still left him dependent upon Jehovah, for the enemy were
even more numerous and better equipped. Zerah led to battle an army of a million
men, supported by three hundred war chariots. With this enormous host he came to
Mareshah, at the foot of the Judaean highlands, in a direction southwest of
Jerusalem. In spite of the inferiority of his army, Ass came out to meet him; "and

13. they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah." Like Abijah,
Asa felt that, with his Divine ally, he need not be afraid of the odds against him even
when they could be counted by hundreds of thousands. Trusting in Jehovah, he had
taken the field against the enemy; and now at the decisive moment he made a
confident appeal for help: "Jehovah, there is none beside Thee to help between the
mighty and him that hath no strength." Five hundred and eighty thousand men
seemed nothing compared to the host arrayed against them, and outnumbering
them in the proportion of nearly two to one. "Help us, Jehovah our God; for we rely
on Thee, and in Thy name are we come against this multitude. Jehovah, Thou art
our God; let not man prevail against Thee."
Jehovah justified the trust reposed in Him. He smote the Ethiopians, and they fled
towards the southwest in the direction of Egypt; and Asa and his army pursued
them as far as Gerar, with fearful slaughter, so that of Zerah’s million followers not
one remained alive. Of course this statement is hyperbolical. The carnage was
enormous, and no living enemies remained in sight. Apparently Gerar and the
neighboring cities had aided Zerah in his advance and attempted to shelter the
fugitives from Mareshah. Paralyzed with fear of Jehovah, whose avenging wrath
had been so terribly manifested, these cities fell an easy prey to the victorious Jews.
They smote and spoiled all the cities about Gerar, and reaped a rich harvest "for
there was much spoil in them." It seems that the nomad tribes of the southern
wilderness had also in some way identified themselves with the invaders; Asa
attacked them in their turn. "They smote also the tents of cattle"; and as the wealth
of these tribes lay in their flocks and herds, "they carried away sheep in abundance
and camels, and returned to Jerusalem."
This victory is closely parallel to that of Abijah over Jeroboam. In both the numbers
of the armies are reckoned by hundreds of thousands; and the hostile host
outnumbers the army of Judah in the one case by exactly two to one, in the other by
nearly that proportion: in both the king of Judah trusts with calm assurance to the
assistance of Jehovah, and Jehovah smites the enemy; the Jews then massacre the
defeated army and spoil or capture the neighboring cities.
These victories over superior numbers may easily be paralleled or surpassed by
numerous striking examples from secular history. The odds were greater at
Agincourt, where at least sixty thousand French were defeated by not more than
twenty thousand Englishmen; at Marathon the Greeks routed a Persian army ten
times as numerous as their own; in India English generals have defeated
innumerable hordes of native warriors, as when Wellesley-
"Against the myriads of Assaye Clashed with his fiery few and won."
For the most part victorious generals have been ready to acknowledge the succoring
arm of the God of battles. Shakespeare’s Henry V after Agincourt speaks altogether
in the spirit of Asa’s prayer:-
"O God, Thy arm was here; And not to us, but to Thy arm alone, Ascribe we all

14. Take it, God, For it is only Thine."
When the small craft that made up Elizabeth’s fleet defeated the huge Spanish
galleons and galleasses, and the storms of the northern seas finished the work of
destruction, the grateful piety of Protestant England felt that its foes had been
destroyed by the breath of the Lord; "Afflavit Deus et dissipantur."
The principle that underlies such feelings is quite independent of the exact
proportions of opposing armies. The victories of inferior numbers in a righteous
cause are the most striking, but not the most significant, illustrations of the
superiority of moral to material force. In the wider movements of international
politics we may find even more characteristic instances. It is true of nations as well
as of individuals that-
"The Lord killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth
up: The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich; He bringeth low, He also lifteth up: He
raiseth up the poor out of the dust, He lifteth up the needy from the dunghill, To
make them sit with princes And inherit the throne of glory."
Italy in the eighteenth century seemed as hopelessly divided as Israel under the
judges, and Greece as completely enslaved to the "unspeakable Turk" as the Jews to
ebuchadnezzar; and yet, destitute as they were of any material resources, these
nations had at their disposal great moral forces: the memory of ancient greatness
and the sentiment of nationality; and today Italy can count hundreds of thousands
like the chroniclers Jewish kings, and Greece builds her fortresses by land and her
ironclads to command the sea. The Lord has fought for Israel.
But the principle has a wider application. A little examination of the more obscure
and complicated movements of social life will show moral forces everywhere
overcoming and controlling the apparently irresistible material forces opposed to
them. The English and American pioneers of the movements for the abolition of
slavery had to face what seemed an impenetrable phalanx of powerful interests and
influences; but probably any impartial student of history would have foreseen the
ultimate triumph of a handful of earnest men over all the wealth and political power
of the slave-owners. The moral forces at the disposal of the abolitionists were
obviously irresistible. But the soldier in the midst of smoke and tumult may still be
anxious and despondent at the very moment when the spectator sees clearly that the
battle is won: and the most earnest Christian workers sometimes falter when they
realize the vast and terrible forces that fight against them. At such times we are both
rebuked and encouraged by the simple faith of the chronicler in the overruling
power of God.
It may be objected that if victory were to be secured by Divine intervention, there
was no need to muster five hundred and eighty thousand men or indeed any army at
all. If in any and every case God disposes, what need is there for the devotion to His
service of our best strength, and energy, and culture, or of any human effort at all?
A wholesome spiritual instinct leads the chronicler to emphasize the great

15. preparations of Abijah and Asa. We have no right to look for Divine co-operation
till we have done our best; we are not to sit with folded hands and expect a complete
salvation to be wrought for us, and then to continue as idle spectators of God’s
redemption of mankind we are to tax our resources to the utmost to gather our
hundreds of thousands of soldiers; we are to work out our own salvation with fear
and trembling, for it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good
pleasure.
This principle may be put in another way. Even to the hundreds of thousands the
Divine help is still necessary. The leaders of great hosts are as dependent upon
Divine help as Jonathan and his armor-bearer fighting single-handed against a
Philistine garrison, or David arming himself with a sling and stone against Goliath
of Gath. The most competent Christian worker in the prime of his spiritual strength
needs grace as much as the untried youth making his first venture in the Lord’s
service.
At this point we meet with another of the chronicler’s obvious self-contradictions.
At the beginning of the narrative of Asa’s reign we are told that the king did away
with the high places and the symbols of idolatrous worship, and that, because Judah
had thus sought Jehovah, He gave them rest. The deliverance from Zerah is another
mark of Divine favor: And yet in the fifteenth chapter Asa, in obedience to
prophetic admonition, takes away the abominations from his dominions, as if there
had been no previous reformation, but we are told that the high places were not
taken out of Israel. The context would naturally suggest that Israel here means
Asa’s kingdom, as the true Israel of God; but as the verse is borrowed from the
book of Kings, and "out of Israel" is an editorial addition made by the chronicler, it
is probably intended to harmonize the borrowed verse with the chronicler’s
previous statement that Asa did away with the high places. If so, we must
understand that Israel means the orthern Kingdom, from which the high places
had not been removed, though Judah had been purged from these abominations.
But here, as often elsewhere, Chronicles taken alone affords no explanation of its
inconsistencies.
Again, in Asa’s first reformation he commanded Judah to seek Jehovah and to do
the Law and the commandments; and accordingly Judah sought tile Lord.
Moreover, Abijah, about seventeen years before Asa’s second reformation, made it
his special boast that Judah had not forsaken Jehovah, but had priests ministering
unto Jehovah, "the sons of Aaron and the Levites in their work." During
Rehoboam’s reign of seventeen years Jehovah was duly honored for the first three
years, and again after Shishak’s invasion in the fifth year of Rehoboam. So that for
the previous thirty or forty years the due worship of Jehovah had only been
interrupted by occasional lapses into disobedience. But now the prophet Oded holds
before this faithful people the warning example of the "long seasons" when Israel
was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law. And yet
previously Chronicles supplies an unbroken list of high-priests from Aaron
downwards. In response to Oded’s appeal, the king and people set about the work
of reformation as if they had tolerated some such neglect of God, the priests, and the

16. Law as the prophet had described.
Another minor discrepancy is found in the statement that "the heart of Asa was
perfect all his days"; this is reproduced verbatim from the book of Kings.
Immediately afterwards the chronicler relates the evil doings of Asa in the closing
years of his reign.
Such contradictions render it impossible to give a complete and continuous
exposition of Chronicles that shall be at the same time consistent. evertheless they
are not without their value for the Christian student. They afford evidence of the
good faith of the chronicler. His contradictions are clearly due to his use of
independent and discrepant sources, and not to any tampering with the statements
of his authorities. They are also an indication that the chronicler attaches much
more importance to spiritual edification than to historical accuracy. When he seeks
to set before his contemporaries the higher nature and better life of the great
national heroes, and thus to provide them with an ideal of kingship, he is
scrupulously and painfully careful to remove everything that would weaken the
force of the lesson which he is trying to teach; but he is comparatively indifferent to
accuracy of historical detail. When his authorities contradict each other as to the
number or the date of Asa’s reformations, or even the character of his later years,
he does not hesitate to place the two narratives side by side and practically to draw
lessons from both. The work of the chronicler and its presence with the Pentateuch
and the Synoptic Gospels in the sacred canon imply an emphatic declaration of the
judgment of the Spirit and the Church that detailed historical accuracy is not a
necessary consequence of inspiration. In expounding this second narrative of a
reformation by Asa, we shall make no attempt at complete harmony with the rest of
Chronicles; any inconsistency between the exposition here and elsewhere will simply
arise from a faithful adherence to our text.
The occasion then of Asa’s second reformation was as follows: Asa was returning in
triumph from his great defeat of Zerah, bringing with him substantial fruits of
victory in the shape of abundant spoil. Wealth and power had proved a snare to
David and Rehoboam, and had involved them in grievous sin. Asa might also have
succumbed to the temptations of prosperity; but, by a special Divine grace not
vouchsafed to his predecessors, he was guarded against danger by a prophetic
warning. At the very moment when Asa might have expected to be greeted by the
acclamations of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, when the king would be elated with
the sense of Divine favor, military success, and popular applause, the prophet’s
admonition checked the undue exaltation which might have hurried Asa into
presumptuous sin. Asa and his people were not to presume upon their privilege; its
continuance was altogether dependent upon their continued obedience: if they fell
into sin the rewards of their former loyalty would vanish like fairy gold. "Hear ye
me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: Jehovah is with you while ye be with Him;
and if ye seek Him, He will be found of you; but if ye forsake Him, He will forsake
you." This lesson was enforced from the earlier history of Israel. The following
verses are virtually a summary of the history of the judges:-

17. " ow for long seasons Israel was without the true God, and without teaching priest,
and without law."
Judges tells how again and again Israel fell away from Jehovah. "But when in their
distress they turned unto Jehovah, the God of Israel, and sought Him, he was found
of them."
Oded’s address is very similar to another and somewhat fuller summary of the
history of the judges, contained in Samuel’s farewell to the people, in which he
reminded them how when they forgot Jehovah, their God, He sold them into the
hand of their enemies, and when they cried unto Jehovah, He sent Zerubbabel, and
Barak, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered them out of the hand of their
enemies on every side, and they dwelt in safety. Oded proceeds to other
characteristics of the period of the judges:
"There was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in; but great
vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the lands. And they were broken in
pieces, nation against nation and city against city, for God did vex them with all
adversity."
Deborah’s song records great vexations: the highways were unoccupied, and the
travelers walked through by-ways; the rulers ceased in Israel; Gideon "threshed
wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites." The breaking of nation
against nation and city against city will refer to the destruction of Succoth and
Penuel by Gideon, the sieges of Shechem and Thebez by Ahimelech, the massacre of
the Ephraimites by Jephthah, and the civil war between Benjamin and the rest of
Israel and the consequent destruction of Jabesh-gilead. [ 5:6-7; 6:2;, 8:15-17;, 9:1-7;,
12:6]
"But," said Oded, "be ye strong, and let not your hands be slack, for your work
shall be rewarded." Oded implies that abuses were prevalent in Judah which might
spread and corrupt the whole people, so as to draw down upon them the wrath of
God and plunge them into all the miseries of the times of the judges. These abuses
were wide-spread, supported by powerful interests and numerous adherents. The
queen-mother, one of the most important personages in an Eastern state, was herself
devoted to heathen observances. Their suppression needed courage, energy, and
pertinacity; but if they were resolutely grappled with, Jehovah would reward the
efforts of His servants with success, and Judah would enjoy prosperity. Accordingly
Asa took courage and put away the abominations out of Judah and Benjamin and
the cities he held in Ephraim. The abominations were the idols and all the cruel and
obscene accompaniments of heathen worship. {Cf. 1 Kings 15:12} In the prophet’s
exhortation to be strong, and not be slack, and in the corresponding statement that
Asa took courage, we have a hint for all reformers. either Oded nor Asa
underrated the serious nature of the task before them. They counted the cost, and
with open eyes and full knowledge confronted the evil they meant to eradicate. The
full significance of the chronicler’s language is only seen when we remember what
preceded the prophet’s appeal to Asa. The captain of half a million soldiers, the

18. conqueror of a million Ethiopians with three hundred chariots, has to take courage
before he can bring himself to put away the abominations out of his own dominions.
Military machinery is more readily created than national righteousness; it is easier
to slaughter one’s neighbors than to let light into the dark places that are full of the
habitations of cruelty; and vigorous foreign policy is a poor substitute for good
administration. The principle has its application to the individual. The beam in our
own eye seems more difficult to extract than the mote in our brother’s, and a man
often needs more moral courage to reform himself than to denounce other people’s
sins or urge them to accept salvation. Most ministers could confirm from their own
experience Portia’s saying, "I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done
than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching."
Asa’s reformation was constructive as well as destructive; the toleration of
"abominations" had diminished the zeal of the people for Jehovah, and even the
altar of Jehovah before the porch of the Temple had suffered from neglect: it was
now renewed, and Asa assembled the people for a great festival. Under Rehoboam
many pious Israelites had left the orthern Kingdom to dwell where they could
freely worship at the Temple; under Asa there was a new migration, "for they fell to
him out of Israel in abundance when they saw that Jehovah his God was with him."
And so it came about that in the great assembly which Asa gathered together at
Jerusalem not only Judah and Benjamin, but also Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon,
were represented. The chronicler has already told us that after the return from the
Captivity some of the children of Ephraim and Manasseh dwelt at Jerusalem with
the children of Judah and Benjamin, [1 Chronicles 9:3] and he is always careful to
note any settlement of members of the ten tribes in Judah or any acquisition of
northern territory by the kings of Judah. Such facts illustrated his doctrine that
Judah was the true spiritual Israel, the real or twelve-tribed whole, of the chosen
people.
Asa’s festival was held in the third month of his fifteenth year, the month Sivan,
corresponding roughly to our June. The Feast of Weeks, at which first-fruits were
offered, felt in this month; and his festival was probably a special celebration of this
feast. The sacrifice of seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep out of the spoil
taken from the Ethiopians and their allies might be considered a kind of first-fruits.
The people pledged themselves most solemnly to permanent obedience to Jehovah;
this festival and its offerings were to be first-fruits or earnest of future loyalty.
"They entered into a covenant to seek Jehovah, the God of their fathers, with all
their heart and with all their soul; they sware unto Jehovah with a loud voice, and
with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets." The observance of this
covenant was not to be left to the uncertainties of individual loyalty; the community
were to be on their guard against offenders, Achans who might trouble Israel.
According to the stern law of the Pentateuch, [Exodus 22:20,, Deuteronomy 13:5,
Deuteronomy 13:9, Deuteronomy 13:15] "whosoever would not seek Jehovah, the
God of Israel, should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or
woman." The seeking of Jehovah so far as it could be enforced by penalties, must
have consisted in external observances; and the usual proof that a man did not seek
Jehovah would be found in his seeking other gods and taking part in heathen rites.

19. Such apostasy was not merely an ecclesiastical offense; it involved immorality and a
falling away from patriotism. The pious Jew could no more tolerate heathenism
than we could tolerate in England religions that sanctioned polygamy or suttee.
Having thus entered into covenant with Jehovah, "all Judah rejoiced at their oath
because they had sworn with all their heart, and sought Him with their whole
desire." At the beginning, no doubt, they, like their king, "took courage"; they
addressed themselves with reluctance and apprehension to an unwelcome and
hazardous enterprise. They now rejoiced over the Divine grace that had inspired
their efforts and been manifested in their courage and devotion, over the happy
issue of their enterprise, and over the universal enthusiasm for Jehovah; and He set
the seal of his approval upon their gladness, He was found of them, and Jehovah
gave them rest round about, so that there was no more war for twenty years: unto
the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign. It is an unsavory task to put away abominations:
many foul nests of unclean birds are disturbed in the process; men would not choose
to have this particular cross laid upon them, but only those who take up their cross
and follow Christ can hope to enter into the joy of the Lord.
The narrative of this second reformation is completed by the addition of details
borrowed from the book of Kings. The chronicler next recounts how in the thirty-
sixth year of Asa’s reign Baasha began to fortify Ramah as an outpost against
Judah but was forced to abandon his undertaking by the intervention of the Syrian
king. Benhadad, whom Asa hired with his own treasures and those of the Temple;
whereupon Asa carried off Baasha’s stones and timber and built Geba and Mizpah
as Jewish outposts against Israel. With the exception of the date and a few minor
changes, the narrative so far is taken verbatim from the book of Kings. The
chronicler, like the author of the priestly document of the Pentateuch, was anxious
to provide his readers with an exact and complete system of chronology; he was the
Ussher or Clinton of his generation. His date of the war against Baasha is probably
based upon an interpretation of the source used for chapter 15; the first reformation
secured a rest of ten years, the second and more thorough reformation a rest exactly
twice as long as the first. In the interest of these chronological references, the
chronicler has sacrificed a statement twice repeated in the book of Kings: that there
was war between Asa and Baasha all their days. As Baasha came to the throne in
Asa’s third year, the statement of the book of Kings would have seemed to
contradict the chronicler’s assertion that there was no war from the fifteenth to the
thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign. [1 Kings 15:16; 1 Kings 15:32-33]
After his victory over Zerah, Asa received a Divine message which somewhat
checked the exuberance of his triumph; a similar message awaited him after his
successful expedition to Ramah. By Oded Jehovah had warned Asa, but now He
commissioned Hanani the seer to pronounce a sentence of condemnation. The
ground of the sentence was that Asa had not relied on Jehovah, but on the king of
Syria.
Here the chronicler echoes one of the keynotes of the great prophets. Isaih had
protested against the alliance which Ahaz concluded with Assyria in order to obtain

20. assistance again the united onset of Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel,
and had predicted that Jehovah would bring upon Ahaz, his people, and his dynasty
days that had not come since the disruption, even the King of Assyria. [Isaiah 7:17]
When this prediction was fulfilled, and the thundercloud of Assyrian invasion
darkened all the land of Judah, the Jews, in their lack of faith, looked to Egypt for
deliverance; and again Isaiah denounced the foreign alliance: "Woe to them that go
down to Egypt for help but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek
Jehovah; the strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and the trust in the shadow
of Egypt your confusion." [Isaiah 31:1; Isaiah 30:3] So Jeremiah in his turn
protested against a revival of the Egyptian alliance: "Thou shalt be ashamed of
Egypt also, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria." [Jeremiah 2:36]
In their successive calamities the Jews could derive no comfort from a study of
previous history; the pretext upon which each of their oppressors had intervened in
the affairs of Palestine had been an invitation from Judah.
In their trouble they had sought a remedy worse than the disease; the consequences
of this political quackery had always demanded still more desperate and fatal
medicines. Freedom from the border raids of the Ephraimites was secured at the
price of the ruthless devastations of Hazael; deliverance from Rezin only led to the
wholesale massacres and spoliation of Sennacherib. Foreign alliance was an opiate
that had to be taken in continually increasing doses, till at last it caused the death of
the patient.
evertheless these are not the lessons which the seer seeks to impress upon Asa.
Hanani takes a loftier tone. He does not tell him that his unholy alliance with
Benhadad was the first of a chain of circumstances that would end in the ruin of
Judah. Few generations are greatly disturbed by the prospect of the ruin of their
country in the distant future: "After us the Deluge." Even the pious king Hezekiah,
when told of the coming captivity of Judah, found much comfort in the thought that
there should be peace and truth in his days. After the manner of the prophets,
Hanani’s message is concerned with his own times. To his large faith the alliance
with Syria presented itself chiefly as the loss of a great opportunity. Asa had
deprived himself of the privilege of fighting with Syria, whereby Jehovah would
have found fresh occasion to manifest His infinite power and His gracious favor
towards Judah. Had there been no alliance with Judah, the restless and warlike
king of Syria might have joined Baasha to attack Asa; another million of the
heathen and other hundreds of their chariots would have been destroyed by the
resistless might of the Lord of Hosts. And yet, in spite of the great object-lesson he
had received in the defeat of Zerah, Asa had not thought of Jehovah as his Ally. He
had forgotten the all-observing, all-controlling providence of Jehovah, and had
thought it necessary to supplement the Divine protection by hiring a heathen king
with the treasures of the Temple; and yet "the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro
throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is
perfect toward Him." With this thought, that the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro
throughout the earth, Zechariah [Zechariah 4:10] comforted the Jews in the dark
days between the Return and the rebuilding of the Temple. Possibly during Asa’s

21. twenty years of tranquility his faith had become enfeebled for want of any severe
discipline. It is only with a certain reserve that we can venture to pray that the Lord
will "take from our lives the strain and stress." The discipline of helplessness and
dependence preserves the consciousness of God’s loving providence. The resources
of Divine grace are not altogether intended for our personal comfort; we are to tax
them to the utmost, in the assurance that God will honor all our drafts upon His
treasury. The great opportunities of twenty years of peace and prosperity were not
given to Asa to lay up funds with which to bribe a heathen king, and then, with this
reinforcement of his accumulated resources, to accomplish the mighty enterprise of
stealing Baasha’s stones and timber and building the walls of a couple of frontier
fortresses. With such a history and such opportunities behind him, Asa should have
felt himself competent, with Jehovah’s help, to deal with both Baasha and
Benhadad, and should have had courage to confront them both.
Sin like Asa’s has been the supreme apostasy of the Church in all her branches and
through all her generations: Christ has been denied, not by lack of devotion, but by
want of faith. Champions of the truth, reformers and guardians of the Temple, like
Asa, have been eager to attach to their holy cause the cruel prejudices of ignorance
and folly, the greed and vindictiveness of selfish men. They have feared lest these
potent forces should be arrayed amongst the enemies of the Church and her Master.
Sects and parties have eagerly contested the privilege of counseling a profligate
prince how he should satisfy his thirst for blood and exercise his wanton and brutal
insolence; the Church has countenanced almost every iniquity and striven to quench
by persecution every new revelation of the Spirit, in order to conciliate vested
interests and established authorities. It has even been suggested that national
Churches and great national vices were so intimately allied that their supporters
were content that they should stand or fall together. On the other hand, the
advocates of reform have not been slow to appeal to popular jealousy and to
aggravate the bitterness of social feuds. To Hanani the seer had come the vision of a
larger and purer faith, that would rejoice to see the cause of Satan supported by all
the evil passions and selfish interests that are his natural allies. He was assured that
the greater the host of Satan, the more signal and complete would be Jehovah’s
triumph. If we had his faith, we should not be anxious to bribe Satan to cast out
Satan, but should come to understand that the full muster of hell assailing us in
front is less dangerous than a few companies of diabolic mercenaries in our own
array. In the former case the overthrow of the powers of darkness is more certain
and more complete.
The evil consequences of Asa’s policy were not confined to the loss of a great
opportunity, nor were his treasures the only price he was to pay for fortifying Geba
and Mizpah with Baasha’s building materials. Hanani declared to him that from
henceforth he should have wars. This purchased alliance was only the beginning,
and not the end, of troubles. Instead of the complete and decisive victory which had
disposed of the Ethiopians once for all, Asa and his people were harassed and
exhausted by continual warfare. The Christian life would have more decisive
victories, and would be less of a perpetual and wearing struggle, if we had faith to
refrain from the use of doubtful means for high ends.

22. Oded’s message of warning had been accepted and obeyed, but Asa was now no
longer docile to Divine discipline. David and Hezekiah submitted themselves to the
censure of Gad and Isaiah; but Asa was wroth with Hanani and put him in prison,
because the prophet had ventured to rebuke him. His sin against God corrupted
even his civil administration; and the ally of a heathen king, the persecutor of God’s
prophet, also oppressed the people. Three years after the repulse of Baasha a new
punishment fell upon Asa: his feet became grievously diseased. Still he did not
humble himself, but was guilty of further sin he sought not Jehovah, but the
physicians. It is probable that to seek Jehovah concerning disease was not merely a
matter of worship. Reuss has suggested that the legitimate practice of medicine
belonged to the schools of the prophets; but it seems quite as likely that in Judah, as
in Egypt, any existing knowledge of the art of healing was to be found among the
priests. Conversely, physicians who were neither priests nor prophets of Jehovah
were almost certain to be ministers of idolatrous worship and magicians. They failed
apparently to relieve their patient: Asa lingered in pain and weakness for two years,
and then died. Probably the sufferings of his latter days had protected his people
from further oppression, and had at once appealed to their sympathy and removed
any cause for resentment. When be died, they only remembered his virtues and
achievements; and buried him with royal magnificence, with sweet odors and divers
kinds of spices; and made a very great burning for him, probably of aromatic
woods.
In discussing the chronicler’s picture of the good kings, we have noticed that, while
Chronicles and the book of Kings agree in mentioning the misfortunes which as a
rule darkened their closing years, Chronicles in each case records some lapse into
sin as preceding these misfortunes. From the theological standpoint of the
chronicler’s school, these invidious records of the sins of good kings were necessary
in order to account for their misfortunes. The devout student of the book of Kings
read with surprise that of the pious kings who had been devoted to Jehovah and His
temple, whose acceptance by Him had been shown by the victories vouchsafed to
them, one had died of a painful disease in his feet, another in a lazar-house, two had
been assassinated, and one slain in battle. Why had faith and devotion been so ill
rewarded? Was it not vain to serve God? What profit was there in keeping His
ordinances? The chronicler felt himself fortunate in discovering amongst his later
authorities additional information which explained these mysteries and justified the
ways of God to man. Even the good kings had not been without reproach, and their
misfortunes had been the righteous judgment on their sins.
The principle which guided the chronicler in this selection of material was that sin
was always punished by complete, immediate, and manifest retribution in this life,
and that conversely all misfortune was the punishment of sin. There is a simplicity
and apparent justice about this theory that has always made it the leading doctrine
of a certain stage of moral development. It was probably the popular religious
teaching in Israel from early days till the time when our Lord found it necessary to
protest against the idea that the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their
sacrifices were sinners above all Galileans because they had suffered these things, or

23. that the eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them were
offenders above all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This doctrine of retribution was
current among the Greeks. When terrible calamities fell upon men their neighbors
supposed these to be the punishment of specially heinous crimes. When the Spartan
king Cleomenes committed suicide, the public mind in Greece at once inquired of
what particular sin he had thus paid the penalty. The horrible circumstances of his
death were attributed to the wrath of some offended deity, and the cause of the
offence was sought for in one of his many acts of sacrilege, possibly he was thus
punished because he had bribed the priestess of the Delphic oracle. The Athenians,
however, believed that his sacrilege had consisted in cutting down trees in their
sacred grove at Eleusis; but the Argives preferred to hold that he came to an
untimely end because he had set fire to a grove sacred to their eponymous hero
Argos. Similarly, when in the course of the Peloponnesian war the Aeginetans were
expelled from their island, this calamity was regarded as a punishment inflicted
upon them because fifty years before they had dragged away and put to death a
suppliant who had caught hold of the handle of the door of the temple of Demeter
Theomophorus. On the other hand, the wonderful way in which on four or five
occasions the ravages of pestilence delivered Dionysius of Syracuse from his
Carthaginian enemies was attributed by his admiring friends to the favor of the
gods.
Like many other simple and logical doctrines, this Jewish theory of retribution came
into collision with obvious facts, and seemed to set the law of God at variance with
the enlightened conscience. "Beneath the simplest forms of truth the subtlest error
lurks." The prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the righteous were a
standing religious difficulty to the devout Israelite. The popular doctrine held its
ground tenaciously, supported not only by ancient prescription, but also by the most
influential classes in society. All who were young, robust, wealthy, powerful, or
successful were interested in maintaining a doctrine that made health, riches, rank,
and success the outward and visible signs of righteousness. Accordingly the
simplicity of the original doctrine was hedged about with an ingenious and elaborate
apologetic. The prosperity of the wicked was held to be only for a season; before he
died the judgment of God would overtake him. It was a mistake to speak of the
sufferings of the righteous: these very sufferings showed that his righteousness was
only apparent, and that in secret he had been guilty of grievous sin.
Of all the cruelty inflicted in the name of orthodoxy there is little that can surpass
the refined torture due to this Jewish apologetic. Its cynical teaching met the
sufferer in the anguish of bereavement, in the pain and depression of disease, when
he was crushed by sudden and ruinous losses or publicly disgraced by the unjust
sentence of a venal law-court. Instead of receiving sympathy and help, he found
himself looked upon as a moral outcast and pariah on account of his misfortunes;
when he most needed Divine grace, he was bidden to regard himself as a special
object of the wrath of Jehovah. If his orthodoxy survived his calamities, he would
review his past life with morbid retrospection, and persuade himself that he had
indeed been guilty above all other sinners.

24. The book of Job is an inspired protest against the current theory of retribution, and
the full discussion of the question belongs to the exposition of that book. But the
narrative of Chronicles, like much Church history in all ages, is largely controlled
by the controversial interests of the school from which it emanated. In the hands of
the chronicler the story of the kings of Judah is told in such a way that it becomes a
polemic against the book of. Job. The tragic and disgraceful death of good kings
presented a crucial difficulty to the chronicler’s theology. A good man’s other
misfortunes might be compensated for by prosperity in his latter days; but in a
theory of retribution which required a complete satisfaction of justice in this life
there could be no compensation for a dishonorable death. Hence the chronicler’s
anxiety to record any lapses of good kings in their latter days.
The criticism, and correction of this doctrine belong, as we have said, to the
exposition of the book of Job. Here we are rather concerned to discover the
permanent truth of which the theory is at once an imperfect and exaggerated
expression. To begin with, there are sins which bring upon the transgressor a swift,
obvious, and dramatic punishment. Human law deals thus with some sins; the laws
of health visit others with a similar severity; at times the Divine judgment strikes
down men and nations before an awestricken world. Amongst such judgments we
might reckon the punishments of royal sins so frequent in the pages of Chronicles.
God’s judgments are not usually so immediate and manifest, but these striking
instances illustrate and enforce the certain consequences of sin. We are dealing now
with cases in which God was set at naught; and, apart from Divine grace, the
votaries of sin are bound to become its slaves and victims. Ruskin has said,
"Medicine often fails of its effect, but poison never; and while, in summing the
observation of past life not un-watchfully spent, I can truly say that I bare a
thousand times seen Patience disappointed of her hope and Wisdom of her aim, I
have never yet seen folly fruitless of mischief, nor vice conclude but in calamity."
ow that we have been brought into a fuller light and delivered from the practical
dangers of the ancient Israelite doctrine, we can afford to forget the less satisfactory
aspects of the chronicler’s teaching, and we must feel grateful to him for enforcing
the salutary and necessary lesson that sin brings inevitable punishment, and that
therefore, whatever present appearances may suggest, "the world was certainly not
framed for the lasting convenience of hypocrites, libertines, and oppressors."
Indeed, the consequences of sin are regular and exact; and the judgments upon the
kings of Judah in Chronicles accurately symbolize the operations of Divine
discipline. But Rain, and ruin, and disgrace are only secondary elements in God’s
judgments; and most often they are not judgments at all. They have their uses as
chastisements; but if we dwell upon them with too emphatic an insistence, men
suppose that pain is a worse evil than sin, and that sin is only to be avoided because
it causes suffering to the sinner. The really serious consequence of evil acts is the
formation and confirmation of evil character. Herbert Spencer says in his "First
Principles" "that motion once set up along any line becomes itself a cause of
subsequent motion along that line." This is absolutely true in moral and spiritual
dynamics: every wrong thought, feeling, word, or act, every failure to think, feel,
speak, or act rightly, at once alters a man’s character for the worse. Henceforth he

25. will find it easier to sin and more difficult to do right; he has twisted another strand
into the cord of habit: and though each may be as fine as the threads of a spider’s
web, in time there will be cords strong enough to have bound Samson before Delilah
shaved off his seven locks. This is the true punishment of sin: to lose the fine
instincts, the generous impulses, and the nobler ambitions of manhood, and become
every day more of a beast and a devil.
PULPIT, "This chapter commences Asa's long reign of forty-one years. Asa was son
of Abijah and grandson of Maachah (2 Chronicles 15:16; 1 Kings 15:13). The reign
was remarkable for the devotion of Asa to the true God, and for the signal successes
given to him in consequence, but it did not reach its end without a mournful
defection on Asa's part from trust in God (2 Chronicles 16:2-4, 2 Chronicles 16:12),
which entailed its reward (2 Chronicles 16:9), and which has left tarnished for all
ages a fame that would otherwise have been fairest among all the kings of Judah.
The disjointed and grudging parallel to the forty-eight verses of this and the
following two chapters respecting Asa, in Chronicles, is comprised within the sixteen
verses only of 1 Kings 15:8-24.
2 Chronicles 14:1
Buried … in the city of David (see our note, 2 Chronicles 12:16). Asa his son. If,
according to the suggestion of our note, 2 Chronicles 10:8 and 2 Chronicles 12:13,
the alleged forty-one years of the age of Rehoboam be made twenty-one, it will
follow that Asa could not now be more than a boy of some twelve years of age. It is
against that suggestion that there is no sign of this, by word or deed, in what is here
said of the beginning of Asa's reign; the signs are to the contrary, especially taking
into the question the indications given us respecting the tendencies, if not
contradicted, of the queen-mother Maachah (2 Chronicles 15:16; 1 Kings 15:13),
and it is not supposable that a boy of twelve years of age could contradict them. This
point must be held still moot. In his days … quiet ten years. o doubt one cause of
this was the defeat that Jeroboam and Israel had sustained at the hands of Abijah (2
Chronicles 13:18-20). It appears also, from 1 Kings 15:19, that after that defeat a
league was instituted between Abijah and the then King of Syria: "There is a league
between me and thee, and between my father and thy father." And these things,
with Israel's new kings, and perhaps Asa's extreme youth, would have favoured the
repose of the land.
Asa King of Judah
2 Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of

26. the Lord his God.
CLARKE, "Did that which was good - He attended to what the law required
relative to the worship of God. He was no idolater, though, morally speaking, he was not
exempt from faults, 1Ki_15:14. He suppressed idolatry universally, and encouraged the
people to worship the true God: see 2Ch_14:3-5.
GILL, "And Asa did that which was good and right,.... See 1Ki_15:11.
JAMISO , "Asa did that which was good and right — (compare 1Ki_15:14).
Still his character and life were not free from faults (2Ch_16:7, 2Ch_16:10, 2Ch_16:12).
K&D, "
BE SO , "2 Chronicles 14:2. Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of
the Lord — Happy they that walk by this rule; that do not only that which is right
in their own eyes, or in the eyes of the world, but which is so in God’s eyes. Asa saw
that God’s eye was always upon him, and therefore he kept his eye always upon
God, studied to approve himself to him, and endeavoured in all things to please him.
ELLICOTT, "REIG OF ASA (2 Chronicles 14-16.)
(a) EFFORTS TO ROOT OUT ILLEGITIMATE WORSHIPS, A D TO
STRE GTHE THE SYSTEM OF ATIO AL DEFE CES (2 Chronicles 14:2-7;
comp. 1 Kings 15:9-15).
(2) That which was good and right.—Literally, The good and the right, an
expression defined in 2 Chronicles 14:3-4. It is used of Hezekiah, 2 Chronicles 31:20.
See 1 Kings 15:11, “And Asa did the right in the eyes of the Lord, like David his
father.”
For (and) . . . the altars of the strange gods.—Literally, altars of the alien. Vulg.,
“altaria peregrini cultus.” Comp. the expression, gods of the alien (Gen. xxxv, 2, 4).
(Comp. 1 Kings 15:12 b, and he took away all the idols that his fathers had made; a
summary statement, which is here expanded into details.) But both here and in 2
Chronicles 12:1-2, the chronicler has omitted to mention the qedçshîm (Authorised
Version, “Sodomites”) (1 Kings 15:12 a)
And the high places.—i.e., those dedicated to foreign religions. It is clear from 2
Chronicles 15:17, as well as 1 Kings 15:14, that high places dedicated to the worship

27. of Jehovah were not done away with by Asa.
Brake down the images.—Brake in pieces (or shattered) the pillars. They were
dedicated to Baal, and symbolised the solar rays, being, no doubt, a species of
obelisk. (See Genesis 28:18; Exodus 34:13; Judges 3:7.)
The “high places, images, and groves” of this verse are all mentioned in 1 Kings
14:23.
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 14:2 And Asa did [that which was] good and right in the eyes
of the LORD his God:
Ver. 2. And Asa did that which was good.] See 1 Kings 15:11.
In the eyes of the Lord.] ot in his own eyes, or the eyes of men, qui larvis ducuntur,
which are oft bemisted.
MACLARE , "ASA'S REFORMATION, AND CONSEQUENT PEACE AND
VICTORY
Asa was Rehoboam’s grandson, and came to the throne when a young man. The two
preceding reigns had favoured idolatry, but the young king had a will of his own, and
inaugurated a religious revolution, with which and its happy results this passage deals.
I. It first recounts the thorough clearance of idolatrous emblems and images which Asa
made. ‘Strange altars,’-that is, those dedicated to other gods; ‘high places,’-that is, where
illegal sacrifice to Jehovah was offered; ‘pillars,’-that is, stone columns; and ‘Asherim,’-
that is, trees or wooden poles, survivals of ancient stone- or tree-worship; ‘sun-images,’-
that is, probably, pillars consecrated to Baal as sun-god, were all swept away. The
enumeration vividly suggests the incongruous rabble of gods which had taken the place
of the one Lord. How vainly we try to make up for His absence from our hearts by a
multitude of finite delights and helpers! Their multiplicity proves the insufficiency of
each and of all.
1Ki_15:13 adds a detail which brings out still more clearly Asa’s reforming zeal; for it
tells us that he had to fight against the influence of his mother, who had been prominent
in supporting disgusting and immoral forms of worship, and who retained some
authority, of which her son was strong enough to take the extreme step of depriving her.
Remembering the Eastern reverence for a mother, we can estimate the effort which that
required, and the resolution which it implied. But 1 Kings differs from our narrative in
stating that the ‘high places’ were not taken away-the explanation of the variation
probably being that the one account tells what Asa attempted and commanded, and the
other records the imperfect way in which his orders were carried out. They would be
obeyed in Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, but in many a secluded corner the old rites
would be observed.
It is vain to force religious revolutions. Laws which are not supported by the national
conscience will only be obeyed where disobedience will involve penalties. If men’s hearts
cleave to Baal, they will not be turned into Jehovah-worshippers by a king’s commands.

28. Asa could command Judah to ‘seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law,’ but
he could not make them do it.
II. The chronicler brings out strongly the truth which runs through his whole book,-
namely, the connection between honouring Jehovah and national prosperity. He did not
import that thought into his narrative, but he insisted on it as moulding the history of
Judah. Modern critics charge him with writing with a bias, but he learned the ‘bias’ from
God’s own declarations, and had it confirmed by observation, reflection, and experience.
The whole history of Israel and Judah was one long illustration of the truth which he is
constantly repeating. No doubt, the divine dealings with Israel brought obedience and
well-being into closer connection than exists now; but in deepest truth the sure defence
of our national prosperity is the same as theirs, and it is still the case that ‘righteousness
exalteth a nation.’ ‘The kingdom was quiet,’ says the chronicler, ‘and he had no war in
those years; because the Lord had given him rest.’ 1 Kings makes more of the standing
enmity with the northern kingdom, and records scarcely anything of Asa’s reign except
the war which, as it says, was between him and Baasha of Israel ‘all their days.’ But,
according to 2Ch_16:1, Baasha did not proceed to war till Asa’s thirty-sixth year, and the
halcyon time of peace evidently followed immediately on the religious reformation at its
very beginning.
Asa’s experience embodies a truth which is substantially fulfilled in nations and in
individuals; for obedience brings rest, often outward tranquillity, always inward calm.
Note the heightened earnestness expressed in the repetition of the expression ‘We have
sought the Lord’ in 2Ch_14:7, and the grand assurance of His favour as the source of
well-being in the clause which follows, ‘and He hath given us rest on every side.’ That is
always so, and will be so with us. If we seek Him with our whole hearts, keeping Him
ever before us amid the distractions of life, taking Him as our aim and desire, and ever
stretching out the tendrils of our hearts to feel after Him and clasp Him, all around and
within will be tranquil, and even in warfare we shall preserve unbroken peace.
Asa teaches us, too, the right use of tranquillity. He clearly and gratefully recognised
God’s hand in it, and traced it not to his own warlike skill or his people’s prowess, but to
Him. And he used the time of repose to strengthen his defences, and exercise his soldiers
against possible assaults. We do not yet dwell in the land of peace, where it is safe to be
without bolts and bars, but have ever to be on the watch for sudden attacks. Rest from
war should give leisure for building not only fortresses, but temples, as was the case with
Solomon. The time comes when, as in many an ancient fortified city of Europe, the
ramparts may be levelled, and flowers bloom where sentries walked; but to-day we have
to be on perpetual guard, and look to our fortifications, if we would not be overcome.
SBC, "There is many a useful lesson to be learnt from the story of Asa’s life.
Consider:—
I. Where his piety was born. In a most unlikely home. He was brought up in an ungodly
family. The court was corrupt. Society was rotten. The moral atmosphere he breathed
was enough to poison the finest child that was ever born. The same grace that preserved
Asa pure and devout amid the corruptions of the royal court may keep you clean.
II. How was Asa’s piety evidenced? (1) By his fervent prayerfulness. (2) By his
uncompromising opposition to everything that was sinful.
III. Where did the piety of Asa fail? His prosperity proved—I shall not say his ruin, but
his loss—his eternal loss. It may have added to the lustre of his earthly crown, but I fear

29. it dimmed the splendour of his heavenly.
J. Thain Davidson, Talks with Young Men, p. 219.
3 He removed the foreign altars and the high
places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down
the Asherah poles.[b]
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, 1Ki_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, 1Ki_15:14.
and brake down the images: or statues, or pillars, erected to the honour of idols, and
on which the images of them were placed:
and cut down the groves; in the midst of which they stood.
JAMISO , "brake down the images — of Baal (see on 2Ch_34:4; see on Lev_
26:30).
cut down the groves — rather, “Asherim.”
BE SO , "2 Chronicles 14:3. He took away the altars of the strange gods — Since
the time when Solomon admitted idolatry, in the latter end of his reign, it appears,
nothing had been done till now to suppress it; so that it may be presumed it had
gained ground. Strange gods were worshipped, and had their altars, images, and
groves: and the temple-service, though kept up by the priests, was neglected by
many of the people. As soon as Asa had power in his hands, he made it his business
to destroy those idolatrous altars and images, they being a great provocation to the
jealous God, and a great temptation to a careless and unthinking people. He hoped,
by destroying the idols, to reform the idolaters, which he had in view, and not their
destruction.
TRAPP,, "2 Chronicles 14:3 For he took away the altars of the strange [gods], and
the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves:

30. Ver. 3. And the high places.] Erected to idols; not the other. [1 Kings 15:14]
PULPIT, "The altars of the strange (gods); Hebrew, the altars of the stranger,
meaning, of course, "the altars of the gods of the stranger." This expression,
"strange gods," is found in the Authorized Version about thirteen times for the
Hebrew ‫ָר‬‫כ‬ֵ‫ג‬, or ‫ָר‬‫כ‬ֵ‫גּ‬ַ‫ה‬, and would be most correctly rendered, "The gods [or, 'god'] of
the stranger," i.e. of the foreigner, as it is rendered in the solitary instance of
Deuteronomy 31:16 . The high places. Comp. Deuteronomy 31:5 and 2 Chronicles
15:17, which says, "But the high places were not taken away out of Israel;" and 1
Kings 15:14, which says, "But the high places were not removed," without limiting
this non-removal to "of Israel." On the question of this apparent inconsistency and
surface-contradiction, see our Introduction, §7, pp. 16.1 and 17.2. Further, it may
here be well distinctly to note how little is even the apparent discrepancy or
contradiction alleged in this subject, throwing in the analogous passages in
Jehoshaphat's history (2 Chronicles 17:6; 2 Chronicles 20:33), in case these may
reflect any light on the question. Firstly, we will remove out of our way the parallel
in 1 Kings 15:14, with the observation that it is evident from its immediate context
that it corresponds with the last statement of our Chronicles (2 Chronicles 15:17),
savouring of a retrospective summarizing of the compiler, not with the first
statements (2 Chronicles 14:3, 2 Chronicles 14:5), which set forth Asa's prospective
purpose of heart, his resolution, and, no doubt, his edicts. Secondly, we may notice
that there is a plain-enough distinction made by the writer in 1 Kings 15:3 and 1
Kings 15:5 respectively—the one saying that Asa "took away the high places,"
without any further limitation; the other saying within two verses, "Also out of all
the cities of Judah" (note by the way here the suggestive stress laid upon "the
cities," possibly as more easily coped with than country districts) "he took away the
high places." The only legitimate inference (taking into account both the words
used, and the fact that the last written are found close upon the former, with the
significant conjunction "also") must be that some different information was
intended in the two places. 1 Kings 15:3 finds Asa as much master of "Judah" as 1
Kings 15:5. Therefore the natural interpretation of 1 Kings 15:3 must be that Asa at
once abolished "the high places" nearest home, nearest Jerusalem, most within his
own personal reach; then "also" that he did and ordered the same to be done in "all
the cities of Judah," and it was done at the time, if only for the time. Thirdly,
include the statement of 2 Chronicles 15:17, if we do not insist (as we might insist
very fairly when pressed on a point of alleged inconsistency or contradiction) on the
fact that now the high places "of Israel" arc distinctly designated, and that therein
those outlying parts of Asa's more or less acknowledged sway outside of Judah and
his thoroughest control are designedly described, let us instead take the help of an
exactly analogous (and analogously alleged) discrepancy (2 Chronicles 17:7
compared with 2 Chronicles 20:33), and we find there that the very key with which
to unlock the difficulty is provided to our hand. Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 17:6)
"took away the high places;" "the people" (2 Chronicles 20:33) did not faithfully
and with a constant heart follow suit, but had failed to prepare, i.e. to turn "their
hearts unto the God of their fathers." How well the juxtaposition of these very
words would tell, nay, do tell, with the emphatic words of 1 Kings 15:14!

31. " evertheless Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his days;" and with our 2
Chronicles 15:17, " evertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days." In both
these passages the antithesis is patent between Asa's heart and the people's hearts,
between Asa's "all his days" and the people's uncertainty and apostasy. The fidelity
of Bible history and its non-cunningly, non-fabulously devised tenor are gratefully
corroborated by the inquisition made into such a supposed "discrepancy,""
inconsistency," "contradiction." otice once more the confirming indication, so far
as it goes, of the one verb that commands the next verse, as there noted upon. Brake
down the images; Hebrew, ‫ֵבוֹת‬ּ‫ח‬ַ‫מ‬ . It occurs in the Authorized Version thirty-two
times, and is rendered "pillar" or "pillars" twelve times; "image" or "images"
nineteen times; and "garrisons" once. It appears simply to have slipped from the
signification of pillar into the rendering of the word "image," by aid of the
intermediate word "statue." It is used of the pillar or statue of Baal in 2 Kings 3:2; 2
Kings 10:26, 2 Kings 10:27, with his name expressed; and in 2 Chronicles 18:4; 2
Chronicles 23:14, without that name expressed. Cut down the groves; Hebrew, ‫ע‬ַ‫ַדּ‬‫ג‬ְ‫י‬ַ‫ו‬
‫ים‬ ִ‫ר‬ֵ‫שׁ‬ֲ‫ָא‬‫ה‬‫ת־‬ֶ‫.א‬ The verb here used implies the "cutting," "cutting down," "pruning" of
trees. It is undoubtedly applied also to other cutting and cutting down, as of the
"breaking" of a red (Zechariah 11:10), of an arm (1 Samuel 2:31), of horns
(Jeremiah 48:25), of bars or bolts (Isaiah 45:2). It occurs in all twenty-three times. It
is here employed to describe the destroying of what according to the Authorized
Version arc called "groves"—a word which with little doubt misleads for the
rendering of our ‫ים‬ ִ‫ר‬ֵ‫שׁ‬ֲ‫א‬ . Before this same word we have also another Hebrew verb
for "cutting," of very frequent occurrence in its simple and metaphorically derived
uses included, viz. ‫ת‬ ַ‫ָר‬‫כּ‬ . The first uses of this verb with the above word are found in
6:25, 6:26, 6:30. That word means literally "fortune," but in its ultimate derivation
"straightness," and hence supposed to designate, in Phoenician and Aramaean
idolatry, Astarte or the planet Venus, who is constantly associated in such idolatry
with Baal ( 3:7). But see for the first occurrence of the word, Exodus 34:13, where
there is no express mention of Baal, but where the idolatries of the Amorite,
Canaanite, Hittite, Hivite, Perizzite, and Jebusite are being spoken of. When we take
into consideration the probable ultimate derivation of the word, the fact of the verbs
that speak of "cutting" being uniformly applied to what it represents, the
"burning" to which this was condemned ( 6:26) when cut down, and a series of
statements that represent it as "set up under every green tree" (1 Kings 14:23; 2
Kings 17:10; see also 1 Kings 15:13; 2 Kings 21:7; 2 Kings 23:6; 2 Chronicles 15:16),
it not only becomes perfectly certain that "grove" and "groves" cannot rightly
render the word, but directs us with the light of those passages that speak of it
coupled with Baal as an object of worship, and that speak of prophet and priest
called by its name ( 3:7 (compared with 2:13; 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:4); 1 Kings 18:19; 2
Kings 21:3; 2 Kings 23:4), to the strong conviction that it should be at once written
with a capital letter, and rendered as a proper name; that it may possibly be a
synonym with Ashtoreth, 1.q. Astarte, or a representation in wooden pillar, stock or
trunk fashion, of some supposed aspect of her passion or dominion, very likely in
the voluptuous or sensual direction. Conder, in 'Handbook to the Bible,' p. 187, 2nd
edit; speaks of "Baal-peor ( umbers 25:3) as identified by St. Jerome with the
classical Priapus;" and adds "the Asherah (rendered 'grove' in our version) was
also apparently a similar emblem" (2 Kings 23:7). The analogy of the sacred tree of

32. the Assyrians sculptured on the monuments of ineveh, which was probably a
straight trunk or stock garlanded at certain times with ribbons and flowers, has
been opportunely pointed to.
4 He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God
of their ancestors, and to obey his laws and
commands.
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.
K&D 4-6, "2Ch_14:4-6
He removed from all the cities of Judah the altars of the high places, and the ‫ים‬ִ‫נ‬ ָ ַ‫,ח‬
sun-pillars, pillars or statues consecrated to Baal as sun-god, which were erected near or
upon the altars of Baal (2Ch_34:4; see on Lev_26:30). In consequence of this the
kingdom had rest ‫יו‬ָ‫נ‬ ָ‫פ‬ ְ‫,ל‬ before him, i.e., under his oversight (cf. Num_8:22). This ten-
years' quiet (2Ch_14:1) which God granted him, Asa employed in building fortresses in
Judah (2Ch_14:5). “We will build these cities, and surround them with walls and towers,
gates and bolts.” It is not said what the cities were, but they were at any rate others than
Geba and Mizpah, which he caused to be built after the war with Baasha (2Ch_16:6).
“The land is still before us,” i.e., open, free from enemies, so that we may freely move
about, and build therein according to our pleasure. For the phraseology, cf. Gen_13:9.
The repetition of ‫נוּ‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ ַ‫ר‬ ָ , 2Ch_14:6, is impassioned speech. “They built and had success;”
they built with effect, without meeting with any hindrances.
BE SO , "Verse 4-5
2 Chronicles 14:4-5. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord — By his royal edicts
he commanded them to worship God, and him only. And to do the law, and the
commandment — To observe all divine institutions, which many had neglected, and
to practise all that the law of Moses required of them. And the kingdom was quiet
before him — Though, it is probable, they were much in love with their idols, and

33. very loath to part with them; yet the convictions of their consciences sided with the
commands of Asa, and they could not, for shame, but comply with them. They that
have power in their hands, and will use it vigorously for the suppression of
profaneness, and the reformation of manners, will, in general, not meet with so
much difficulty and opposition as, perhaps, they might expect. Vice is a mean and
base thing, and carries its own shame and condemnation on the face of it; while
virtue has always reason enough on its side to make iniquity stop her mouth, Psalms
107:42.
ELLICOTT, "(4) And commanded Judah to seek.—‘amar with infinitive. (Comp. 1
Chronicles 21:17.) The chronicler’s own style is visible in this verse.
To seek the Lord God of their fathers.—The same phrase recurs in 2 Chronicles
15:12.
The law and the commandment.—Exodus 24:12, “That I may give thee the tables of
stone, and the law and the commandment that I have written” (Deuteronomy 6:25).
And the images.—Hammanîm. (Comp. the word hammah, “sun.”) Pillars or statues
to the sun-god, standing before or upon the altars of Baal, are intended (see
Leviticus 26:30; Isaiah 17:8; 2 Chronicles 34:4.) Comp. the Phenician deity Baal-
hamman.
The kingdom was quiet before him.—Enjoyed peace under his oversight. Compare
the use of the word “before,” in umbers 8:22; Psalms 72:5 (“before the moon”).
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 14:4 And commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their
fathers, and to do the law and the commandment.
Ver. 4. And commanded Judah.] It is not enough to pull down superstition; but
God’s sincere service also must be set up.
PULPIT, "And commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers. What an
indication lies couched in this word "commanded" (confirmatory of the spirit of
what is said above, in our previous verse-note) of the moral efforts of Asa, and that
the efforts on which he may have largely relied for "taking away the high places"
were moral efforts, rather than those of physical force.
5 He removed the high places and incense altars in
every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at

34. peace under him.
GILL, "Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and
the images,.... Perhaps the high places in 2Ch_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 to it, or temples for it; See Gill on Lev_26:30,
and the kingdom was quiet before him; he had no foreign enemy to molest him,
and so took that opportunity to reform divine worship, and in that he met with no
opposition from his people.
JAMISO , "he took away ... the high places — that is, those devoted to
idolatrous rites.
took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images — All
public objects and relics of idolatry in Jerusalem and other cities through his kingdom
were destroyed; but those high places where God was worshipped under the figure of an
ox, as at Beth-el, were allowed to remain (1Ki_15:14); so far the reformation was
incomplete.
PULPIT, "The images; Hebrew, ‫ֹים‬ ‫נ‬ָ‫מּ‬ַ‫ח‬ . The images spoken of here are, of coarse,
not the same with those (noted upon already) of 2 Chronicles 14:3. The present
khammanim are mentioned seven times beside, viz. Le 26:30; 2 Chronicles 34:4, 2
Chronicles 34:7; Isaiah 17:8; Isaiah 27:9; Ezekiel 6:4, Ezekiel 6:6. Gesenius says
Khamman is an epithet of Baal as bearing rule over the sun ( ‫ָה‬‫מ‬ַ‫ח‬, "heat," or "the
sun"), in the oft-found compound expression, ‫ן‬ָ‫מּ‬ַ‫ח‬ ‫ַל‬‫ע‬ַ‫בּ‬; he thinks the plural ( ‫ִים‬‫נ‬ָ‫מּ‬ַ‫ח‬),
invariably found in the Old Testament, is short for ‫ִים‬‫נ‬ָ‫מּ‬ַ‫ח‬ ‫ִים‬‫ל‬ָ‫ע‬ְ‫בּ‬. He does not agree
with the translation of Haenaker, "sun-image" by aid of the word ‫ֶל‬‫ס‬ֶ‫פ‬ understood,
images said to have been of a pyramid form, and placed in the most sacred positions
of Baal-temples. This, however, is the rendering adopted by not a few modern
commentators (so 2 Chronicles 34:4). Gesenius would render "the Sun-Bard," or
"the Sun-Lord," i.e. statues of the sun, representing a deity to whom (see ' Phoen.
Inseript.') votive stones,were inscribed. In his 'Thesaurus' Gesenius instances the
Phoenician inscriptions, as showing that our chemmanim denoted statues of both
Baal, the sun-god, and Astarte, the moon-goddess.
6 He built up the fortified cities of Judah, since

35. the land was at peace. o one was at war with him
during those years, for the Lord gave him rest.
CLARKE, "Fenced cities - To preserve his territories from invasion, and
strengthen the frontiers of his kingdom, see 2Ch_14:7.
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, 2Ch_11:5.
for the land had rest; according to the Targum, the land of Israel rested, and gave no
disturbance to the kingdom of Judah, not having recovered the blow given them by
Abijah; but it is rather to be understood of the land of Judah, which, as it did not
attempt the reduction of the ten tribes, so it was neither attacked by them, nor any other
enemy: and he had no war in those years; in the ten years mentioned, 2Ch_14:1, neither
with Israel nor any other nation: because the Lord had given him rest; that he might be
at leisure to do the above things; all rest is from the Lord, civil, spiritual, and eternal.
JAMISO , "2Ch_14:6-8. Having peace, he strengthens his kingdom with forts and
armies.
he built fenced cities in Judah — (See on 1Ki_15:22).
BE SO , "Verse 6-7
2 Chronicles 14:6-7. He built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had rest — He
wisely provided for war in the time of peace. The Lord had given him rest — Those
have rest indeed to whom God gives rest; peace indeed to whom Christ gives peace.
Asa takes notice of the rest they had as the gift of God, and the happy consequence
of their seeking the Lord. Because we have sought the Lord, he hath given us rest on
every side — Whatever rest we enjoy, whether of body or mind, of our family or
country, God ought to be acknowledged with thankfulness as the author of it. For as
the frowns and rebukes of Providence should be observed as a check to us in an evil
way, so the smiles of Providence should be taken notice of for our encouragement in
that which is good. We find by experience that it is good to seek the Lord; it gives us
rest. While we pursue the world, we meet with nothing but vexation.
ELLICOTT, "(6) And he built fenced cities.—See 2 Chronicles 11:5; 2 Chronicles
12:4; and for the expression “had given him rest,” 2 Samuel 7:1.
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 14:5 Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high

36. places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him.
Ver. 5. And the images.] Heb., The sun images: Hammonim, the images of Jupiter
Ammon, as some (a) will have it.
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 14:6 And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had
rest, and he had no war in those years; because the LORD had given him rest.
Ver. 6. And he built fenced cities.] Though he had no war, yet he provided for it. So
did our Queen Elizabeth; and so must every Christian soldie
PULPIT, "He built fenced cities in Judah. Though it is not said so here, it is very
probable that Asa did again the work of Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:5-12) which
Shishak had done so much to undo (2 Chronicles 12:4, 2 Chronicles 12:5, 2
Chronicles 12:8).
7 “Let us build up these towns,” he said to Judah,
“and put walls around them, with towers, gates
and bars. The land is still ours, because we have
sought the Lord our God; we sought him and he
has given us rest on every side.” So they built and
prospered.
BAR ES, "The land is yet before us - i. e., “unoccupied by an enemy” - “the land
is open to us to go where we please.” Compare Gen_13:9. The fortification of the
strongholds would be an act of rebellion against Egypt, and it might be expected that the
Egyptians would endeavor to put a stop to it.
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

37. 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 places, to protect the inhabitants, and keep out an enemy:
while the land is yet before us; in our power, no enemy in it, nor any to hinder or
molest:
because we have sought the Lord our God, we have sought him, and he hath
given us rest on every side; had set up his pure worship, reformed abuses in it, and
removed idolatry from it, and closely attended to the service of the sanctuary, which was
well pleasing to God; the happy effect of which they experienced, rest from all their
enemies round about them:
so that they built, and prospered; they began, and went on, and finished, there
being nothing to hinder them.
JAMISO , "while the land is yet before us — that is, while we have free and
undisputed progress everywhere; no foe is near; but, as this happy time of peace may not
last always and the kingdom is but small and weak, let us prepare suitable defenses in
case of need. He had also an army of five hundred eighty thousand men. Judah
furnished the heavily armed soldiers, and Benjamin the archers. This large number does
not mean a body of professional soldiers, but all capable of bearing arms and liable to be
called into service.
K&D, "2Ch_14:7
Asa had also a well-equipped, well-armed army. The men of Judah were armed with a
large shield and lance (cf. 1Ch_12:24), the Benjamites with a small shield and bow (cf.
1Ch_8:40). The numbers are great; of Judah 300,000, of Benjamin 280,000 men. Since
in these numbers the whole population capable of bearing arms is included, 300,000
men does not appear too large for Judah, but 280,000 is a very large number for
Benjamin, and is founded probably on an overestimate.
ELLICOTT, "(7) Therefore.—And.
These cities.—The “fenced cities” of last verse. Their names are unknown. Geba and
Mizpah were fortified by Asa; but that was after the war with Baasha, which began
in the twenty-sixth year of Asa (1 Kings 15:33); see 2 Chronicles 16:6. A general
system of defence, like that of Rehoboam, who fortified as many as fifteen cities,
seems to be indicated.
Walls.—A wall.

38. Gates (doors) and bars.—1 Samuel 23:7, and 2 Chronicles 8:5, supra, where “bars”
is, as usual, singular, bariach. Here it is plural.
While the land is yet before us.—Is open to us, free from hostile occupation. The
phrase is apparently borrowed from Genesis 13:9. (Is yet, ‘odennû, masculine
pronoun, instead of feminine; probably a clerical error). Omit while, and put a stop
at bars. “The land is still before us, for we have sought the Lord,” appears to be the
connection of thought.
So they built and prospered—i.e., built prosperously, without let or hindrance.
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 14:7 Therefore he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities,
and make about [them] walls, and towers, gates, and bars, [while] 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.
Ver. 7. Because we have sought the Lord our God, we have sought him.] It did his
heart good to think how piously they had purchased their present peace; and
therefore he repeateth it. See Zechariah 8:19. {See Trapp on "Zechariah 8:19"}
COKE, "2 Chronicles 14:7. Because we have sought the Lord our God, &c.— For,
because we have not forsaken the Lord our God, he hath not forsaken us, but hath
given us peace on every side. Houbigant.
REFLECTIO S.—1st, Abijah left the crown at his decease to a worthy successor,
whose piety and prosperity are here recorded.
1. His character was excellent. His eye was single to please God, and he met with his
approbation and blessing; and so shall we, when, like him, our only great and
prevailing concern is to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord.
2. He gave a striking proof of the uprightness of his heart, in his zeal for God's
service. o sooner was he come to the crown, than he abolished every monument of
idolatry, which had remained since the days of Solomon, and had received the royal
sanction, or at least was connived at, during the last reigns. And this reformation he
carried through all his dominions, bringing back the people to the service of the
temple, which, though kept up, had been grievously neglected; and to the
observance of God's laws, about which they had become too careless. o foreign
enemy disturbed him, and none of his own subjects dared oppose him. ote; (1.)
However difficult or dangerous it may appear to repress the torrent of iniquity, zeal
for God, and dependence upon his support, will work wonders. (2.) Every body can
do something for God; but magistrates and ministers are especially called upon to
labour for the establishment of pure religion.
3. Asa improved the peace he enjoyed for the strengthening of his kingdom, as well

39. as reforming it. Acknowledging with thankfulness the mercy he enjoyed, which he
regarded as the blessing of the fidelity they had shewed, he stirs up his chief men to
assist him in fortifying the cities; and, though in profound tranquillity, prepared for
what might happen, by keeping his militia in constant exercise, consisting of 300,000
men of Judah, and 280,000 men of Benjamin, differently armed for the various
methods of attack, at a distance, or in close fight. ote; (1.) Peace is a most
unspeakable blessing, for which we can never be too thankful. (2.) Prosperity, when
the reward of fidelity, is doubly sweet. (3.) They who stay themselves on God, shall
find abiding rest to their souls. (4.) We may expect trials; however calm the scene at
present, it is our wisdom to be armed and watchful.
2nd, Clouds overcast the brightest day. We have here,
1. Asa in trouble. A vast army of Ethiopians and their confederates threaten to
swallow him up. The waves of the sea are thus permitted often to rage horribly, that
the Lord, who dwelleth on high, may make his power more mightily to appear.
2. His prayer; fervent, humble, believing. He drew near to God as his covenant-God,
in whose favour and regard he had a sure interest; persuaded of his almighty power,
against which numbers signified nothing; dependent on his support, and pleading
his own glory now engaged, which would be dishonoured if mortal man should
prevail against his cause and people. ote; (1.) When we can say in prayer, My God,
we shall be heard. (2.) There is no might which can prevail against the Lord. (3.) We
need not fear the faces of the mighty: man is but a worm: if God be for us, who shall
be against us?
3. His prayer was crowned with victory. The enemy in confusion fled, smitten of
God with terrible dismay; and Asa and his forces pursued them with great
slaughter; stormed the cities of their confederates, whither they had run for shelter,
struck with panic fear, and unable to resist; and plundered their camp, the cities,
and the country, carrying away immense spoils, and vast droves of cattle.
GUZIK, "2. (2 Chronicles 14:7-8) Asa’s emphasis on strengthening the nation’s
defense.
Therefore he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and make walls around them,
and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought
the LORD our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.”
So they built and prospered. And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from
Judah who carried shields and spears, and from Benjamin two hundred and eighty
thousand men who carried shields and drew bows; all these were mighty men of
valor.
a. So they built and prospered: The Chronicler includes this account, not previously
recorded in 1 Kings, to encourage the people in his own day who had been allowed
to rebuild the destroyed city of Jerusalem after its fall to the Babylonians.

40. PULPIT, "We have sought him, and he hath given us rest. In three successive verses
the blessings of peace and quiet, and no war and rest, are recorded (Isaiah 26:1;
Zechariah 2:5).
BI, "Therefore said he unto Judah, Let us build these cities . . . while the land is yet
before us
The duty of improving present opportunity
(a Sunday-school sermon):—Consider—
I.
The opportunity for labour with which we are blessed. “The land is yet before us.”
1. We have liberty to labour.
2. The facilities are great: multiplication of elementary books, circulation of Bibles,
etc.
3. The encouragements are numerous. The prejudices of society are in our favour.
God’s command, etc.
II. The importance of labouring while we have this opportunity.
1. What is the work to which we are called? That of teaching the young the Word of
God (Deu_6:6-7; Psa_78:5; Psa_78:7; Pro_22:6).
2. The duty of improving existing opportunities. Conclusion: Address children. If
you had to pass through a long and dark passage where there were many deep pits,
how anxious, at the beginning, would you feel for light. Such is the Word of God
given to you at your entrance into life (Psa_119:105). (J. G. Breay, B.A.)
8 Asa had an army of three hundred thousand
men from Judah, equipped with large shields and
with spears, and two hundred and eighty
thousand from Benjamin, armed with small
shields and with bows. All these were brave
fighting men.
BAR ES, "The men of Judah served as heavy-armed troops, while the Benjamites

41. were light-armed. Their numbers accord well with those of 2Ch_13:3. As the boundaries
of Judah had been enlarged 2Ch_13:19, and as for ten years at least there had been no
war 2Ch_14:1, the effective force had naturally increased. It was 400, 000; it is now 580,
000.
CLARKE, "Targets and spears - Probably targets with the dagger in the center,
and javelins for distant fight.
Bare shields and drew bows - They were not only archers, but had shield and
sword for close fight.
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; these had also a lesser sort of shields, to defend their bodies, and
bows and arrows, to annoy an enemy at a distance:
all these were mighty men of valour; able bodied men, valiant and courageous;
perhaps Asa gathered these together, on hearing that the Ethiopians were preparing to
attack him, as follows.
HE RY, "IV. The prudent improvement he made of that tranquillity: The land had
rest, for the Lord had given him rest. Note, If God give quietness, who then can make
trouble? Job_34:29. Those have rest indeed to whom God gives rest, peace indeed to
whom Christ gives peace, not as the world giveth, Joh_14:27. Now, 1. Asa takes notice of
the rest they had as the gift of God (He hath given us rest on every side. Note, God must
be acknowledged with thankfulness in the rest we are blessed with, of body and mind,
family and country), and as the reward of the reformation begun: Because we have
sought the Lord our God, he has given us rest. Note, As the frowns and rebukes of
Providence should be observed for a check to us in an evil way, so the smiles of
Providence should be taken notice of for our encouragement in that which is good. See
Hag_2:18, Hag_2:19; Mal_3:10. We find by experience that it is good to seek the Lord;
it gives us rest. While we pursue the world we meet with nothing but vexation. 2. He
consults with his people, by their representatives, how to make a good use of the present
gleams of peace they enjoyed, and concludes with them, (1.) That they must not be idle,
but busy. Times of rest from war should be employed in work, for we must always find
ourselves something to do. In the years when he had no war he said, “Let us build; still
let us be doing.” When the churches had rest they were built up, Act_9:31. When the
sword is sheathed take up the trowel. (2.) That they must not be secure, but prepare for
wars. In times of peace we must be getting ready for trouble, expect it and lay up in store
for it. [1.] He fortified his principle cities with walls, towers, gates, and bars, 2Ch_14:7.
“This let us do,” says he, “while the land is yet before us,” that is, “while we have
opportunity and advantage for it and have nothing to hinder us.” He speaks as if he
expected that, some way or other, trouble would arise, when it would be too late to
fortify, and when they would wish they had done it. So they built and prospered. [2.] He

42. had a good army ready to bring into the field (2Ch_14:8), not a standing army, but the
militia or trained-bands of the country. Judah and Benjamin were mustered severally;
and Benjamin (which not long ago was called little Benjamin, Psa_68:27) had almost as
many soldiers as Judah, came as near as 28 to 30, so strangely had that tribe increased
of late. The blessing of God can make a little one to become a thousand. It should seem,
these two tribes were differently armed, both offensively and defensively. The men of
Judah guarded themselves with targets, the men of Benjamin with shields, the former of
which were much larger than the latter, 1Ki_10:16, 1Ki_10:17. The men of Judah fought
with spears when they closed in with the enemy; the men of Benjamin drew bows, to
reach the enemy at a distance. Both did good service, and neither could say to the other,
I have no need of thee. Different gifts and employments are for the common good.
K&D, "The victory over the Cushite Zerah. - 2Ch_14:8. “And there went forth against
them Zerah.” ‫ם‬ ֶ‫יה‬ ֵ‫ל‬ ֲ‫א‬ for ‫ם‬ ֶ‫יה‬ ֵ‫ל‬ ֲ‫ע‬ refers to Asa's warriors mentioned in 2Ch_14:7. The
number of the men in Judah capable of bearing arms is mentioned only to show that Asa
set his hope of victory over the innumerable host of the Cushites not on the strength of
his army, but on the all-powerful help of the Lord (2Ch_14:10). The Cushite ‫ח‬ ַ‫ר‬ֶ‫ז‬ is usually
identified with the second king of the 22nd (Bubastitic) dynasty, Osorchon I; while
Brugsch, hist. de l'Eg. i. p. 298, on the contrary, has raised objections, and holds Zerah
to be an Ethiopian and not an Egyptian prince, who in the reign of Takeloth I, about 944
b.c., probably marched through Egypt as a conqueror (cf. G. Rösch in Herz.'s Realenc.
xviii. S. 460). The statement as to Zerah's army, that it numbered 1,000,000 warriors
and 300 war-chariots, rests upon a rough estimate, in which 1000 times 1000 expresses
the idea of the greatest possible number. The Cushites pressed forward to Mareshah, i.e.,
Marissa, between Hebron and Ashdod (see on 2Ch_11:8).
ELLICOTT, "(8) Targets and spears.—Shield (or buckler) and lance. The large
shield is meant (see 2 Chronicles 9:15). The same phrase is used to describe the
warriors of Judah. (1 Chronicles 12:24.)
That bare shields—i.e., the short or round shield (2 Chronicles 9:16).
Drew bows.—(1 Chronicles 8:40; 1 Chronicles 12:2.) The Judæans were the
hoplites, or heavy-armed; the Benjaminites the light-armed, or peltasts, as a Greek
writer would have said.
Three hundred thousand . . . two hundred and fourscore thousand.—A total of
580,000, warriors. (Comp. Abijah’s 400,000, 2 Chronicles 13:3.) The entire male
population capable of bearing arms must be included in these high figures. Of
course, such a thing as a standing army of this strength is not to be thought of.
The proportion of Benjamin relatively to Judah appears much too high. It must,
however, be remembered that Benjamin was always famous as a tribe of warriors.
(See Genesis 49:27; 1 Chronicles 7:6-11.)
(b) I VASIO OF THE CUSHITE ZERAH, A D HIS SIG AL OVERTHROW (2

43. Chronicles 14:9-15)—This Section has no Parallel in Kings.
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 14:8 And Asa had an army [of men] that bare targets 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.
Ver. 8. Two hundred and fourscore thousand.] "Little Benjamin" was grown very
numerous and potent.
PULPIT, "The "ten years' quiet" (2 Chronicles 14:1) begins to see its end. Targets
(2 Chronicles 9:15); spears (2 Chronicles 11:12); for both, see 1 Chronicles 12:24.
Out of Benjamin … shields and … bows. The minuter coincidences of the history
are very observable and very interesting; for see 1 Chronicles 8:40; 1 Chronicles
12:2; and much earlier, Genesis 49:27; 20:16, 20:17.
9 Zerah the Cushite marched out against them
with an army of thousands upon thousands and
three hundred chariots, and came as far as
Mareshah.
BAR ES, "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, "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, 2Ch_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.

44. 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, 2Ch_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; see Gill on Num_12:1, but since this great host
consisted of Lubim or Libyans, inhabitants of Africa, as well as of Ethiopians, 2Ch_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 2Ch_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 2Ch_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, 2Ch_11:8.
HE RY 9-11, "Here is, I. Disturbance given to the peace of Asa's kingdom by a
formidable army of Ethiopians that invaded them, 2Ch_14:9, 2Ch_14:10. Though still
they sought God, yet this fear came upon them, that their faith in God might be tried,
and that God might have an opportunity of doing great things for them. It was a vast
number that the Ethiopians brought against him: 1,000,000 men; and now he found the
benefit of having an army ready raised against such a time of need. That provision which
we thought needless may soon appear to be of great advantage.
II. The application Asa made to God on occasion of the threatening cloud which now
hung over his head, 2Ch_14:11. He that sought God in the day of his peace and
prosperity could with holy boldness cry to God in the day of his trouble, and call him his
God. His prayer is short, but has much in it. 1. He gives to God the glory of his infinite
power and sovereignty: It is nothing with thee to help and save by many or few, by those
that are mighty or by those that have no power. See 1Sa_14:6. God works in his own
strength, not in the strength of instruments (Psa_21:13), nay, it is his glory to help the
weakest and to perfect strength out of the mouth of babes and sucklings. “We do not
say, Lord, take our part, for we have a good army for thee to work by; but, take our part,
for without thee we have no power.” 2. He takes hold of their covenant-relation to God
as theirs. O Lord, our God! and again, “Thou art our God, whom we have chosen and
cleave to as ours, and who hast promised to be ours.” 3. He pleads their dependence
upon God, and the eye they had to him in this expedition. he was well prepared for it, yet
trusted not to his preparations; but, “Lord, we rest on thee, and in thy name we go
against this multitude, by warrant from thee, aiming at thy glory, and trusting to thy
strength.” 4. He interests God in their cause: “Let not man” (mortal man, so the word is)

45. “prevail against thee. If he prevail against us, it will be said that he prevails against thee,
because thou art our God, and we rest on thee and go forth in thy name, which thou hast
encouraged us to do. The enemy is a mortal man; make it to appear what an unequal
match he is for an immortal God. Lord, maintain thy own honour; hallowed by thy
name.”
JAMISO , "2Ch_14:9-15. He overcomes Zerah, and spoils the Ethiopians.
there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian — This could not have been
from Ethiopia south of the cataracts of the Nile, for in the reign of Osorkon I, successor
of Shishak, no foreign army would have been allowed a free passage through Egypt.
Zerah must, therefore, have been chief of the Cushites, or Ethiopians of Arabia, as they
were evidently a nomad horde who had a settlement of tents and cattle in the
neighborhood of Gerar.
a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots — “Twenty camels
employed to carry couriers upon them might have procured that number of men to meet
in a short time. As Zerah was the aggressor, he had time to choose when he would
summon these men and attack the enemy. Every one of these Cushite shepherds,
carrying with them their own provisions of flour and water, as is their invariable custom,
might have fought with Asa without eating a loaf of Zerah’s bread or drinking a pint of
his water” [Bruce, Travels].
K&D, "2Ch_14:9
Thither Asa marched to meet them, and drew up his army in battle array in the valley
Zephathah, near Mareshah. The valley Zephathah is not, as Robins., Pal. sub voce,
thinks, to be identified with Tel es Safieh, but must lie nearer Mareshah, to the west or
north-west of Marâsch.
BE SO , "2 Chronicles 14:9. There came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian —
Or, the Arabian, as the Hebrew word Cush is frequently used, and must necessarily
be understood, 2 Chronicles 21:16, and 2 Kings 19:9. The Arabians were much
nearer to Asa than the Ethiopians, who could not have come to attack him but
through Egypt, which probably the king of Egypt would not have permitted them to
do. And came unto Mareshah — A city upon and within the borders of Judah,
Joshua 15:44. Though Asa and his people still sought the Lord, yet he suffered this
immense force of a thousand thousand men, to come against them, that their faith in
him might be tried, and that he might have an opportunity of doing great things for
them.
ELLICOTT, "(9) Against them.—Against the army described in last verse.
Literally, unto them (Genesis 4:8; Judges 12:3).
Zerah the Ethiopian.—Heb., ha-Kûshî. (See ote on 1 Chronicles 1:8 [Cush].) Zerah
is identified with Osorchon II., hieroglyphic Uasarken, who succeeded Shishak as
king of Egypt. The name of this king is curiously like that of Sargon, the great
Assyrian conqueror of the eighth century. (See ote on 2 Chronicles 12:2.) The
object of the expedition appears to have been to bring Judah again under the yoke

46. of Egypt. Shishak had made Rehoboam tributary (2 Chronicles 12:8), after reducing
his fortresses and plundering Jerusalem. But now Asa had restored the defences of
his country, and apparently reorganised the fighting material; steps indicating a
desire for national independence.
A thousand thousand.—This very large and symmetrical number would probably
be best represented in English by an indefinite expression, like “myriads.” It is
otherwise out of all proportion to the three hundred chariots, which last seems a
correct datum. Syriac and Arabic say “20,000 chariots.”
Mareshah.—One of the fortresses of Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:8). It lay in the
lowland of Judah, about twenty-six miles south-west of Jerusalem.
COFFMA , ""They set the battle in array ... at Mareshah" (2 Chronicles 14:9-10).
"This place was in the valley that marks the entrance into the hills, half way
between Gaza and Jerusalem. This was one of the cities that Rehoboam had fortified
in anticipation of just such an attack."[10]
Some scholars have tried to make it out that this was an invasion of Arabians, but
Payne is doubtless correct. He identified Zerah as, "Osorkon I, the second Pharaoh
of the Twenty-second Dynasty in Egypt, who attempted to duplicate the invasion
and pillage of his predecessor Sheshonk (Shishak)."[11] The truth of this
identification is corroborated by the historical truth that, "It was Egypt (not
Arabia) that never recovered from this blow for more than three centuries; not until
609 B.C., did Egypt again venture into Palestine with hostile intentions."[12]
Also when Judah defeated the enemy, they fled to Gerar, "A town to the south of
Gaza,"[13] which was in the direction of Egypt, not Arabia.
"They smote also the tents of the cattle" (2 Chronicles 14:15). "These were the tents
associated with cattle, wherein the owners of the cattle lived."[14] The RSV makes it
more understandable, "They smote the tents of those who had cattle."
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 14:9 And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian
with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came unto
Mareshah.
Ver. 9. And there came out against them.] Called in, likely, by the ten tribes, in
revenge of the late overthrow given them by Abijah.
Zerah the Ethiopian.] Who is thought to have reigned over Egypt also.
With a host of a thousand thousand.] A larger host than that of Xerxes. Josephus
saith it consisted of nine hundred thousand foot, and one hundred thousand horse.

47. And three hundred chariots,] sc., Falcatis et aeratis, armed with scythes, and other
instruments of death.
And came unto Mareshah.] The country of the prophet Micah, the Morasthite, in
the tribe of Judah. Here, then, was Hannibal ad portas.
POOLE, "The Ethiopian; or, the Arabian, as the Hebrew word Cush is commonly
used, as hath been noted before; these being much nearer to Asa than the
Ethiopians, who also could not have come to Asa but through Egypt, which
probably the king of Egypt would not permit him to do.
Mareshah; a city upon and within the borders of Judah, Joshua 15:44.
GUZIK, "B. Deliverance from the Ethiopians.
1. (2 Chronicles 14:9-11) The threat from Ethiopia and the cry to God.
Then Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and
three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah. So Asa went out against him,
and they set the troops in battle array in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.And
Asa cried out to the LORD his God, and said, “LORD, it is nothing for You to help,
whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O LORD our God,
for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O LORD, You
are our God; do not let man prevail against You!”
a. Came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred
chariots: This fearful army obviously posed a great threat to the Kingdom of Judah.
Even though the army of Judah had an army of 580,000 men (2 Chronicles 14:8),
this enemy army was almost twice as large.
i. Asa could know that God’s power was not limited because the army of Judah was
smaller by what God did for Judah under the reign of Abijah, his father (2
Chronicles 13:3).
ii. “Zerah himself is most likely to have been a ubian (= Sudanese) general in the
army of Pharaoh Osorkon I (c. 924-884 B.C.), Shoshenq I’s son and successor (cf. 2
Chronicles 12:22 ff.).” (Selman)
b. Asa cried out to the LORD his God: In his prayer Asa correctly understood that
God’s power was not enhanced or limited by man’s apparent strength or weakness.
He recognized that this battle belonged to the LORD and called upon God to defend
His honor (do not let man prevail against You!).
i. “Remind God of His entire responsibility.” (Meyer)

48. PULPIT, "Zerah the Ethiopian; Hebrew, ‫י‬ ִ‫ַכּוּשׁ‬‫ה‬ ‫ח‬ ַ‫ֶר‬‫ז‬, the "Ethiopian," Greek and
Septuagint rendering for "Cushite." In its vaguest dimensions Ethiopia, or Cush,
designated Africa south of Egypt, but more concisely it meant the lands we now call
ubia, Sennaar, Kordefan, and part of Abyssinia. And these, roughly speaking,
were bounded north, south, east, and west respectively by Egypt and Syene,
Abyssinia, Red Sea, and Libyan Desert. When, however, Ethiopia proper is spoken
of, the name probably designates the kingdom of Meroe (Seba, Genesis 10:7; 1
Chronicles 1:9); and the Assyrian inscriptions make the Cushite name of the deified
imrod one with Meroe), which was so closely associated at different times with
Egypt, that sometimes an Egypt king swayed it (as e.g. some eighteen hundred years
before Shishak, Sesostris fourth king of the twelfth dynasty), and sometimes vice
versa (as e.g. the three Ethiopian kings of the twenty-fifth dynasty—Shabak
(Sabakhou), Sethos (Sebechos), and Tarkos (Tirhakah), whose reigning dates as
between Ethiopia and Egypt are not yet certified). The name thus confined covers
an irregular circular bulk of country between "the modern Khartoum, where the
Astapus joins the true ile, and the influx of the Astaboras, into their united
stream." From the language of Diodorus (1:23), harmonized conjecturally with
Strabo (18:821), the region may be counted as 375 miles in circumference and 125
miles in the diameter of the erratic circle, its extreme south point being variously
stated, distant from Syene, 873 miles (Pliny, 6.29. § 33); or, according to Mannert's
book ('Geogr. d. Alt.,' 10.183), 600 miles by the assertion of Artemidorns, or 625 by
that of Eratosthenes. Thence the "Cushite" extended probably to the Euphrates and
the Tigris, and through Arabia, Babylonia, and Persia. Some, however, think that
the Cushite now intended was the Ethiopian of Arabia, who had settlement near
Gerar (Dr. Jamieson, in 'Comm.') as a nomadic horde. Dr. Jamieson quotes Bruce's
'Travels' to support this view, which seems a most improbable, not to say
impossible, one nevertheless. The question as to the people intended will perhaps
best be found in the solution of the question for whom the name of their king stands
(see following note). Zerah. Hebrew as above. It is noteworthy that the four previous
occurrences of this name—Genesis 36:13 and 1 Chronicles 1:37, son of Reuel,
grandson of Esau; Genesis 38:30 and 1 Chronicles 2:6, son of Judah and Tumor; 1
Chronicles 4:24, son of Simeon; 1 Chronicles 5:6, 1 Chronicles 5:26, Hebrew text,
son of Iddo, a Gershonite Levite—show it as the name of an Israelite, or descendant
of Shem. Our present Zerah is a Cushite, or descendant of Ham. The Septuagint
forms of the name are ζαρέ ζαρά ζαρές, or ζαραέ ζααραι, or (Alexandrian) ἀκαρίας.
Although Professor Dr. Murphy says that "it is plain that Zerah was a sovereign of
Kush, who in the reign of Takeloth, about B.C. 944, invaded Egypt and penetrated
into Asia," the balance of probability, both from the names themselves and the
synchronisms of history, corroborated by the composition of Zerah's army (Cushim
and Lubim, 2 Chronicles 16:8) and some other tributary considerations, is that our
Zerah was Usarken II; the fourth king of the twenty-second dynasty (or possibly
Usarken I the second king of the dynasty). The invasion of the text was probably in
Asa's fourteenth year, his reign thus far being dated B.C. 953-940. The alleged army
of this Zerah was an Egyptian army, largely made of mercenaries (compare the
description of Shishak's army, 1 Chronicles 12:3). The present defeat of Zerah
would go far to explain the known decline of the Egyptian power at just this date,

49. i.e. some twenty-five to thirty years after Shishak. At the same time, it must be
admitted that it is not possible to identify with certainty Zerah with either Usarken.
Whether he is an unknown Arabian Cushite, or an unknown African Cushite of
Ethiopia-above-Egypt, or one of the Usarkens, has yet to be pronounced. Mareshah
(see our note, 2 Chronicles 11:8). It lay the "second mile" (Eusebius and Jerome)
south of Eleutheropolis and between Hebron (1 Maccabees 5:36; 2 Maccabees
12:35) and Ashdod (Josephus, 'Ant.,' 12.8. § 6). The mention of the valley of
Zephathah in the following verse will half identify its exact position. It is probable
that Dr. Robinson ('Bibl. Res.,' 2.67) and Toblev in his interesting , Dritto Wand.',
have reliably fixed the site one Roman mile south-west of the modern Beit-Jibrin.
Mareshah is again mentioned in 2 Chronicles 20:37 and Micah 1:15, as quoted
already, in references interesting to be consulted. A thousand thousand. Whether
this number be correct or not, it may be noted that it is the largest alleged number
of an army given in the Old Testament.
10 Asa went out to meet him, and they took up
battle positions in the Valley of Zephathah near
Mareshah.
BAR ES, "The “valley of Zephathah” - not elsewhere mentioned - is probably the
broad Wady which opens out from Mareshah (marginal reference) in a northwesterly
direction, leading into the great Philistine plain. Zerah, on the advance of Asa, drew off
into the wider space of the Wady, where he could use his horsemen and chariots.
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 the advantage of his smaller army; see Jdg_1:17.
JAMISO , "Then Asa went out against him, and they set the battle in array

50. ... at Mareshah — one of the towns which Rehoboam fortified (2Ch_11:8), near a great
southern pass in the low country of Judah (Jos_15:44). The engagement between the
armies took place in a plain near the town, called “the valley of Zephathah,” supposed to
be the broad way coming down Beit Jibrin towards Tell Es-Safren [Robinson].
K&D, "2Ch_14:10
Then he called upon the Lord his God for help. ‫וגו‬ ָ‫ך‬ ְ ִ‫ע‬ ‫ין‬ ֵ‫א‬ we translate, with Berth.,
“None is with Thee (on ָ‫ך‬ ְ ִ‫,ע‬ cf. 2Ch_20:6; Psa_73:25) to help between a mighty one and
a weak,” i.e., no other than Thou can help in an unequal battle, i.e., help the weaker side;
while the Vulg., on the contrary, after the analogy of 1Sa_14:6, translates, “non est apud
te ulla distantia, utrum in paucis auxilieris an in pluribus;” and the older commentators
(Schmidt, Ramb.) give the meaning thus: “perinde est tibi potentiori vel imbecilliori
opem ferre.” But in 1Sa_14:16 the wording is different, so that that passage cannot be a
standard for us here. “In Thy name (i.e., trusting in Thy help) are we come against this
multitude” (not “have we fallen upon this multitude”). ‫וגו‬ ‫ּר‬‫צ‬ ְ‫ע‬ַ‫י‬ ‫ל‬ፍ, “Let not a mortal retain
strength with Thee” (‫ר‬ ַ‫צ‬ ָ‫ע‬ = ַ‫ּח‬ⅴ ‫ר‬ ַ‫צ‬ ָ‫,ע‬ 2Ch_13:20; 1Ch_29:14), i.e., let not weak men
accomplish anything with Thee, show Thy power or omnipotence over weak men.
ELLICOTT, "(10) Then.—And.
Against him.—Before him (1 Chronicles 12:17; 1 Chronicles 14:8).
In the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.—This valley is not identified. The LXX.
reads: ἐν τῇ φάραγγι κατὰ βορρᾶν ΄αρισης, “in the ravine north of Mareshah.” This
would involve a change of one letter in the present Hebrew. [Çaphônah
“northward,” for Ç’phathah.] Syriac and Arabic, “in the wady of Mareshah.”
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 14:10 Then Asa went out against him, and they set the battle
in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.
Ver. 10. In the valley of Zephathah.] See 1:17.
PULPIT, "The valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. "At" some translate "belonging
to," some more suitably to the exact connection "near." The Hebrew here for"
valley" is ‫ֵיא‬‫ג‬ . It can scarcely designate necessarily a "ravine." It is a valley in the
sense of being a low, fiat region, in which springs of water "broke out." From
umbers 21:20, the first occasion of its occurrence, to Zechariah 14:5 it is found
fifty-six times, and is always rendered (Authorized Version) "valley;" it is the word
used in the celebrated passages, "Though I walk through the valley" etc. (Psalms
23:4); and "Every valley shall be exalted" (Isaiah 40:4). The Septuagint, however,
do not render it uniformly; but though they render it generally φάραξ, they also
have ναπή κοίλας αὐλών, and in some cases the simple word γῆ, as e.g. ἐν γῇ ( γε)
ἑννόµ, (2 Chronicles 28:3; 2 Chronicles 33:6), which, nevertheless, elsewhere they

51. describe as φάραξ ἑννόµ (Joshua 15:8). The full explanation may probably be that
the word is used for the valley that narrowed up to a ravine-like pass, or gorge, or
that opened out into one of the wide wadies of the country; but see Stanley's 'Sinai
and Palestine,' Appendix, pp. 482, 483, new edit; 1866. It is supposed that
Zephathah is not mentioned elsewhere, but see the Zephath of 1:17; and comp.
umbers 21:3 : 1 Samuel 30:30, which Keil and Bertheau think conclusively to be
not the same.
11 Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said,
“Lord, there is no one like you to help the
powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our
God, for we rely on you, and in your name we
have come against this vast army. Lord, you are
our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against
you.”
BAR ES, "It is nothing ... - i. e., “Thou canst as easily help the weak as the strong.”
CLARKE, "Whether with many - The same sentiment as that uttered by
Jonathan, 1Sa_14:6, when he attacked the garrison of the Philistines.
O Lord our God - we rest on thee - “Help us, O Lord our God; because we depend
on thy Word, and in the name of thy Word we come against this great host.” - Targum.
GILL, "And Asa cried unto the Lord his God,.... Or prayed, as the Targum, with
vehemence, being in distress; this he did before the battle began, at the head of his army,
and for the encouragement of it:
and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help; nothing can hinder from helping,
his power being superior to all others, and even infinite, and none besides him could:
whether with many, or with them that have no power; numbers make no
difference with him, nor the condition they are in; whether numerous and mighty, or few
and feeble; he can as easily help the one as the other, see 1Sa_14:6,

52. help us, O Lord our God; who are few and weak in comparison of the enemy:
for we rest on thee; trust in thee, and rely upon thee for help; the Targum is,"on thy
Word we lean:"
and in thy name we go against this multitude; expressing faith in him, expecting
help from him, encouraging and strengthening themselves in him, going forth not in
their own name and strength, but in his; the Targum is,"in the name of the Word of the
Lord:"
O Lord, thou art our God: and thou only we know, and serve no other, and we are
thy people, called by thy name:
let not man prevail against thee; for should this enemy prevail against them, it
would be interpreted prevailing against their God.
JAMISO 11-13, "Asa cried unto the Lord his God — Strong in the confidence
that the power of God was able to give the victory equally with few as with many, the
pious king marched with a comparatively small force to encounter the formidable host of
marauders at his southern frontier. Committing his cause to God, he engaged in the
conflict - completely routed the enemy, and succeeded in obtaining, as the reward of his
victory, a rich booty in treasure and cattle from the tents of this pastoral horde.
K&D, "2Ch_14:11
God heard this prayer. Jahve drove the Cushites into flight before Asa, scil. by His
mighty help.
BE SO , "2 Chronicles 14:11. Asa cried unto the Lord his God — He that sought
God in the time of his peace and prosperity, could, with holy boldness, cry to God in
the day of his trouble, and call him his God. Lord, it is nothing with thee to help,
&c. — There is no difference or difficulty with thee, to help or save by many or few,
by those that are mighty, or by them that have no power — Thus he gives the glory
of his almighty power to him, who works in his own strength, not in the strength of
instruments: nay, whose glory it is to help the most helpless, and perfect strength in
the weakness of his people. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on thee — He was
well prepared for this attack, having of Judah three hundred thousand, and of
Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand, all well armed, and mighty men of
valour, 2 Chronicles 14:8; yet he trusted not to his preparations, but relied on the
Lord. In thy name we go against this great multitude — That is, by thy commission,
in confidence of thy assistance, and for the maintenance of thy honour, and service,
and people. Let not man prevail against thee — Hebrew, ‫,אנושׁ‬ enosh, mortal man. If
he prevail against us, it will be said that he prevails against thee; because thou art
our God, and we rest on thee, and go forth in thy name, which thou hast encouraged
us to do. The enemy is a mortal man; make it appear what an unequal match he is
for an immortal God! Maintain, Lord, thine own honour.
ELLICOTT, "(11) Lord, it is nothing to thee . . . have no power.—Rather, Lord,

53. there is none beside, or like literally, along witli] thee to help between strong and
powerless, i.e., in an unequal conflict to interpose with help for the weaker side.
Between strong and [literally, to] ‘powerless. The same construction occurs Genesis
1:6, “between waters to waters.” Others assume between . . . to, to mean whether . . .
or, which would be in accordance with Rabbinic rather than ancient usage. A very
plausible view is that of Kamphausen, who proposes to read la’çôr for la‘zôr (“to
retain strength” for “to help”), an expression which actually occurs at the end of the
verse, and to render the whole: “Lord, it is not for any to retain (strength) with (i.e.,
to withstand) Thee, whether strong or powerless.” (Comp. 2 Chronicles 13:20; 1
Chronicles 29:14). The Syriac paraphrases thus: “Thou art our Lord, the helper of
thy people. When thou shalt deliver a great army into the hands of a few, then all
the inhabitants of the world will know that we rightly trust in thee.” This is much
more like a Targum than a translation. The difficulty of the text is evaded, not
explained.
We rest.—Rely (2 Chronicles 13:18).
We go.—We are come.
This multitude.—Hâmôn; a term used of Jeroboam’s army (2 Chronicles 13:8), and
usually denoting an armed multitude.
Let not man prevail.—Literally, Let not mortal man retain (strength) with thee.
With.—Against, as in the phrase “to fight with.”
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 14:11 And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said,
LORD, [it is] nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have
no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go
against this multitude. O LORD, thou [art] our God; let not man prevail against
thee.
Ver. 11. It is nothing with thee.] See 1 Samuel 14:9.
Help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee.] Adiuva nos, nam te nitimur: Asa
found his great army outmatched, and therefore resteth wholly upon God, and sped
accordingly, as Hanani afterwards mindeth him. [2 Chronicles 16:8]
For in thy name,] i.e., For thy service and glory, by thy will, under thy conduct,
calling upon thy name, and resting on thy power.
Let not man prevail against thee.] Sorry, sickly man, as the word signifieth.

54. PULPIT, " othing with thee; Hebrew, ‫ָך‬ְ‫מּ‬ִ‫ע‬‫ין־‬ֵ‫א‬ . In the passage of very similar tenor
(1 Samuel 14:6) the exact rendering is more easily fixed, "It is nothing to the Lord,"
i.e. it makes no difference to the Lord, "to save by many or by few." Probably the
correcter rendering of our present Hebrew text would be, "It makes no difference
with thee to help those whose strength is great or whose strength is nothing
(between the much even to the none of strength)." Keil and Bertheau would
translate "There is none beside thee." For another instance of the preposition ‫ֵין‬‫גּ‬
followed by ‫,ל‬ see Genesis 1:6; and comp. 2 Chronicles 1:13. The prayer must be
counted a model prayer to an omnipotent Deliverer. It consists of opening
invocation and the instancing of what postulates the crowning Divine attribute as
the broad foundation for argument; of invocation repeated, warmed to closer
clinging by the appropriating "oar;" attended by the defining, though very
universal petition, Help us; and followed by the argument of the unbending fidelity
of trusting dependence, For we rest on thee, and in thy ame we go against this
multitude; and, lastly, of invocation renewed or still determinedly sustained, pressed
home by the clenching challenge of relationship and its correlative responsibility
and presumable holy pride. The antithesis marked in these two last clauses will not
escape notice—one made all the bolder, with the marginal reading of "mortal mall"
for the emphatic (a poetical, universal kind of) word here employed ( ‫גוֹשׁ‬ֱ‫א‬ ) for man.
BI 11-12, "And Asa, cried unto the Lord his God.
Victories over superior numbers
These victories over superior numbers may easily be paralleled or surpassed by
numerous striking examples from secular history. The odds were greater at Agincourt,
where at least sixty thousand French were defeated by not more than twenty thousand
Englishmen; at Marathon the Greeks routed a Persian army ten times as numerous as
their own; in India English generals have defeated innumerable hordes of native
warriors. For the most part victorious generals have been ready to acknowledge the
succouring arm of the God of battles. Shakespeare’s Henry V, after Agincourt, speaks
altogether in the spirit of Asa’s prayer: “O God, Thy arm was here; and not to us, but to
Thy arm alone, ascribe we all.” When Elizabeth’s fleet defeated the Spanish Armada, the
grateful piety of Protestant England felt that its foes had been destroyed by the breath of
the Lord: “Afflavit Deus et dissipantur.” (W. H. Bennett, M.A.)
The superiority of moral to material force
Characteristic instances are to be found in the wider movements of international
polities. Italy in the eighteenth century seemed as hopelessly divided as Israel under the
judges, and Greece as completely enslaved to the “unspeakable Turk” as the Jews to
Nebuchadnezzar; and yet, destitute as they were of any material resources, these nations
had at their disposal great moral forces: the memory of ancient greatness and the
sentiment of nationality; and to-day Italy can count hundreds of thousands like the
chronicler’s Jewish kings, and Greece builds her fortresses by land and her ironclads to
command the sea. The Lord has fought for Israel. But the principle has a wider
application. The English and American pioneers of the movements for the abolition of
slavery had to face what seemed an impenetrable phalanx of powerful interests and

55. influences. It may be objected that if victory were to be secured by Divine intervention,
there was no need to muster five hundred and eighty thousand men, or indeed any army
at all. We have no right to look for Divine co-operation till we have done our best; we are
to work out our own salvation, for it is God that worketh in us. (W. H. Bennett, M. A.)
King Asa’s prayer on the eve of battle
I. Our text is a prater—the surest weapon in war as in all other emergencies.
II. It is the prayer of a king on the eve of battle, and therefore partakes of a national
character.
III. It is a prayer of faith, exhibiting reliance on the Divine arm for help, and therefore
implying humiliation, together with a distinct conviction that no human force, however
vast, can prevail, except under the recognised championship of the Almighty. (The
Penny Pulpit.)
The all-sufficiency of God’s help
I. Asa acted promptly and energetically as the occasion required. Only one purpose
moved him, and that was to bring out all the military strength of his kingdom, and at
once, with no unnecessary delay, strike the foe, every soldier realising that the crown of
victory was the prize to be won or lost, according as he should be faithful or unfaithful in
his particular duty. Having acted thus promptly and energetically, then—
II. Asa called on God for help. He did not ask God to work a miracle on his behalf.
Whoever calls upon God for help without first helping himself, without first putting
forth his own efforts to secure that for which he invokes the Divine aid, will call upon
God in vain. There are other elements of strength in war besides those which are merely
physical. God is a moral and spiritual force which will make an army of inferior numbers
more than adequate to encounter and overcome the mere physical force which inheres in
superiority of numbers. Hence the wisdom and virtue of prayer.
III. What was the issue? “The Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa, etc. (W. T. Tindley,
D.D.)
Asa’s prayer
This King Asa, Rehoboam’s grandson, had had a long reign of peace, which the writer of
the Book of Chronicles traces to the fact that he had rooted out idolatry from Judah.
“The land had rest, and he had no war . . . because the Lord had given him rest.” But
their came a time when the war-cloud began to roll threateningly over the land, and a
great army came up against him. Like a wise man he made his military dispositions first,
and prayed next. This prayer contains the very essence of what ought to be the Christian
attitude in reference to all the conditions and threatening dangers and conflicts of life.
I. The wholesome consciousness of our own impotence. It did not take much to convince
Asa that he had “no power.” His army, according to the numbers given of the two hosts,
was outnumbered two to one. If we look fairly in the face our duties, our tasks, our
dangers, the possibilities of life and its certainties, the more humbly we think of our own
capacity, the more wisely we shall think about God, and the more truly we shall estimate

56. ourselves. The world says “Self-reliance is the conquering virtue.” Jesus says to us, “Self-
distrust is the condition of all victory.” And that does not mean any mere shuffling off of
responsibility from our own shoulders, but it means looking the facts of our lives, and of
our own characters, in the face. And if we will do that, however apparently easy may be
our course, and however richly endowed in mind, body, or estate we may be, we shall
find that we each are like “the man with ten thousand” that has to meet “the King that
comes against him with twenty thousand”; and we shaft not “desire conditions of peace”
with our enemy, for that is not what in this ease we have to do, but we shall look about
us, and not keep our eyes on the horizon, and on the levels of earth, but look up to see if
there is not there an ally that we can bring into the field to redress the balance, and to
make our ten as strong as the opposing twenty. Now all that is true about the
disproportion between the foes we have to face and fight and our own strength. It is
eminently true about us Christian people, if we are doing any work for our Master. You
hear people say, “Look at the small number of professing Christians in this country, as
compared with the numbers on the other side. What is the use of their trying to convert
the world?” If the Christian Church had to undertake the task of Christianising the world
with its own strength, we might well threw up the sponge and stop altogether. “We have
no might.” But we are not only numerically weak. A multitude of non-effectives, mere
camp-followers, loosely attached, nominal Christians have to be deducted from the
muster-roll. So a profound self-distrust is our wisdom. But it is not to paralyse us, but to
lead to something better, as it led Asa.
II. Summoning God into the world should follow wholesome self-distrust. Asa uses a
remarkable expression, which is, perhaps, scarcely reproduced adequately in another
verse, “It is nothing with Thee to help, whether with many or with them that have no
power.” It is a strange phrase, but it seems most probable that the suggested rendering
in the Revised Version is nearer the writer’s meaning, which says, “Lord! there is none
beside Thee to help between the mighty and them that have no power,” which to our ears
is a somewhat cumbrous way of saying that God, and God only, can adjust the difference
between the mighty and the weak. Asa turns to God and says, “Thou only canst trim the
scales and make the heavy one the lighter of the two by casting Thy might into it. So help
us, O Lord, our God.” One man with God at his back is always in the majority. There is
encouragement for people who have to fight unpopular causes in the world. The
consciousness of weakness may unnerve a man; and that is why people in the world are
always patting each other on the back and saying, “Be of good cheer, and rely upon
yourself.” But the self-distrust that turns to God becomes the parent of a far more
reliable self-reliance than that which trusts to men. My consciousness of need is my
opening the door for God to come in. Just as you always find the lakes in the hollows, so
you will always find the grace of God coming into men’s hearts to strengthen them and
make them victorious, when there has been the preparation of the lowered estimate of
one’s self. Hollow out your heart by self-distrust, and God will fill it with the flashing
waters of His strength bestowed. The way by which we summon God into the field: Asa
prays, “Help us, O Lord, our God, for we rest on Thee”; and the word that he employs for
“rest” is not a very frequent one. It carries with it a very striking picture. It is used in that
tragical story of the death of Saul, when the man that saw the last of him came to David
and drew in a sentence the pathetic picture of the wearied, wounded, broken-hearted,
discrowned, desperate monarch leaning on his spear. You can understand how hard he
leaned, with what a grip he held it, and how heavily his whole, languid, powerless weight
pressed upon it. And that is the word that is used here. “We lean on Thee” as the
wounded Saul leaned upon his spear. Is that a picture of your faith?
III. Courageous advance should follow self-distrust and summoning god by faith. It is

57. well when self-distrust leads to confidence. But that is not enough. It is better when self-
distrust and confidence in God lead to courage. And as Asa goes on, “Help us, for we rely
on Thee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude.” Never mind though it is two to
one. What does that matter? Prudence and calculation are well enough, but there is a
great deal of very rank cowardice and want of faith in Christian people, both in regard to
their own lives and in regard to Christian work in the world, which goes masquerading
under much too respectable a name, and calls itself “judicious caution” and “prudence.”
If we have God with us, let us be bold in fronting the dangers and difficulties that beset
us, and be sure that He will help us.
IV. The all-powerful plea which God will answer. “Thou art my God, let not man prevail
against Thee.” That prayer covers two things. You may be quite sure that if God is your
God you will not be beaten; and you may be quite sure that if you have made God’s cause
yours He will make your cause His, and again you will not be beaten. “Thou art our
God.” “It takes two to make a bargain,” and God and we have both to act before He is
truly ours. He gives Himself to us, but there is an act of ours required, too, and you must
take the God that is given to you, and make Him yours because you make yourselves His.
And when I have taken Him for mine, and not unless I have, He is mine, to all intents of
strength-giving and blessedness. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
The name of God written in life
Our whole life ought to be filled with His name. You can write it anywhere. It does not
need a gold plate to carve His name upon. It does not need to be set in jewels and
diamonds. The poorest scrap of brown paper, and the bluntest little bit of pencil, and the
shakiest hand will do to write the name of Christ; and all life, the trivialities as well as
the crises, may be flashing and bright with the sacred syllables. Mohammedans decorate
their palaces and mosques with no pictures, but with the name of Allah in gilded
arabesques. Everywhere, on walls and roof, and windows and cornices, and pillars and
furniture, the name is written. There is no such decoration for a life as that Christ’s name
should be inscribed thereon. (A. Maclaren, D. D.).
12 The Lord struck down the Cushites before Asa
and Judah. The Cushites fled,
BAR ES, "The defeat of Zerah is one of the most remarkable events in the history of
the Jews. On no other occasion did they meet in the field and overcome the forces of
either of the two great monarchies between which they were placed. It was seldom that
they ventured to resist, unless behind walls. Shishak, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon,

58. Nebuchadnezzar, were either unopposed or only opposed in this way. On the one other
occasion on which they took the field - under Josiah against Necho - their boldness
issued in a most disastrous defeat 2Ch_35:20-24. Now, however, under Asa, they appear
to have gained a complete victory over Egypt. The results which followed were nicest
striking. The Southern power could not rally from the blow, and, for above three
centuries made no further effort in this direction. Assyria, growing in strength, finally,
under Sargon and Sennacherib, penetrated to Egypt itself. All fear of Egypt as an
aggressive power ceased; and the Israelites learned instead to lean upon the Pharaohs
for support (2Ki_17:4; 2Ki_18:21; Isa_30:2-4, etc.). Friendly ties alone connected the
two countries: and it was not until 609 B.C. that an Egyptian force again entered
Palestine with a hostile intention.
GILL, "So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah,....
With consternation and terror; they were thrown into a panic:
and the Ethiopians fled; before them, just as Jeroboam and Israel had, as related in
the preceding chapter, 2Ch_13:15.
HE RY 12-15, "III. The glorious victory God gave him over his enemies. 1. God
defeated the enemy, and put their forces into disorder (2Ch_14:12): The Lord smote the
Ethiopians, smote them with terror, and an unaccountable consternation, so that they
fled, and knew neither why nor whither. 2. Asa and his soldiers took the advantage God
gave them against the enemy. (1.) They destroyed them. They fell before the Lord (for
who can stand before him?) and before his host, either an invisible host of angels that
were employed to destroy them or the host of Israel, called God's host because owned by
him. (2.) They took the plunder of their camp, carried away very much spoil from the
slain and from the baggage. (3.) They smote the cities that were in league with them, to
which they fled for shelter, and carried off the spoil of them (2Ch_14:14); and they were
not able to make any resistance, for the fear of the Lord came upon them, that is, a fear
which God struck them with to such a degree that they had no heart to withstand the
conquerors. (4.) They fetched away the cattle out of the enemy's country, in vast
numbers, 2Ch_14:15. Thus the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
K&D, "2Ch_14:12
Asa, with his people, pursued to Gerar, the old ancient Philistine city, whose ruins
Rowlands has discovered in the Khirbet el Gerar, in the Wady Jorf el Gerar (the torrent
of Gerar), three leagues south-south-east of Gaza (see on Gen_20:1). “And there fell of
the Cushites, so that to them was not revival,” i.e., so many that they could not make a
stand and again collect themselves, ut eis vivificatio i. e. copias restaurandi ratio non
esset, as older commentators, in Annott. uberior. ad h. l., have already rightly
interpreted it. The words are expressions for complete defeat. Berth. translates
incorrectly: “until to them was nothing living;” for ‫ין‬ ֵ‫א‬ ְ‫ל‬ does not stand for ‫ין‬ ֵ‫א‬ ְ‫ל‬ ‫ד‬ ַ‫,ע‬ but ְ‫ל‬
serves to subordinate the clause, “so that no one,” where in the older language ‫ין‬ ֵ‫א‬ alone
would have been sufficient, as in 2Ch_20:25; 1Ch_22:4, cf. Ew. §315, c; and ‫ה‬ָ‫י‬ ְ‫ח‬ ִ‫מ‬
denotes, not “a living thing,” but only “preservation of life, vivification, revival,
maintenance.” For they were broken before Jahve and before His host. ‫הוּ‬ֵ‫נ‬ ֲ‫ח‬ ַ‫,מ‬ i.e., Asa's

59. army is called Jahve's, because Jahve fought in and with it against the enemy. There is
no reason to suppose, with some older commentators, that there is any reference to an
angelic host or heavenly camp (Gen_32:2.). And they (Asa and his people) brought back
very much booty.
BE SO , "Verse 12-13
2 Chronicles 14:12-13. So the Lord smote the Ethiopians — Smote them with terror,
and an unaccountable consternation, so that they fled, and knew not why or
whither. Asa and the people pursued them unto Gerar — A city of the Philistines,
who probably were confederate with them in this design. They were destroyed
before the Lord — For who can stand before him? And before his host — The host
of Israel, called God’s host, because owned by him as his people. They carried away
very much spoil — From the slain, together with the plunder of their camp.
ELLICOTT, "(12) So the Lord smote . . . before Judah.—(Comp. 2 Chronicles
13:15-16.) Thenius remarks that the words of 1 Kings 15:15, about the spoils
dedicated by Asa, help to establish the chronicler’s accounts of this victory and that
of Abijah.
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 14:12 So the LORD smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and
before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled.
Ver. 12. So the Lord smote the Ethiopians.] Egit in praecipitiurn, he tumbled them
down headlong.
GUZIK, "2. (2 Chronicles 14:12-15) God gives Judah victory over the Ethiopians.
So the LORD struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.
And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar. So the
Ethiopians were overthrown, and they could not recover, for they were broken
before the LORD and His army. And they carried away very much spoil. Then they
defeated all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the LORD came upon them; and
they plundered all the cities, for there was exceedingly much spoil in them. They
also attacked the livestock enclosures, and carried off sheep and camels in
abundance, and returned to Jerusalem.
a. So the LORD struck the Ethiopians: God fought on behalf of King Asa and the
Kingdom of Judah; He fought so effectively that they were broken before the LORD
and His army.
b. And they carried away very much spoil: ot only were the people of God
delivered from this danger, they were also enriched when the LORD fought on their
behalf. In this sense, they were more than conquerors in that the LORD did the
fighting and they shared in the spoil.
i. “The spoil was immense, because the multitude was prodigious, indeed almost

60. incredible; a million of men in one place is almost too much for the mind to
conceive, but there may be some mistake in the numerals; it is evident from the
whole account that the number was vast and the spoil great.” (Clarke)
PULPIT, "So the Lord smote the Ethiopians. As little as the real work was of the
army of Asa, so little is said of even the mere human method by which this great
victory was obtained for Asa and Judah. Again and yet again, in the following two
verses, the glory is given to "the Lord."
13 and Asa and his army pursued them as far as
Gerar. Such a great number of Cushites fell that
they could not recover; they were crushed before
the Lord and his forces. The men of Judah carried
off a large amount of plunder.
GILL, "And Asa, and the people that were with him, pursued them unto
Gerar,.... A city of the Philistines, Gen_20:1,
and the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover
themselves; they were thrown into such a fright, and into so much confusion, that they
could not put themselves in order, and rally again; or there fell such a vast number of
them, that there were scarce any remaining alive, which seems to be the sense of the
words used:
for they were destroyed before the Lord, and before his host; the army of
Israel, which the Lord was, as it were, the Commander of, fought for, and led them in the
pursuit, and gave them victory; or it may mean an host of angels, employed in destroying
this great army; and so the Syriac and Arabic versions of 2Ch_14:12 read,"the angel of
the Lord smote the Ethiopians:"
and they carried away very much spoil; which they found in their camp, and with
their slain; even much gold and silver, as Josephus (g) says.

61. K&D, "2Ch_14:13
“They smote all the cities round about Gerar,” which, as we must conclude from this,
had made common cause with the Cushites, being inhabited by Philistines; for the fear
of Jahve had fallen upon them. ‫יהוה‬ ‫יהוה‬ ‫ד‬ ַ‫ח‬ ַ. here, and in 2Ch_17:10; 2Ch_20:29, as in
1Sa_11:7, the fear of the omnipotence displayed by Jahve in the annihilation of the
innumerable hostile army. In these cities Judah found much booty.
ELLICOTT, "(13) Pursued them unto Gerar.—(Genesis 20:1.) Kirbet-el-Gerar, in
the Wady Gerar, about eight miles S.S.E. of Gaza, on the route to Egypt (LXX.
Gedor).
And the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves.—
Literally, And there fell of Kushites until they had no revival, or survival (Ezra 9:8-
9). The latter seems preferable, as a vivid hyperbole, like 2 Kings 19:35, “When men
arose in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.” So Vulg., “usque ad
internecionem.”
Destroyed.—See margin.
Before his host.—Or camp. Asa’s army is the Lord’s army.
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 14:13 And Asa and the people that [were] with him pursued
them unto Gerar: and the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover
themselves; for they were destroyed before the LORD, and before his host; and they
carried away very much spoil.
Ver. 13. Unto Gerar.] A city of the Philistines, who took part, it is likely, with these
Ethiopians, and therefore suffered with them.
That they could not recover themselves.] Heb., There was no life in them; pecoris
instar trucidabantur, they were slain as dogs.
And before his host.] His host of angels, saith Lyra
And they carried away very much spoil.] A good amends for the treasure that
Shishak, king of Egypt and Ethiopia, took from Rehoboam. Riches come and go,
accedunt et recedunt instar Euripi, they do often change masters.
PULPIT, "And the Ethiopians … before his host. It is evident that these words, with
the clauses they include, should be placed in brackets, and so leave "they," the

62. subject of the verb "carried" in the last clause, to refer to its proper noun-subject,
Asa and the people. Gerar. This place is mentioned as defining a full distant spot as
the limit of the pursuit of the flying army. While it was nearly four hours south of
Gaza, on the road to Egypt, it is calculated that it was more than twenty miles
distant from Mareshah.
14 They destroyed all the villages around Gerar,
for the terror of the Lord had fallen on them.
They looted all these villages, since there was
much plunder there.
BAR ES, "They smote all the cities round about Gerar - The Philistines of
these parts had, it is probable, accompanied Zerah in his expedition.
CLARKE, "There was - much spoil in them - These cities being on the rear of this
vast army, they had laid up much forage in them; and to get this the Jews overthrew the
whole.
GILL, "And they smote all the cities round about Gerar,.... The cities of the
Philistines, who were auxiliaries and confederates with these Ethiopians, and colonies
from them, according to Theodoret, and who says, about Eleutheropolis was a place,
called, in his time, Geraron Saton:
for the fear of the Lord came upon them; so that they had no power to defend
themselves, and oppose the men of Judah:
and they spoiled all the cities; of the goods and substance that were in them:
for there was exceeding much spoil in them; great wealth and riches of one kind
or another.
BE SO , "2 Chronicles 14:14-15. They smote all the cities round about Gerar —
Partly because they had joined with Zerah in this war, and partly because the
Ethiopians had sheltered a great part of the remains of their army in them. For the

63. fear of the Lord came upon them — That is, God struck them with such a fear, that
they had no heart to withstand, or even to make any resistance against the
conquerors. They smote also the tents of cattle — That is, the dwellers in tents, who
were either a part of Zerah’s company, or joined with them, or had come along with
them, to furnish that great host with necessary provisions. And carried away sheep
and camels — Fetched them away out of the enemy’s country in vast numbers.
ELLICOTT, "(14) And they smote all the cities round about Gerar.—Philistine
cities hostile to Judah. Perhaps they had helped Zerah.
For the fear of the Lord came upon them.—Or, A divine panic had fallen upon them
(1 Samuel 11:7; 2 Chronicles 17:10; comp. also 1 Samuel 4:7-8).
Spoil.—Plunder, booty. Heb. bizzah, a late word, occurring Ezekiel 29:19. The word
in the last verse was shâlâl, a classical expression.
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 14:14 And they smote all the cities round about Gerar; for
the fear of the LORD came upon them: and they spoiled all the cities; for there was
exceeding much spoil in them.
Ver. 14. And they smote all the cities.] See on 2 Chronicles 14:13.
PULPIT, "The fear of the Lord came upon them; i.e. on the cities round about
Gerar. This and the following verse illustrate in particular the very graphic
character which attaches to the entire stretch of the description of the scene,
introduced so suddenly in 2 Chronicles 14:9 and closing with 2 Chronicles 14:15.
Much spoil. The Hebrew word here used for "spoil" ( ‫ָה‬‫זּ‬ִ‫בּ‬ ) is found only in
Chronicles, Ezra, Esther, ehemiah, Daniel, and once in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 29:19).
15 They also attacked the camps of the herders
and carried off droves of sheep and goats and
camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

64. CLARKE, "Tents of cattle - Those which had carried the baggage of the great
army, and which they had left in such places as abounded with pasture. Perhaps
sheepfolds, enclosures for camels, mules, etc., may also be intended. The discomfiture
was great, because God fought for the people; and the spoil was immense, because the
multitude was prodigious, indeed almost incredible, a million of men in one place is
almost too much for the mind to conceive, but there may be some mistake in the
numerals: it is evident from the whole account that the number was vast and the spoil
great.
GILL, "They smote also the tents of cattle,.... The people that dwelt in tents for the
sake of the pasturage of their cattle; the Scenite Arabs, so called from dwelling in tents:
and carried away sheep; which those Arabs were feeding in Palestine, and which this
great army brought with them for their support:
and camels in abundance; which is another circumstance proving them to be Arabs,
who abounded with camels:
and returned to Jerusalem; with their spoil, and with great joy.
ELLICOTT, "(15) They smote also the tents of cattle.—And cattle tents (or
encampments), also they smote, i.e., hordes of nomad Bedawin whom they
encountered in the desert about Gerar. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 4:41, “smote their
tents.”)
Sheep and camels in abundance.—Sheep in abundance, and camels. The LXX. adds,
καὶ τοὺς αλιµαζονεις, apparently as the name of a tribe. Syriac and Arabic render,
“And the tents of the Arabs.”
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 14:15 They smote also the tents of cattle, and carried away
sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem.
Ver. 15. They smote also the tents of cattle.] The Arabian Scenites, who had also
aided the Ethiopians, and now had enough of it. "So let all thine enemies perish, O
Lord."
POOLE, "The tents of cattle, i.e. the dwellers in tents, which were either a part of
Zerah’s company, or joined with them, or had come along with them to furnish that
great host with necessary provisions, which their custom of dwelling in tents made
them more capable of doing.
PULPIT, "The tents of cattle. This word "tents" ( ‫ֵי‬‫ל‬ֲ‫ה‬‫,אָ‬ construct state) is used just
325 times, and this is the only time it is spoken of as the place of cattle; there are,
however, four passages looking the same way (Genesis 13:5 ; 6:5; 2 Kings 7:7;

65. Jeremiah 49:29). It is the word used for the tabernacle of the wilderness many times,
and many times for the place of abode that has highest associations (Psalms 15:1;
Psalms 118:15), and of the usual abodes of people (2 Chronicles 10:16). The use of
the word here, though unique, will occasion no surprise, considering the camping of
the vast invading army. Camels in abundance. The mention of this spoil reminds us
both where we are, on desert border (1 Samuel 27:7-10; 1 Samuel 30:16, 1 Samuel
30:17), and what was the personality or nationality within some latitude of choice of
the invaders. Returned to Jerusalem. The expression awakens inevitably, though
inaptly, a reminiscence of Scripture language in strangest contrast—the climax in a
description also, but of a victory infinitely vaster and grander and for ever (Luke
24:52; Acts 1:12). This return of "Asa and the people that were with him" to
Jerusalem dated the commencement of a period of comparative internal peace and
reform for the kingdom of Judah, that lasted twenty-one years, and yet more of
exemption from Egyptian attack, that lasted about three hundred and thirty years.
It was a doubtful benefit, but Judah and Egypt came to be found in alliance against
Assyria (2 Kings 17:3-6; 2 Kings 18:20, 2 Kings 18:21, 2 Kings 18:24; Isaiah 30:2;
Hosea 7:11). The 'Speaker's Commentary' points out the interesting fact that this
was one of the only two occasions known of the Jews meeting in open field either
Egypt or Assyria (the other occasion being the unfortunate one of Josiah against
echo, 2 Chronicles 35:1-27 :30), and adds, "Shishak, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon,
ebuchadnezzar, Alexander, and Ptolemy I were either unopposed or only opposed
from behind wails."
Footnotes:
2 Chronicles 14:1 In Hebrew texts 14:1 is numbered 13:23, and 14:2-15 is numbered 14:1-14.
2 Chronicles 14:3 That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah; here and elsewhere in 2
Chronicles