(17) Slew them with a great slaughter.—Literally, Smote in them a great smiting. Numbers 11:33.

Five hundred thousand chosen men.—Or more than half of Jeroboam’s entire army.

It is hardly true to say that “there is nothing in the original to indicate that this slaughter was all on one day.” (Speaker’s Commentary.) On the contrary, it is perfectly evident from the whole narrative that this verse describes the issue of a single great and decisive encounter of the rival hosts.

The result is certainly incredible, if the numbers be pressed; but it seems more reasonable to see in them “only a numerical expression of the belief of contemporaries of the war, that both kings had made a levy of all the fighting men in their respective realms, and that Jeroboam was defeated with such slaughter that he lost more than half his warriors” (Keil). The Syriac reads “five thousand.”

The number of slain on the other side is not stated. But it is absurd to talk as Reuss does, of Abijah’s 400,000 as being “still intact,” and then to ask why they did not proceed to reduce the northern kingdom.

13:1-22 Abijah overcomes Jeroboam. - Jeroboam and his people, by apostacy and idolatry, merited the severe punishment Abijah was permitted to execute upon them. It appears from the character of Abijah, 1Ki 15:3, that he was not himself truly religious, yet he encouraged himself from the religion of his people. It is common for those that deny the power of godliness, to boast of the form of it. Many that have little religion themselves, value it in others. But it was true that there were numbers of pious worshippers in Judah, and that theirs was the more righteous cause. In their distress, when danger was on every side, which way should they look for deliverance unless upward? It is an unspeakable comfort, that our way thither is always open. They cried unto the Lord. Earnest prayer is crying. To the cry of prayer they added the shout of faith, and became more than conquerors. Jeroboam escaped the sword of Abijah, but God struck him; there is no escaping his sword.Slain - The word means strictly "pierced," and will include both the killed and the wounded. It is translated "wounded" in Lamentations 2:12. 13-17. But Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them—The oration of Abijah, however animating an effect it might have produced on his own troops, was unheeded by the party to whom it was addressed; for while he was wasting time in useless words, Jeroboam had ordered a detachment of his men to move quietly round the base of the hill, so that when Abijah stopped speaking, he and his followers found themselves surprised in the rear, while the main body of the Israelitish forces remained in front. A panic might have ensued, had not the leaders "cried unto the Lord," and the priests "sounded with the trumpets"—the pledge of victory (Nu 10:9; 31:6). Reassured by the well-known signal, the men of Judah responded with a war shout, which, echoed by the whole army, was followed by an impetuous rush against the foe. The shock was resistless. The ranks of the Israelites were broken, for "God smote Jeroboam and all Israel." They took to flight, and the merciless slaughter that ensued can be accounted for only by tracing it to the rancorous passions enkindled by a civil war. A vast number: but it hath been oft observed and recorded by sacred and profane historians, that in those ancient times there were very numerous armies, and ofttimes very great slaughters; and if this slaughter was more than ordinary, there is nothing strange nor incredible, because the Almighty God fought against the Israelites.

And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter,.... As they fled, pursuing them:

so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men; such a slaughter as is not to be met with in any history, as Josephus (s) observes; though Abarbinel wonders he should say so, and affirms that he had read of larger numbers slain at once; but he is the only man that ever pretended to it; Jerom (t) makes the number but 50,000, and some copies of the Vulgate Latin (u), and Josephus Ben Gorion, as Abarbinel (w) relates; but the true Josephus, the Targum, and all the ancient versions, agree with the Hebrew text; more than half Jeroboam's army was cut off, and 100,000 more than Abijah had in his.

(s) Antiqu. l. 8. c. 11. sect. 3.((t) Trad. Heb. fol. 84. M. (u) So that of Sixtus V. in James's Corruption of the Fathers, p. 294. (w) Comment in 1. Reg. xv. 6. fol. 250. 3.

And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter: so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men.