Judah. ידו על, at his hand, i.e., with and under him, Jehohanan had the command of 280,000 men, and Amasiah over 200,000. השׂר is a contraction for אלפים שׂר. For what special reason it is so honourably recorded of Amasiah that he had willingly offered himself to the Lord (cf. for התנדּב, Jdg 5:9) has not been communicated.
Verses 17-18
The Benjamites fell into two detachments: archers with shields (cf. 1Ch 8:40) 200,000 men, under the chief command of Eliada, and “equipped of the army,” i.e., not heavy armed (Berth.), but provided with the usual weapons, sword, spear, and shield (cf. 1Ch 12:24), 180,000 under the command of Jehozabad. According to this statement, Judah had 780,000 warriors capable of bearing arms. These numbers are clearly too large, and bear no proportion to the result of the numbering of the people capable of bearing arms under David, when there were in Judah only 500,000 or 470,000 men (cf. 1Ch 21:5 with 2Sa 24:5); yet the sums of the single divisions appear duly proportioned-a fact which renders it more difficult to believe that these exaggerated numbers are the result of orthographical errors.
Verse 19
These were serving the king. אלּה refers not to the above-mentioned men capable of bearing arms, for sheereet is not used of service in war, but to the commanders whom he had placed in the fortified cities of all Judah, “in which probably bodies of the above-mentioned troops lay as garrisons” (Berth.).
Chap. 18
Verse 1
2Ch 18:1Jehoshaphat's marriage alliance with Ahab, and his campaign with Ahab against the Syrians at Ramoth in Gilead. - 2Ch 18:1. Jehoshaphat came into connection by marriage with Ahab through his son Joram taking Athaliah, a daughter of Ahab, to wife (2Ch 21:6); an event which did not take place on the visit made by Jehoshaphat to Ahab in his palace at Samaria, and recorded in 2Ch 18:2, but which had preceded that by about nine years. That visit falls in the beginning of the year in which Ahab was mortally wounded at Ramoth, and died, i.e., the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat's reign. But at that time Ahaziah, the son of Joram and Athaliah, was already from eight to nine years old, since thirteen years later he became king at the age of twenty-two; 2Ki 8:26, cf. with the chronol. table to 1 Kings 12. The marriage connection is mentioned in order to account for Jehoshaphat's visit to Samaria (2Ch 18:2), and his alliance with Ahab in the war against the Syrians; but it is also introduced by a reference to Jehoshaphat's riches and his
