2 Chronicles 14: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Abijah dies and his son Asa becomes king of Judah, and the land has ten years of peace. Asa removes the foreign altars, high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles, tells Judah to seek the LORD and keep the law, and uses the years of quiet to build fortified cities and raise an army. When Zerah the Cushite invades with a huge force, Asa prays for help, the invaders are defeated at Mareshah and chased to Gerar, and Judah takes a large amount of plunder before returning to Jerusalem.

Claim by Claim

1. 14:1
   • Abijah slept with his fathers.
   • They buried Abijah in the city of David.
   • Asa his son reigned in his place.
   • In Asa's days the land was quiet for ten years.
2. 14:2
   • Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God.
3. 14:3
   • Asa removed the altars of foreign gods.
   • Asa removed the high places.
   • Asa broke down the sacred pillars.
   • Asa cut down the Asherah poles.
4. 14:4
   • Asa commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers.
   • Asa commanded Judah to keep the law and the commandment.
5. 14:5
   • Asa removed the high places from all the cities of Judah.
   • Asa removed the incense altars from all the cities of Judah.
   • The kingdom was quiet under him.
6. 14:6
   • Asa built fortified cities in Judah.
   • The land had rest.
   • Asa had no war in those years.
   • The LORD had given Asa rest.
7. 14:7
   • Asa said to Judah that they should build these cities.
   • Asa said they should surround the cities with walls, towers, gates, and bars.
   • Asa said the land was still open before them.
   • Asa said they had sought the LORD their God.
   • Asa said that because they sought him, God had given them rest on every side.
   • They built.
   • They prospered.
8. 14:8
   • Asa had an army from Judah of three hundred thousand men bearing large shields and spears.
   • Asa had from Benjamin two hundred eighty thousand men bearing shields and drawing bows.
   • All these were mighty men of valor.
9. 14:9
   • Zerah the Cushite came out against them.
   • Zerah had an army of a thousand thousand men.
   • Zerah had three hundred chariots.
   • Zerah came as far as Mareshah.
10. 14:10
    • Asa went out against Zerah.
    • They drew up the battle line in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.
11. 14:11
    • Asa cried out to the LORD his God.
    • Asa addressed the LORD.
    • Asa said it is nothing for the LORD to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; the wording is ambiguous and can also mean there is none like the LORD to help between the mighty and the powerless.
    • Asa asked the LORD their God to help them.
    • Asa said they rely on the LORD.
    • Asa said they go against this multitude in the LORD's name.
    • Asa said the LORD is their God.
    • Asa asked that man not prevail against the LORD.
12. 14:12
    • The LORD struck the Cushites before Asa and before Judah.
    • The Cushites fled.
13. 14:13
    • Asa and the people with him pursued them as far as Gerar.
    • The Cushites fell and could not recover themselves.
    • They were broken before the LORD and before his army.
    • They carried away very much spoil.
14. 14:14
    • They struck all the cities around Gerar.
    • The fear of the LORD came upon them.
    • They plundered all the cities.
    • There was very much spoil in the cities.
15. 14:15
    • They also struck the tents of livestock.
    • They carried away sheep and camels in abundance.
    • They returned to Jerusalem.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

14:1

"Slept with his fathers" is the standard Hebrew idiom for a king's death: it says nothing about how he died, only that he joined the ancestors in death and burial. The City of David is the oldest fortified part of Jerusalem, the ridge David captured and settled; the kings of Judah were buried there.

14:2

Chronicles rates every king with a fixed formula, either doing "that which was good and right in the eyes of the LORD" or doing evil. The measure is always the same one thing: whether the king kept worship centered on the LORD alone at the temple in Jerusalem.

14:3

"High places" were open-air worship sites, usually on a hill or raised platform, with an altar and often a pillar or sacred tree. The "images" of the King James are standing stones, upright slabs set at a shrine to mark a god's presence. The "groves" are Asherah poles: carved wooden posts representing Asherah, a Canaanite mother goddess. King James translators rendered the Hebrew name as "grove" because the objects were wooden and sometimes stood among trees.

14:4

"Seek the LORD" is a fixed Hebrew expression for regular worship and for consulting God about decisions, rather than an inner search for him. Its opposite is seeking guidance from other gods.

14:5

The word the King James gives as "images" here is a different Hebrew word from the one in verse 3, and probably means small stands or altars for burning incense.

14:6

"Fenced cities" does not mean fences. It means cities fortified with defensive walls, the standard KJV term for a walled town built to withstand a siege.

14:7

"Bars" are the heavy beams dropped across the inside of a city gate to hold it shut. "The land is still ours" translates an idiom meaning the territory is still open and under our control, build now, while we can.

14:8

Judah and Benjamin were the two tribes that made up the southern kingdom after Israel split in two; a writer naming both is naming the whole of Asa's realm. The two kinds of shield are different pieces of equipment: the large one covered most of the body and was carried alongside a spear, the small round one was for troops who needed both hands free, like archers.

14:9

Cush was the region south of Egypt, along the Nile in what is now northern Sudan, not the modern country of Ethiopia, which the King James name suggests. The Hebrew reads "a thousand thousand," that is a million; the word for "thousand" can also mean a military unit of unspecified size, so the actual figure intended is uncertain.

14:10

Mareshah was a fortified town in the low hills southwest of Jerusalem, guarding one of the routes up from the coastal plain. The Valley of Zephathah is not otherwise known.

14:11

The first sentence is difficult in Hebrew and has been read two ways: either "it is nothing to you to help, whether the side you help is strong or weak," or "there is no one but you to help the powerless against the mighty." "In your name" means on your authority, as your representatives. The last word for "man" is one that stresses human frailty, a mere mortal.

14:13

Gerar was a town in the far south, toward the coast in Philistine country, well outside Judah's territory, the pursuit ran a long way. "Before his army" is ambiguous in Hebrew: it may mean the LORD's own forces or Asa's troops.

14:14

"Terror from the LORD" is a set phrase in these narratives for a panic that falls on an enemy population and leaves them unable to resist. "Spoiled" in the King James means plundered, not ruined.

14:15

These are the camps of herders who moved with their flocks and lived in tents rather than towns. Sheep and camels were the movable wealth of such groups, which is why they are counted as plunder.