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So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in David’s city; and Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days, the land was quiet ten years.
Verse 1. Years, dating from the fifth; as in the fifteenth year of his reign, Asa offered many victims, which had been taken from the enemy. Calmet. 15:10. Calmet.
Asa did that which was good and right in the LORD his God’s eyes,
Verse 2. God, with respect to the external worship of the true God, ( Bible.) though he had some faults. 3 Kennicott. 15:14.—Places, while he tolerated those which were intended for the service of the Lord, ( Calmet.) though illegally; and he even left the buildings erected by Solomon standing, (4 Kennicott. 23:13. Tirinus.) thinking they might be no longer dangerous. Salien.—Several other pious kings did the like, for which they deserved some reprehension; as they could not be ignorant, that this was considered as wrong by the more enlightened. Sirach 49:5. Tirinus.—It was the king’s duty to destroy the exterior practices of idolatry, while the priests and prophets were to instruct. Worthington.
for he took away the foreign altars and the high places, broke down the pillars, cut down the Asherah poles,
and commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, and to obey his law and command.
Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun images; and the kingdom was quiet before him.
Verse 5. Altars. Hebrew “high places, and the Chamanim,” or temple of the sun. Leviticus 26:30. Calmet.—Prot. “images.” Bible.—Asa was encouraged to perfect the work which he had begun, by the exhortation of Azarias. Calmet. 15:8. Calmet.
He built fortified cities in Judah; for the land was quiet, and he had no war in those years, because the LORD had given him rest.
Verse 6. Time, as yet. Tirinus.—Admirable lesson for all to prepare for war in time of quite! Bible.
For he said to Judah, “Let’s build these cities and make walls around them, with towers, gates, and bars. 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.
Asa had an army of three hundred thousand out of Judah who bore bucklers and spears, and two hundred eighty thousand out of Benjamin who bore shields and drew bows. All these were mighty men of valor.
Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million troops and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah.
Verse 9. Ethiopian. Some think Zara was a successor of Sesac; and the Rabbins say, that he “restored the spoils which the latter had taken.” Seder. xvi.—He at least, made the Jews some compensation for that loss. Perhaps he had been present in the expedition of Sesac, and was now animated with the same ambition. Tirinus.—It would be difficult for a foreign king to traverse Egypt with so large an army, ( Calmet.) unless he had conquered or intimidated the king of the country. Bible.—Hence some believe that the Ethiopia here in question, was a part of Arabia. Calmet. Torniel.—But it is more probable that it lay south of Egypt, as the troops of Zara are joined with the Lybians. Calmet. 16:8. Salien, A. 3094. Tirinus.—A king of Arabia would hardly have had so many subjects. Calmet.—Three. Some would read thirteen, as Anai takes notice of the great number of chariots. Calmet. 16:8. Jun. Malvenda. Calmet.—But surely the number here specified is sufficient. The minds of men are very different. In the former chapter we find them complaining of the too great numbers! Bible.
Then Asa went out to meet him, and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.
Verse 10. Meet him, fearing lest he should lay waste his dominions, as Sesac had done. Menochius.—Sephata, or Sephala, a great valley to the west of Maresa, ( Calmet.) which is a city of Juda. Menochius.—Septuagint have, “in the vale north of Maresa.” Bible.
Asa cried to the LORD his God, and said, “LORD, there is no one besides you to help, between the mighty and him who has no strength. Help us, LORD our God; for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. LORD, you are our God. Don’t let man prevail against you.”
Verse 11. Help. Hebrew “to help; whether with many, or with those who have no power.” The same sentiment was expressed by Jonathas. 1 Kennicott. 14:6. Those who have God with them are secure of victory. Calmet.—If God be with us, who is against us?
So the LORD struck the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled.
Verse 12. Terrified. Hebrew and Septuagint “struck,” as he had done Jeroboam. Calmet. 13:15. Bible.
Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar. So many of the Ethiopians fell that they could not recover themselves, for they were destroyed before the LORD and before his army. Judah’s army carried away very much booty.
Verse 13. Gerara was on the southern borders, twenty-three miles from Maresa. Eus. Calmet.—The Ethiopians were pursued perhaps for many days. Tirinus.—Destruction. Prot. “they they could not recover themselves.” Hebrew “there was no quarter given;” or, “so that none were left alive.” Calmet.—If this were the case, the number of the slain far exceeded that the Jeroboam’s army. Calmet. 13. Bible.
They struck all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the LORD came on them. They plundered all the cities, for there was much plunder in them.
Verse 14. Gerara. The adjacent territory is now uncultivated. Joshua 13:3.—Great. Hebrew “a fear of the Lord;” (verse 12) an extraordinary ( Calmet.) panic. Bible.—The Philistines had assisted the enemy, and therefore their cities were invaded; ( Menochius.) or these belonged to Zara. Calmet.
They also struck the tents of those who had livestock, and carried away sheep and camels in abundance, then returned to Jerusalem.
Verse 15. Destroyed. Hebrew “smote also the tents of cattle.” Septuagint “they cut in pieces the tents of cattle, the Amazons;” or, according to the Vat. copy, ( Bible.) “the Alimazonians,” as they seem to have read aeli mánim, which may be well rendered, “the tents of the Mineans,” a people of Arabia. Calmet. 20:1 and 26:7 and Judges 10:11. Calmet.—If these nations came to punish Asa, for banishing their foreign worship, (verse 12) as the Sieur de Folard thinks the sacred penman insinuates, (verse 5) we need not wonder that they met with such ill success, and that not one of them was spared, as God avenged his own cause, verse 12. 13. Bible.—We read of no cavalry here, though it is mentioned, Calmet. 16:8. It seems not to have been considerable, as the people of Asia, the Greeks and Romans, trusted more to their infantry; and, in effect, no species of warfare is more costly to a state, nor less useful, than a multitude of horses, which were introduced in barbarous times. De Folard.