2 Chronicles 28:6

For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men; because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) For.—And, i.e., so.

Pekah . . . slew in Judah an hundred . . . in one day.—Details of what is generally stated in the last sentence of 2Chronicles 28:5. The totals of slain and of captives (2Chronicles 28:8) are both round numbers. The figures 120,000, if accurate, would show that about a third of the Jewish host (2Chronicles 26:13) had fallen in the battle and pursuit. The ruthlessness of the foe is borne out by the words of the prophet Oded in 2Chronicles 28:9 : “Ye have slain them in a rage that reacheth up to heaven.” Isaiah 7:6 proves that the allies designed to break wholly the independence of Judah, by abolishing the Davidic monarchy, and setting up a Syrian vassal king.

In one day.—In one great engagement. Among the Hebrews and Arabs the word “day” often bears the special force of “day of battle;” e.g., “the day of Midian” (Isaiah 9:4).

Because they had forsaken.—2Chronicles 27:2. Moreover, the idolatrous example of Ahaz would be eagerly followed by large numbers of the people, whose average religious condition was far below the standard which the prophets of Jehovah demanded. The prophetical writings demonstrate this.

Benson Commentary

2 Chronicles 28:6. Pekah slew in Judah a hundred and twenty thousand in one day — Never was such bloody work made among them before, since they were a nation, and that by Israelites too! The kingdom of Israel was not strong at this time, and yet strong enough, it appears, to bring this great destruction upon Judah. But certainly so many men, valiant men, could not have been cut off in one day, if they had not been strangely dispirited, both by the consciousness of their own guilt, and the righteous hand of God upon them. Because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers — Ahaz walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and God chose the kings of Israel for his scourge: it is just with God, to make them a plague to us, whom we have made our patterns, or partners in sin.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

28:1-27 The wicked reign of Ahaz in Judah. - Israel gained this victory because God was wroth with Judah, and made them the rod of his indignation. He reminds them of their own sins. It ill becomes sinners to be cruel. Could they hope for the mercy of God, if they neither showed mercy nor justice to their brethren? Let it be remembered, that every man is our neighbour, our brother, our fellow man, if not our fellow Christian. And no man who is acquainted with the word of God, need fear to maintain that slavery is against the law of love and the gospel of grace. Who can hold his brother in bondage, without breaking the rule of doing to others as he would they should do unto him? But when sinners are left to their own heart's lusts, they grow more desperate in wickedness. God commands them to release the prisoners, and they obeyed. The Lord brought Judah low. Those who will not humble themselves under the word of God, will justly be humbled by his judgments. It is often found, that wicked men themselves have no real affection for those that revolt to them, nor do they care to do them a kindness. This is that king Ahaz! that wretched man! Those are wicked and vile indeed, that are made worse by their afflictions, instead of being made better by them; who, in their distress, trespass yet more, and have their hearts more fully set in them to do evil. But no marvel that men's affections and devotions are misplaced, when they mistake the author of their trouble and of their help. The progress of wickedness and misery is often rapid; and it is awful to reflect upon a sinner's being driven away in his wickedness into the eternal world.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The fearful loss here described may have been due to a complete defeat followed by panic.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5-7. the Lord … delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria … he was also delivered into the hand of the King of Israel—These verses, without alluding to the formation of a confederacy between the Syrian and Israelitish kings to invade the kingdom of Judah, or relating the commencement of the war in the close of Jotham's reign (2Ki 15:37), give the issue only of some battles that were fought in the early part of the campaign.

delivered him … smote him … he was also delivered—that is, his army, for Ahaz was not personally included in the number either of the slain or the captives. The slaughter of one hundred twenty thousand in one day was a terrible calamity, which, it is (2Ch 28:6) expressly said, was inflicted as a judgment on Judah, "because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers." Among the slain were some persons of distinction:

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For Pekah son of Remaliah,.... Who was at this time king of Israel:

slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all

valiant men; a great slaughter to be made at one time, and of valiant men, but not so great as that in 2 Chronicles 13:17,

because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers; this was not a reason with Pekah for slaying them, he himself being an idolater, but why the Lord suffered them to be slain by him.

Geneva Study Bible

For {c} Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men; because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers.

(c) Who was king of Israel.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. an hundred and twenty thousand] i.e. more than a third of the host as reckoned in 2 Chronicles 26:13.

which were all] R.V. all of them.

the Lord God] R.V. the LORD, the God. “The LORD” stands here for the proper name “Jehovah”; cp. 2 Chronicles 21:10, 2 Chronicles 24:18; 2 Chronicles 24:24.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - (See foregoing note.) An hundred and twenty thousand. The number is large, but, the uncertainty of very many of these figures notwithstanding, it is impossible absolutely to pronounce it incredible. Because they had forsaken. The now frequent refrain of the writer. 2 Chronicles 28:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The war with the Kings Rezin of Syria and Pekah of Israel. - On the events of this war, so far as they can be ascertained by uniting the statements of our chapter with the summary account in 2 Kings 16, see the commentary on 2 Kings 16:5. The author of the Chronicle brings the two main battles prominently forward as illustrations of the way in which Jahve gave Ahaz into the power of his enemies because of his defection from Him. Into the power of the king of Aram. They (ויּכּוּ, and they, the Arameans) smote בו, in him, i.e., they inflicted on his army a great defeat. Just so also ממּנוּ signifies of his army. גּדולה שׁביה, a great imprisonment, i.e., a great number of prisoners. And into the power of the king of Israel, Pekah, who inflicted on him a still greater defeat. He slew in (among) Judah 120,000 men "in one day," i.e., in a great decisive battle. Judah suffered these defeats because they (the men of Judah) had forsaken Jahve the God of their fathers. Judah's defection from the Lord is not, indeed, expressly mentioned in the first verses of the chapter, but may be inferred as a matter of course from the remark as to the people under Jotham, 2 Chronicles 27:2. If under that king, who did that which was right in the eyes of Jahve, and stedfastly walked before the Lord (2 Chronicles 27:6), they did corruptly, they must naturally have departed much further from the God of the fathers, and been sunk much deeper in the worship of idols, and the worship on high places, under Ahaz, who served the Baals and other idols.