SEV Biblia, Chapter 13:3
Entonces ordenó Abías batalla con el ejército de los valerosos en la guerra, cuatrocientos mil hombres escogidos; y Jeroboam ordenó batalla contra él con ochocientos mil hombres escogidos, fuertes y valerosos.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 2 Chronicles 13:3
Verse 3. Abijah set the battle in array] The numbers in this verse and in the seventeenth seem almost incredible. Abijah's army consisted of four hundred thousand effective men; that of Jeroboam consisted of eight hundred thousand; and the slain of Jeroboam's army were five hundred thousand. Now it is very possible that there is a cipher too much in all these numbers, and that they should stand thus: Abijah's army, forty thousand; Jeroboam's eighty thousand; the slain, fifty thousand. Calmet, who defends the common reading, allows that the Venice edition of the Vulgate, in 1478; another, in 1489; that of Nuremberg, in 1521; that of Basil, by Froben, in 1538; that of Robert Stevens, in 1546; and many others, have the smaller numbers. Dr. Kennicott says: "On a particular collation of the Vulgate version, it appears that the number of chosen men here slain, which Pope Clement's edition in 1592 determines to be five hundred thousand, the edition of Pope Sixtus, printed two years before, determined to be only fifty thousand; and the two preceding numbers, in the edition of Sixtus, are forty thousand and eighty thousand. As to different printed editions, out of fifty-two, from the year 1462 to 1592, thirty-one contain the less number. And out of fifty-one MSS. twenty-three in the Bodleian library, four in that of Dean Aldrich, and two in that of Exeter College, contain the less number, or else are corrupted irregularly, varying only one or two numbers." This examination was made by Dr. Kennicott before he had finished his collation of Hebrew MSS., and before Deuteronomy Rossi had published his Variae Lectiones Veteris Testamenti; but from these works we find little help, as far as the Hebrew MSS. are concerned. One Hebrew MS., instead of Pla twam [bra arba meoth eleph, four hundred thousand, reads Pla r[ [bra arba eser eleph, fourteen thousand.
In all printed copies of the Hebrew, the numbers are as in the common text, four hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand, and five hundred thousand.
The versions are as follow:-The Targum, or Chaldee, the same in each place as the Hebrew.
The Syriac in ver. 3 has four hundred thousand young men for the army of Abijah, and eight hundred thousand stout youth for that of Jeroboam. For the slain Israelites, in 2 Chronicles xiii. 17, it has five hundred thousand, falsely translated in the Latin text quinque milia, five thousand, both in the Paris and London Polyglots: another proof among many that little dependence is to be placed on the Latin translation of this version in either of the above Polyglots.
The Arabic is the same in all these cases with the Syriac, from which it has been translated.
The Septuagint, both as it is published in all the Polyglots, and as far as I have seen in MSS.. is the same with the Hebrew text. So also is Josephus.
The Vulgate or Latin version is that alone that exhibits any important variations; we have had considerable proof of this in the above-mentioned collations of Calmet and Kennicott. I shall beg liberty to add others from my own collection.
In the Editio Princeps of the Latin Bible, though without date or place, yet evidently printed long before that of Fust, in 1462, the places stand thus: Ver. 3. Cumque inisset certamen, et haberet bellicosissimos viros, et electorum QUADRAGINTA milia: Iheroboam construxit e contra aciem OCTOGINTA milia virorum; "With him Abia entered into battle; and he had of the most warlike and choice men forty thousand; and Jeroboam raised an army against him of eighty thousand men." And in ver. 17: Et corruerunt vulnerati ex Israel, QUINQUAGINTA milia virorum fortium; "And there fell down wounded fifty thousand stout men of Israel." In the Glossa Ordinaria, by Strabo Fuldensis, we have forty thousand and eighty thousand in the two first instances, and five hundred thousand in the last. - Bib. Sacr. vol. ii., Antv. 1634.
In six ancient MSS. of my own, marked A, B, C, D, E, F. the text stands thus:- A. - Cumque inisset Abia certamen, et haberet bellicosissimos viros, et electorum XL. MIL. Jeroboam instruxit contra aciem LXXX. MIL.
And in ver. 17: Et corruerunt vulnerati ex Israel L. MIL. virorum fortium.
Here we have forty thousand for the army of Abijah, and eighty thousand for that of Jeroboam, and FIFTY thousand for the slain of the latter.
This, in the two first numbers, is the same as the others above; but the last is confused, and appears to stand for fifty thousand and five thousand. A later hand has corrected the two first cccc numbers in this MS., placing over the first four CCCC, thus 40., thus changing forty into four hundred; and over the second thus, dccc lxxx., thus changing eighty into eight hundred. Over the latter number, which is evidently a mistake of the scribe, there is no correction.
The reader has now the whole evidence which I have been able to collect before him, and may choose; the smaller numbers appear to be the most correct. Corruptions in the numbers in these historical books we have often had cause to suspect, and to complain of.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 3. And Abijah set the battle in array, with an army of valiant man of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men , etc.] Collected such an army of select men, led them into his enemy’s country, and set them in order of battle: and Jeroboam also set the battle in array against him, with eight hundred thousand chosen men, being mighty men of valour ; double the number of Abijah s army, he having ten tribes to collect out of, and Abijah but two.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Abijah overcomes Jeroboam. --Jeroboam and his people, by apostacy and idolatry, merited the sever punishment Abijah was permitted to execute upon them. It appears from the character of Abijah, 1Ki 15:3, that he was not himself trul 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 is 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 wa 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 becam more than conquerors. Jeroboam escaped the sword of Abijah, but God struck him; there is no escaping his sword __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
ויאסר 631 אביה 29 את 853 המלחמה 4421 בחיל 2428 גבורי 1368 מלחמה 4421 ארבע 702 מאות 3967 אלף 505 אישׁ 376 בחור 970 וירבעם 3379 ערך 6186 עמו 5973 מלחמה 4421 בשׁמונה 8083 מאות 3967 אלף 505 אישׁ 376 בחור 970 גבור 1368 חיל׃ 2428
