2 Chronicles 14:9
New International Version
Zerah the Cushite marched out against them with an army of thousands upon thousands and three hundred chariots, and came as far as Mareshah.

New Living Translation
Once an Ethiopian named Zerah attacked Judah with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots. They advanced to the town of Mareshah,

English Standard Version
Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots, and came as far as Mareshah.

Berean Standard Bible
Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots, and they advanced as far as Mareshah.

King James Bible
And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came unto Mareshah.

New King James Version
Then Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah.

New American Standard Bible
Now Zerah the Ethiopian went out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah.

NASB 1995
Now Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots, and he came to Mareshah.

NASB 1977
Now Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots, and he came to Mareshah.

Legacy Standard Bible
Then Zerah the Ethiopian went out against them with a military force of one million men and 300 chariots, and he came to Mareshah.

Amplified Bible
Now Zerah the Ethiopian (Cushite) came out against Judah with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came as far as Mareshah.

Christian Standard Bible
Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of one million men and three hundred chariots. They came as far as Mareshah.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of one million men and 300 chariots. They came as far as Mareshah.

American Standard Version
And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an army of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and he came unto Mareshah.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And Zarakh, a HinduIndian went out to them with a great army of one million, and thirty thousand in two horse chariots, and they came and they arrived at Mareshah.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Zare the Ethiopian went out against them, with a force of a million, and three hundred chariots; and came to Maresa.

Contemporary English Version
Zerah from Ethiopia led an army of 1,000,000 soldiers and 300 chariots to the town of Mareshah in Judah.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And Zara the Ethiopian came out against them with his army of ten hundred thousand men, and with three hundred chariots: and he came as far as Maresa.

English Revised Version
And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an army of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and he came unto Mareshah.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Then Zerah from Sudan came with 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots to attack Asa. Zerah got as far as Mareshah.

Good News Translation
An Ethiopian named Zerah invaded Judah with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots and advanced as far as Mareshah.

International Standard Version
Sometime later, Zerah the Ethiopian went to war against him at Mareshah with an army of one million troops and 300 chariots.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an army of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and he came unto Mareshah.

Literal Standard Version
And Zerah the Cushite comes out to them with a force of one million [men] and three hundred chariots, and he comes to Mareshah,

Majority Standard Bible
Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots, and they advanced as far as Mareshah.

New American Bible
Zerah the Ethiopian advanced against them with a force of one million men and three hundred chariots, and he came as far as Mareshah.

NET Bible
Zerah the Cushite marched against them with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots. He arrived at Mareshah,

New Revised Standard Version
Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and came as far as Mareshah.

New Heart English Bible
There came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an army of a million troops, and three hundred chariots; and he came to Mareshah.

Webster's Bible Translation
And there came out against them Zerah the Cushite, with a host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came to Mareshah.

World English Bible
Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million troops and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah.

Young's Literal Translation
And come out unto them doth Zerah the Cushite with a force of a thousand thousand, and chariots three hundred, and he cometh in unto Mareshah,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Asa Reigns in Judah
8Asa had an army of 300,000 men from Judah bearing large shields and spears, and 280,000 men from Benjamin bearing small shields and drawing the bow. All these were mighty men of valor. 9Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots, and they advanced as far as Mareshah. 10So Asa marched out against him and lined up in battle formation in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah.…

Cross References
2 Chronicles 11:8
Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,

2 Chronicles 12:2
In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign, because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, Shishak king of Egypt came up and attacked Jerusalem

2 Chronicles 12:3
with 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horsemen, and countless troops who came with him out of Egypt--Libyans, Sukkites, and Cushites.

2 Chronicles 14:10
So Asa marched out against him and lined up in battle formation in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah.

2 Chronicles 16:8
Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the LORD, He delivered them into your hand.

Isaiah 18:2
which sends couriers by sea, in papyrus vessels on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people widely feared, to a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.

Amos 9:7
"Are you not like the Cushites to Me, O children of Israel?" declares the LORD. "Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Arameans from Kir?


Treasury of Scripture

And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came to Mareshah.

A.

2 Chronicles 12:2,3
And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of king Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the LORD, …

2 Chronicles 16:8
Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet, because thou didst rely on the LORD, he delivered them into thine hand.

2 Kings 19:9
And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,

Mareshah

Joshua 15:44
And Keilah, and Achzib, and Mareshah; nine cities with their villages:

Micah 1:15
Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.

Jump to Previous
Army Chariots Cushite Ethiopian Far Force Host Hundred Marched Mareshah Mare'shah Million Thousand Three Troops Vast War-Carriages Zerah
Jump to Next
Army Chariots Cushite Ethiopian Far Force Host Hundred Marched Mareshah Mare'shah Million Thousand Three Troops Vast War-Carriages Zerah
2 Chronicles 14
1. Asa following, destroys idolatry
6. having peace, he strengthens his kingdom with forts and armies
9. Calling of God, he overthrows Zerah, and spoils the Ethiopians














(9) Against them.--Against the army described in last verse. Literally, unto them (Genesis 4:8; Judges 12:3).

Zerah the Ethiopian.--Heb., ha-K-shi. (See Note on 1Chronicles 1:8 [Cush].) Zerah is identified with Osorchon II., hieroglyphic Uasarken, who succeeded Shishak as king of Egypt. The name of this king is curiously like that of Sargon, the great Assyrian conqueror of the eighth century. (See Note on 2Chronicles 12:2.) The object of the expedition appears to have been to bring Judah again under the yoke of Egypt. Shishak had made Rehoboam tributary (2Chronicles 12:8), after reducing his fortresses and plundering Jerusalem. But now Asa had restored the defences of his country, and apparently reorganised the fighting material; steps indicating a desire for national independence. . . .

Verses 9-15. - The remaining seven verses of this chapter are occupied with the account of the invasion of Zerah the Ethiopian, and the successful defence and reprisals of Asa. Verse 9. - Zerah the Ethiopian; Hebrew, זֶרַח הַכּוּשִׁי, the "Ethiopian," Greek and Septuagint rendering for "Cushite." In its vaguest dimensions Ethiopia, or Cush, designated Africa south of Egypt, but more concisely it meant the lands we now call Nubia, Sennaar, Kordefan, and part of Abyssinia. And these, roughly speaking, were bounded north, south, east, and west respectively by Egypt and Syene, Abyssinia, Red Sea, and Libyan Desert. When, however, Ethiopia proper is spoken of, the name probably designates the kingdom of Meroe (Seba, Genesis 10:7; 1 Chronicles 1:9); and the Assyrian inscriptions make the Cushite name of the deified Nimrod one with Meroe), which was so closely associated at different times with Egypt, that sometimes an Egypt king swayed it (as e.g. some eighteen hundred years before Shishak, Sesostris fourth king of the twelfth dynasty), and sometimes vice versa (as e.g. the three Ethiopian kings of the twenty-fifth dynasty - Shabak (Sabakhou), Sethos (Sebechos), and Tarkos (Tirhakah), whose reigning dates as between Ethiopia and Egypt are not yet certified). The name thus confined covers an irregular circular bulk of country between "the modern Khartoum, where the Astapus joins the true Nile, and the influx of the Astaboras, into their united stream." From the language of Diodorus (1:23), harmonized conjecturally with Strabo (18:821), the region may be counted as 375 miles in circumference and 125 miles in the diameter of the erratic circle, its extreme south point being variously stated, distant from Syene, 873 miles (Pliny, 6:29. § 33); or, according to Mannert's book ('Geogr. d. Alt.,' 10:183), 600 miles by the assertion of Artemidorns, or 625 by that of Eratosthenes. Thence the "Cushite" extended probably to the Euphrates and the Tigris, and through Arabia, Babylonia, and Persia. Some, however, think that the Cushite now intended was the Ethiopian of Arabia, who had settlement near Gerar (Dr. Jamieson, in 'Comm.') as a nomadic horde. Dr. Jamieson quotes Bruce's 'Travels' to support this view, which seems a most improbable, not to say impossible, one nevertheless. The question as to the people intended will perhaps best be found in the solution of the question for whom the name of their king stands (see following note). Zerah. Hebrew as above. It is noteworthy that the four previous occurrences of this name - Genesis 36:13 and 1 Chronicles 1:37, son of Reuel, grandson of Esau; Genesis 38:30 and 1 Chronicles 2:6, son of Judah and Tumor; 1 Chronicles 4:24, son of Simeon; 1 Chronicles 5:6, 26, Hebrew text, son of Iddo, a Gershonite Levite - show it as the name of an Israelite, or descendant of Shem. Our present Zerah is a Cushite, or descendant of Ham. The Septuagint forms of the name are Ζαρέ Ζαρά Ζαρές, or Ζαραέ Ζααραι, or (Alexandrian) Ἀκαρίας. Although Professor Dr. Murphy says ('Handbook: Chronicles,' p. 116) that "it is plain that Zerah was a sovereign of Kush, who in the reign of Takeloth, about B.C. 944, invaded Egypt and penetrated into Asia," the balance of probability, both from the names themselves and the synchronisms of history, corroborated by the composition of Zerah's army (Cushim and Lubim, 2 Chronicles 16:8) and some other tributary considerations, is that our Zerah was Usarken II., the fourth king of the twenty-second dynasty (or possibly Usarken I., the second king of the dynasty). The invasion of the text was probably in Asa's fourteenth year, his reign thus far being dated B.C. 953-940 (or B.C. 933-920 if Manasseh's be taken at only thirty-five instead of fifty-five years). The alleged army of this Zerah was an Egyptian army, largely made of mercenaries (compare the description of Shishak's army, ch. 12:3). The present defeat of Zerah would go far to explain the known decline of the Egyptian power at just this date, i.e. some twenty-five to thirty years after Shishak. At the same time, it must be admitted that it is not possible to identify with certainty Zerah with either Usarken. Whether he is an unknown Arabian Cushite, or an unknown African Cushite of Ethiopia-above-Egypt, or one of the Usarkens, has yet to be pronounced. Mareshah (see our note, 2 Chronicles 11:8). It lay the "second mile" (Eusebius and Jerome) south of Eleutheropolis and between Hebron (1 Maccabees 5:36; 2 Maccabees 12:35) and Ashdod (Josephus, 'Ant.,' 12:08. § 6). The mention of the valley of Zephathah in the following verse will half identify its exact position. It is probable that Dr. Robinson ('Bibl. Res.,' 2:67) and Toblev in his interesting , Dritto Wand.' (pp. 129, 142), have reliably fixed the site one Roman mile south-west of the modern Beit-Jibrin. Mareshah is again mentioned in 2 Chronicles 20:37 and Micah 1:15, as quoted already, in references interesting to be consulted. A thousand thousand. Whether this number be correct or not, it may be noted that it is the largest alleged number of an army given in the Old Testament.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Then Zerah
זֶ֣רַח (ze·raḥ)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 2226: Zerah -- three Israelites, also an Edomite, also an Ethiopian

the Cushite
הַכּוּשִׁ֗י (hak·kū·šî)
Article | Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3569: Cushite -- descendant of Cush

came
וַיֵּצֵ֨א (way·yê·ṣê)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3318: To go, bring, out, direct and proxim

against them
אֲלֵיהֶ֜ם (’ă·lê·hem)
Preposition | third person masculine plural
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

with an army
בְּחַ֙יִל֙ (bə·ḥa·yil)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 2428: A force, an army, wealth, virtue, valor, strength

of 1,000,000 men
אֶ֣לֶף (’e·lep̄)
Number - masculine singular construct
Strong's 505: A thousand

[and] 300
שְׁלֹ֣שׁ (šə·lōš)
Number - feminine singular construct
Strong's 7969: Three, third, thrice

chariots,
וּמַרְכָּב֖וֹת (ū·mar·kā·ḇō·wṯ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 4818: A chariot

and they advanced
וַיָּבֹ֖א (way·yā·ḇō)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

as far as
עַד־ (‘aḏ-)
Preposition
Strong's 5704: As far as, even to, up to, until, while

Mareshah.
מָרֵשָֽׁה׃ (mā·rê·šāh)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 4762: Mareshah -- a place in Judah, also two Israelites


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OT History: 2 Chronicles 14:9 There came out against them Zerah (2 Chron. 2Ch iiCh ii ch 2 chr 2chr)
2 Chronicles 14:8
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