2 Chronicles 14
14:1 a Asa reigned from 910 to 869 BC.Summary for 2Chr 14:2-5: 14:2-5 b At the beginning of his reign, Asa . . . removed the foreign altars in Judah (14:5 c). However, he did not remove the pagan shrines from Israel (15:17 d). These were probably in the cities of the northern kingdom that Asa had inherited from Abijah. Idolatry practiced by other peoples occupying the land plagued Judah throughout its history; this pagan activity might have revived toward the end of Asa’s reign more than thirty years later.
14:4 e The phrase seek the Lord is the Chronicler’s formula for restoration; it both highlights and critiques Asa’s reign (see 15:2 f, 12-13 g; 16:12 h).
Summary for 2Chr 14:7-14: 14:7-14 i Solomon had prayed that the Lord would hear his people when they were led into battle (6:34 j). In the battle against Zerah, God responded to such a prayer.
• Ethiopian (literally “Cushite”) might refer to someone from southern Egypt (Nubia) or a Midianite territory northeast of Aqabah (see Num 12:1 k; Hab 3:7 l). However, the mention of Libya in 2 Chr 16:8 m, the size of the battle (comparable to the attack of Shishak against Rehoboam in 12:3 n), and the location of Mareshah in the west of Judah indicate that Zerah was an Egyptian; he is otherwise unknown. He might have been a Nubian general dispatched by Osorkon I, the Libyan pharaoh who ruled Egypt between the tenth and fourteenth years of Asa (900–897 BC). Another view is that Shishak established a buffer state around Gerar, supported by Nubian mercenaries that invaded Judah. The account, however, only says that Asa and his armies pursued the armies south to Gerar and took a vast amount of plunder, particularly from the herdsmen living in tents around the cities.
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