Jehoshaphat Becomes King, 1-19

17:1 His son Jehoshaphat replaced him as king and solidified his rule over Israel. 17:2 He placed troops in all of Judah’s fortified cities and posted garrisons throughout the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that his father Asa had seized.

17:3 The LORD was with Jehoshaphat because he followed in his ancestor David’s footsteps at the beginning of his reign. He did not seek the Baals, 17:4 but instead sought the God of his ancestors and obeyed his commands, unlike the Israelites. 17:5 The LORD made his kingdom secure; all Judah brought tribute to Jehoshaphat, and he became very wealthy and greatly respected. 17:6 He was committed to following the LORD; he even removed the high places and Asherah poles from Judah.

17:7 In the third year of his reign he sent his officials Ben-Hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah to teach in the cities of Judah. 17:8 They were accompanied by the Levites Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tob-Adonijah, and by the priests Elishama and Jehoram. 17:9 They taught throughout Judah, taking with them the scroll of the law of the LORD. They traveled to all the cities of Judah and taught the people.
17:10 The LORD put fear into all the kingdoms surrounding Judah; they did not make war with Jehoshaphat. 17:11 Some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat tribute, including a load of silver. The Arabs brought him 7,700 rams and 7,700 goats from their flocks.

17:12 Jehoshaphat’s power kept increasing. He built fortresses and storage cities throughout Judah. 17:13 He had many supplies stored in the cities of Judah and an army of skilled warriors stationed in Jerusalem. 17:14 These were their divisions by families:

There were a thousand officers from Judah. Adnah the commander led 300,000 skilled warriors, 17:15 Jehochanan the commander led 280,000, 17:16 and Amasiah son of Zikri, who volunteered to serve the LORD, led 200,000 skilled warriors.

17:17 From Benjamin, Eliada, a skilled warrior, led 200,000 men who were equipped with bows and shields, 17:18 and Jehozabad led 180,000 trained warriors.

17:19 These were the ones who served the king, besides those whom the king placed in the fortified cities throughout Judah.

What are we to make of Jehoshaphat’s enormous army?

According to v13-19, Jehoshaphat had an army of 1,160,000 men stationed in Jerusalem.  This number was over and above those mentioned in v2.

Various attempts have been made to make sense of this number.

(a) Some take the number literally.  JFB appear to accept the number without hesitation, remarking:

‘No monarch, since the time of Solomon, equalled Jehoshaphat in the extent of his revenue, in the strength of his fortifications, and in the number of his troops.’

The contributor to HSB (Kaiser) notes that ‘many scholars’ have thought these numbers to be ‘excessive’.  But:

‘there are no other comparative figures with which to judge the authenticity of this number except what moderns regard as “excessive.”’

This, I think, is making light of the problem.

Ellicot, while hesitant to take the numbers at face value, suggests that what is written here is

‘simply an estimate of the total male population liable to be called out for the national defence.’

The text, however, specifies that this huge army was actually stationed in Jerusalem (and not dispersed around the country).

(b) Others think that the text is simply wrong.

This appears to be the opinion of Keil & Delitzsch:

‘These numbers are clearly too large, and bear no proportion to the result of the numbering of the people capable of bearing arms under David, when there were in Judah only 500,000 or 470,000 men (cf. 1 Chron. 21:5 with 2 Sam. 24:5); yet the sums of the single divisions appear duly proportioned,—a fact which renders it more difficult to believe that these exaggerated numbers are the result of orthographical errors.’

(c) Another suggestion appeals to the ‘semi-barbaric’ nature of the times.  To the modern child (it is argued) one hundred is just as large a number as one million.  Such biblical numbers are not the result of deception, but of idealisation.  (See discussion in A.H. Strong, Systematic Theology, Part 3, ch. 3, and the quotes therein).

(c) Still others think that the text has become corrupted in some way.  Barnes:

‘It is probable that the original numbers have been lost, and that the loss was suppplied by a scribe, who took 2 Chronicles 14:8 as his basis.’

B.C. Birch (ISBE) appeals to the disupted translation of the Heb ʾelep̱ (“thousand”), which may originally have meant “tribe,” “clan,” or “group”.  Pratt (Mentor Commentary) agrees that the underlying word may refer to ‘unit’ or ‘chief’, yielding much smaller (but still significant) numbers.

Selman:

‘As elsewhere, thousand is probably best understood as a military unit, though these figures are still unusually high (cf. 14:8; 25:5–6; 26:12–13).’

(d) Yet others think that the numbers are symbolic in some way.

Lange:

‘The…780,000 Jews and 380,000 Benjamites can scarcely be accepted as literally true. Their near approach to the numbers resulting from the census taken by David (1 Chron. 21:5) seems intended to convey the idea that the kingdom of Judah alone had under Jehoshaphat, the alter David, attained a strength which almost matched the power of the twelve still united tribes under the first David (1,100,000 Israelites and 470,000 Jews), that Judah by itself alone had now developed a number and power which surpassed that of the northern tribes at that earlier period.’

Dillard (WBC) suggests that, however the numerical problem is solved, large armies are, for the Chronicler, indices of divine favour resting upon the king.

Others