Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Chronicles 14:15
They smote also the tents of cattle, and carried away sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem.
15. the tents of cattle ] These words seem to be corrupt, and it is probable that the original reading gave the name of some Arabian tribe. From a comparison of the LXX. here with the LXX. of 2Ch 22:1 we conclude that this name was represented by in Greek. The people called by Ptolemy, and Mzin by Arabic writers are probably meant (Hommel, Expository Times, viii. 378).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 15. Tents of cattle] Those which had carried the baggage of the great army, and which they had left in such places as abounded with pasture. Perhaps sheepfolds, enclosures for camels, mules, c., may also be intended. The discomfiture was great, because God fought for the people and the spoil was immense, because the multitude was prodigious, indeed almost incredible, a million of men in one place is almost too much for the mind to conceive, but there may be some mistake in the numerals: it is evident from the whole account that the number was vast and the spoil great.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The tents of cattle, i.e. the dwellers in tents, which were either a part of Zerahs company, or joined with them, or had come along with them to furnish that great host with necessary provisions, which their custom of dwelling in tents made them more capable of doing.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
They smote also the tents of cattle,…. The people that dwelt in tents for the sake of the pasturage of their cattle; the Scenite Arabs, so called from dwelling in tents:
and carried away sheep; which those Arabs were feeding in Palestine, and which this great army brought with them for their support:
and camels in abundance; which is another circumstance proving them to be Arabs, who abounded with camels:
and returned to Jerusalem; with their spoil, and with great joy.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(15) They smote also the tents of cattle.And cattle tents (or encampments), also they smote, i.e., hordes of nomad Bedawin whom they encountered in the desert about Gerar. (Comp. 1Ch. 4:41, smote their tents.)
Sheep and camels in abundance.Sheep in abundance, and camels. The LXX. adds, , apparently as the name of a tribe. Syriac and Arabic render, And the tents of the Arabs.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
REFLECTIONS
It is hardly possible to read the character here given of Asa, and the blessed eventual consequences of his piety, as it concerned the people of Judah, without having our minds led out in delightful contemplation on the happiness of a church, and nation, and people, under the blessings of princes which set up true religion in the land, and adorn the gospel of Jesus, not only by precept, but example. The imagination can hardly calculate the extensiveness of such a blessing, in the innumerable happy consequences, which spring out of it. Who shall indeed say to what auspicious blessings, even in generations yet to come, it may reach.
And while we exercise the mind in contemplating the mercy as it is found in a land at large, under the eye of a reforming prince, like Asa; if we carry the thought into the narrower circle of churches and private families, the blessing is immense, even here, in the eventual gracious effects which must follow. Let the Reader figure to himself a church, an house, a family, all living in the faith, and love, and fear of God. They are closely allied in the strictest and most durable of all bonds, of reverence and faith in Jesus to a covenant God in Christ, and in real amity and Christian union to one another. Jesus is their glorious head, and they are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Let the enemies of their salvation, like the Ethiopians against Asa, come forth with an army of a thousand thousand, yet the battle is the Lord’s, and he will eventually come forth to their deliverance. The graces of his Spirit will be their support, and confidence in the promises of redemption by Jesus their strong hold. They will be exercised indeed in resisting sin and Satan, but more is he that is with them than all that are against them. It is nothing to our God to help, whether with many or with few. They shall overcome, as the armies of heaven have done, by the blood of the Lamb, and be made more than conquerors through his grace helping them.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ch 14:15 They smote also the tents of cattle, and carried away sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem.
Ver. 15. They smote also the tents of cattle. ] The Arabian Scenites, who had also aided the Ethiopians, and now had enough of it. “So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord.”
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the tents of cattle: 1Ch 4:41
carried away: Num 31:9, Num 31:30-47, 1Sa 30:20, 1Ch 5:21