But Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them: so they were before Judah, and the ambushment was behind them.
But Jeroboam caused an ambushment. The oration of Abijah, however animating an effect it might have produced on his own troops, was unheeded by the party to whom it was addressed; because while he was wasting time in useless words, Jeroboam had ordered a detachment of his own to move quietly round the base of the hill, so that when Abijah stopped speaking, he and his followers found themselves surprised in the rear, while the main body of the Israelite forces remained in front. A panic might have ensued had not the leaders "cried unto the Lord," and the priests "sounded with the trumpets" - the pledge of victory (Numbers 10:9; Numbers 31:6); and, reassured by the well-known signal, the men of Judah responded with war-shout, which, echoed by the whole army, was followed by an impetuous rush against the foe. The shock was resistless. The ranks of the Israelites were broken, because "God smote Jeroboam and all Israel." They took to flight, and the merciless slaughter that ensued can be accounted for only by tracing it to the rancorous passions enkindled by a civil war.