And these are the numbers of them according to the house of their fathers: Of Judah, the captains of thousands; Adnah the chief, and with him mighty men of valour three hundred thousand.
These are the numbers. The warriors were, arranged in the army according to their fathers houses. The army of Jehoshaphat, commanded by five great generals, and consisting of five unequal divisions, comprised 1,160,000 men, without including those who garrisoned the fortresses. No monarch, since the time of Solomon, equalled Jehoshaphat in the extent of his revenue, in the strength of his fortifications, and the number of his troops. 'The extent and wealth of the southern kingdom were as great as that of the northern. But the nucleus of it, on which the responsibility of its defense and security rested, was in comparison very inconsiderable. All depended on the men that occupied the fortress settlements of Judah and Benjamin. They furnished the troops for the garrisons of Edom, of the wilderness frontier, of Philistia, and of the various points of access into the country. From this point of view we have the means of estimating the strength and valour of the southern kingdom at this time; its position in relation to its dependencies may be illustrated by that in which our own country now stands to our colonies' (cf. 2 Chronicles 20:29-30: Drew's 'Scripture Lands,' pp. 169, 183, 189).