Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 12:3
with 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horsemen, and countless troops who came with him out of Egypt—Libyans, Sukkites, and Cushites.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Shishak king of Egypt leads his campaign against Jerusalem in the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, following Judah’s unfaithfulness to the LORD.
The words — רֶ֔כֶב (re·ḇeḇ) = chariot[s] and פָּרָשִׁ֑ים (pā·rā·šîm) = horsemen identify the primary combat arms, while אֵ֣ין (ʾên) = not and מִסְפָּ֗ר (miṣ·pār) = number combine to state that the accompanying infantry was innumerable.
The thread — The text lists Libyans, Sukkites, and Cushites as allied forces, a grouping that echoes in 2 Chronicles 16:8, Nahum 3:9, and Daniel 11:43 where Libyans and Cushites (or Put) repeatedly appear as components of Egypt’s military strength.
Why it lands — The verse quantifies the overwhelming force arrayed against Judah, requiring the reader to acknowledge that human troop counts and equipment cannot determine the outcome of divine judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
With twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 16:8 Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the LORD, He delivered them into your hand.
- Nahum 3:9 Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were her allies.
- Daniel 11:43 He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and over all the riches of Egypt, and the Libyans and Cushites will also submit to him.
- Genesis 10:6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
- Judges 4:13 he summoned all nine hundred of his iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the River Kishon.
- Judges 6:5 For the Midianites came with their livestock and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were innumerable, and they entered the land to ravage it.
- 1 Samuel 13:5 Now the Philistines assembled to fight against Israel with three thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and troops as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Michmash, east of Beth-aven.
- 2 Samuel 10:18 But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed seven hundred charioteers and forty thousand foot soldiers. He also struck down Shobach the commander of their army, who died there.
- 2 Chronicles 14:9 Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots, and they advanced as far as Mareshah.
- 2 Chronicles 14:12 So the LORD struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah, and the Cushites fled.