Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 13:16
So the Israelites fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the immediate aftermath of Judah's battle cry against Jeroboam's forces during the reign of Abijah. The Israelite army breaks formation and retreats before the Judahite troops.
The words — וַ/יָּנ֥וּסוּ (va/i.ya.Nu.su) translates as "and they fled," and וַ/יִּתְּנֵ֥/ם (va/i.yi.te.Ne/m) translates as "and he gave them." These verbs establish the sequence: Israel's rout and God's act of delivering them into Judah's hands.
The thread — The pattern of God delivering enemies into a victor's hand runs through Genesis 14:20 and Deuteronomy 2:36, while the principle of divine favor for reliance on the Lord appears in 2 Chronicles 16:8.
Why it lands — The text states that Israel fled and God actively placed them into Judah's control. It asks the reader to recognize the passage as a historical account where military outcome is attributed directly to divine action rather than human capability.
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
And the children of Israel fled before Judah: and God delivered them into their hand.
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.
- Genesis 14:20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything.
- Deuteronomy 2:36 From Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along with the city in the valley, even as far as Gilead, not one city had walls too high for us. The LORD our God gave us all of them.
- Deuteronomy 3:3 So the LORD our God also delivered Og king of Bashan and his whole army into our hands. We struck them down until no survivor was left.
- Joshua 10:12 On the day that the LORD gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the LORD in the presence of Israel: “O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
- Joshua 21:44 And the LORD gave them rest on every side, just as He had sworn to their fathers. None of their enemies could stand against them, for the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand.
- Judges 1:4 When Judah attacked, the LORD delivered the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands, and they struck down ten thousand men at Bezek.
- Judges 11:21 Then the LORD, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, who defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites who inhabited that country,
- 1 Samuel 23:7 When Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah, he said, “God has delivered him into my hand, for he has trapped himself by entering a town with gates and bars.”