What a Brutal Civil War

I couldn't help myself. I took a look at some interesting data on the Internet which give the death tolls of the famous battles and wars over the course of human history. Amazingly, this civil war between Israel and Judah ranks right up there with some of the highest in terms of death and carnage. I'm not just talking about the history of wars from a period in time or region in the world. I'm talking about ALL warfare of ALL time in ALL of recorded history. This ongoing war between Israel and Judah was absolutely brutal by comparison to other world conflicts and rates right up there with some of the worst ever!

Case in point is this battle recorded in this chapter 13 of 2 Chronicles. On this day half a million men are killed.

Verse 17 -- "And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter: so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men."

When I first read this I had to read in over again a few times. Are you kidding me?! Half a million men killed! It's almost impossible to take in with just the reading of one verse of scripture. We get no other details (but just use your imagination -- this was atrocious!).

Remember the war between Israel and Judah continued for generations! This battle was just one of many. I don't think we realize just how horrific this period was and how sad it was that this great kingdom of Israel split into two factions and spent most of it's existence destroying it's own people. It makes you wonder what was the total price paid in deaths over the whole split kingdom era. This would be an interesting study all to itself -- the death tolls of this entire period. The grand total must have been staggering and most likely far exceeds the deaths inflicted upon Israel by other nations. What a judgement God rendered upon his people!