myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

2 Chronicles 13:3, 17

400,000, 800,000 and 500,000

All witnesses checked give Abijah 400,000 men and Jeroboam 800,000, with 500,000 Israelites killed. These figures far exceed plausible Iron Age populations.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original ChroniclesComposed c. 4th century BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Chronicles
Greek
  1. Septuagint, 2 Paraleipomena (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of Chronicles
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Composed c. 4th century BC (debated)

    Original Chronicles

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 2nd century BC

    Septuagint, 2 Paraleipomena (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of Chronicles

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    quatre cent mille… huit cent mille… cinq cent mille

    One Greek text (Vaticanus type) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

  3. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    quadringenta millia… octingenta millia… quingenta millia

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Chronicles

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    אַרְבַּע־מֵאוֹת אֶלֶף… שְׁמוֹנֶה מֵאוֹת אֶלֶף… חֲמֵשׁ־מֵאוֹת אֶלֶף

    four hundred thousand… eight hundred thousand… five hundred thousand

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    four hundred thousand… eight hundred thousand… five hundred thousand

What changed, and why

Explanations: 'eleph as a military unit rather than "thousand"; deliberate hyperbole; or symbolic proportions (1:2). The site labels them as biblical report, not historical counts.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedAll checked witnesses agree on the figures.
  • DisputedThe figures are literal head counts.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Abijah versus Jeroboam →Abijah of Judah, with 400,000 men, faces Jeroboam with 800,000. From Mount Zemaraim Abijah reminds Israel of the LORD's covenant of salt with David and condemns the golden calves and the non-Levite priests. Ambushed from behind, Judah cries out, the priests sound trumpets, and God strikes Israel: 500,000 fall. Jeroboam never recovers.