JUDAH, KINGDOM OF. When the territory of all the rest of Israel, except Judah and Benjamin, was lost to the kingdom of Rchoboam, a special single name was needed to denote that which re mained to him ; and almost of necessity the word 7ridah received an extended meaning, according to which it comprised not Benjamin only, but the priests and Levites, who were ejected in great numbers from Israel, and rallied round the house of David. At a still later time, when the nation ality of the ten tribes had been dissolved, and every practical distinction between the ten and the two had vanished during the captivity, the scat tered body had no visible head, except in Jeru salem, which had been re-occupied by a portion of 7udak's exiles. In consequence the name Judah (or yew) attached itself to the entire nation from about the epoch of the restomtion. [JEw.] But in this article Judah is understood of the people over which David's successors reigned, from Reho boam to Zedekiah. [For the dates, see article CHRONOLOGY.) When the kingdom of Solomon became rent with intcstine war, it might have been foreseen that the Edomites, Moabites, and othcr surrounding nations would at once refuse their accustomed tribute, and become again practically independent : and some irregular invasion of these tribes might have been dreaded. It was a mark of conscious weakness, and not a result of strength, that Reho boam fortified fifteen cities (2 Chron. xi. 5-11), in which his people might find defence against the irregular armies of his roving neighbours. But a more formidable enemy came in Shishak, king of Egypt, against whom the fortresses were of no avail (xii. 4), and to whom Jerusalem was forced to open its gates ; and, from the despoiling of his treasures, Rehoboam probably sustained a still greater shock in its moral effect on the Moabites and Edomites, than in the direct loss ; nor is it easy to conceive that he any longer retained the cornmerce of the Red Sea, or any very lucrative trade. Judged of by the number of soldiers re counted in the Chronicles, the strength of the early kings of Judah must have been not only great, but rapidly increasing. The following are the armies there given :— Rehoboam gathered r8o,000 chosen men (2 Chron, xi. 1). (Shishak attacked him with
6o,000 horse, 1200 chariots, besides infantry.) Abijah set in army 400,000 valiant men (xiii. 3, 17), and slew 500,oco of Jeroboam's 80o,000 in one battle. Asa had 3oo,000 heavy anned, and 28o,000 light armed men (xiv. 8). (Zerah in vaded him with t,000,000 men and 300 chariots.) Jehoshaphat kept up :— 300,000 under Adnah, 280,00o under Jehohaan, 200,000 under Amasiah, 200,000 (light armed) under Eliadah, 180,00o under Jehezabad (xvii. 1449).
Total r, 160,000 for field service.
These waited on tbe king ; besides the garrisons in the fenced cities.' After Jehoshaphat followed the calamitous affi nity with the house of Ahab, and the massacres of both families. Under Jehoiada the priest, and Jehoash his pupil, no martial efforts were made ; but Arnaziah son of Jehoash, after hiring 100,000 Israelites to no purpose, made war on the Edom ites, slew 10,000, and threw ro,000 more down from the top of their rock (xxv. 5, 6, rr, 12). His own force in Judah, from twenty years old and upwards, was numbered at only 30o,000 choice men. able to handle spear and shield. His son Uzziah had 2600 military officers, and 307,500 men of war (xxvi. 12, 13). Ahaz lost, in a single battle with Pekah, 120,000 valiant men (xxviii. 6), after the severe slaughter he had received from Rezin king of Syria ; after which no further mili tary strength is ascribed to the kings of Judah. As to all these numbers the Vatican Sept. agrees with the received Hebrew text.
These figures have caused no small perplexity, and have suggested to some the need of conjectural emendation. But if they have been corrupted, it is by system, and on purpose ; for there is far too great uniformity in them to be the result of acci dent. It perhaps deserves remark, that in the book of Kings no numbers of such startling mag nitude are found. The army ascribed to Reho boam (I Kings xii. 21) is, indeed, as in Chronicles, 180,00o men ; but if we explain it of those able to fight, the number, though certainly large, may be dealt with historically. See the article on DAVID, vol. L page 641.