Zerah

AI summary: This Zerah matters because his cross reference places him at the center of one of Judah's most dramatic victories over a major invading army. The entry highlights how Asa's reign is remembered as a moment when trust in God met overwhelming military pressure. Taken together, the material presents this Zerah as a foreign aggressor in Judah's story of deliverance.¹

An “Ethiopian,” probably Osorkon II., the successor of Shishak on the throne of Egypt. With an enormous army, the largest we read of in Scripture, he invaded the kingdom of Judah in the days of Asa (2 Chr. 14:9-15). He reached Zephathah, and there encountered the army of Asa. This is the only instance “in all the annals of Judah of a victorious encounter in the field with a first-class heathen power in full force.” The Egyptian host was utterly routed, and the Hebrews gathered “exceeding much spoil.” Three hundred years elapsed before another Egyptian army, that of Necho (B.C. 609), came up against Jerusalem. ³