📖WEB · 1 Chronicles 5:22
What does 1 Chronicles 5:22 mean?
"For many fell slain, because the war was of God. They lived in their place until the captivity."
— 1 Chronicles 5:22 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
They made war with the Hagrites, with Jetur, and Naphish, and Nodab.
They were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them; for they cried to God in the battle, and he answered them, because they put their trust in him.
They took away their livestock; of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep two hundred fifty thousand, and of donkeys two thousand, and of men one hundred thousand.
For many fell slain, because the war was of God. They lived in their place until the captivity.
The children of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the land: they increased from Bashan to Baal Hermon, Senir, and Mount Hermon.
These were the heads of their fathers’ houses: even Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, mighty men of valor, famous men, heads of their fathers’ houses.
They trespassed against the God of their fathers, and played the prostitute after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God destroyed before them.
Explanation
This verse comes at the close of a short battle account describing how the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh — the Israelite tribes who settled east of the Jordan River — fought against the Hagrites and their allies (Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab). The text says the eastern tribes won a decisive victory, and verse 22 explains why the enemy losses were so severe: it wasn't merely superior military strategy or numbers, but because "the war was of God."
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