God’s Word for You

2 Chronicles 26:11-15 War machines

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, May 8, 2025

11 Uzziah had an army of trained soldiers, ready for war, organized in divisions according to the numbers in the census made by Jeiel the secretary and Maaseiah the steward, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king’s princes. 12 The total number of the heads of ancestral houses of mighty warriors was 2,600. 13 Under their command was an army of 307,500, able to make war with a very powerful force, to help the king against the enemy. 14 Uzziah provided the shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and stones for slinging for the whole army. 15 In Jerusalem he set up war machines, invented by clever engineers, on the towers and the corners to shoot arrows and large stones. And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped while he became strong.

Two responsible men set the army in divisions. What was the function of the prince Hananiah? Knowing the king’s intentions about war and defense, he could deliver to the other men where more or less troops would be needed each spring (“when the kings go off to war,” 2 Samuel 11:1). Perhaps this was a security measure, since fewer men with the overall plan meant fewer opportunities for those plans to be leaked to enemies for profit.

The size of the army of Judah was not much different at this time than it had been in the days of Uzziah’s childhood, when his father took 300,000 warriors into the Battle of Beth Shemesh (2 Chronicles 25:5). But Uzziah’s careful planning distributed the army into useful units and placements.

The king did not make the soldiers provide their own weapons, which has been the case in earlier times (Judges 3:31; 1 Samuel 13:19-22). Instead, he invested national treasure into the arming of his men. First of all, for each man: shield, spear, helmet, and coat of mail. Notice that the life of the soldier is the emphasis of these preparations: three-fourths of what was provided was for the defense of the man’s life. Then, depending on the skill or position of each soldier in the line of battle, they might also receive bows or good slinging stones. Along with each bow, of course, would be a quiver (or bundle) of arrows, and along with slinging stones would be slings to sling them, unless a man already had a tried and true sling he was used to using, such as David had (1 Samuel 17:40).

Verse 15 presents a problem for readers who do not have faith in Christ and who reject the authority of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because it presents what appears to be an historical anachronism: That Uzziah, in the early 8th century BC, invented or used an invention that was otherwise thought to be invented two hundred years later. But the text must stand. “The divine authority of Scripture rises from and depends on God. Because holy Scripture has God as its author, by whose inspiration the prophets, evangelists, and apostles wrote [2 Peter 1:21], therefore it has divine authority” (Gerhard, On Holy Scripture §33). Skeptics and critics argue against the passage before us with venomous hatred, saying that the invention of the catapults in this passage did not come about until the Greek inventor Dionysius of Syracuse in about 400 BC. They also claim that there is no written or archaeological evidence for the Hebrews having created such things. Is the Bible not written evidence? Also, the Chinese invented a catapult in the fifth century BC with no knowledge at all of the Greek invention. It is therefore impossible for anyone else to look at a bow and arrow and think, what if this was bigger? Such criticism is evidence of the arrogance of man when he elevates his human reason to the status of a divinity. But human reason is a servant, not a master. We should use our reason the way that a wise person uses a map or their GPS device. It is only useful up to the point where it tells you that you need to drive your car into a river. At that point, wisdom must take over and say, “the reasoning of this device, or the information on this map, is flawed. I’m not getting my feet wet today.” As Professor Deutschlander said: “reason does not instruct or correct the Word of God; reason is instructed and corrected by the Word of God. Reason is a necessary and useful tool in the house of theology, but it is not the master of the house. When used properly, reason is a very useful tool; when allowed to contradict the clear Word of God, reason becomes what Luther called reason thus misused; the devil’s whore” (Grace Abounds, p. 83).

Returning, then, to the war machines invented by clever engineers, their purpose was “to shoot arrows and large stones.” This tells us that whatever these devices were, they could shoot arrows a long way, like a big bow. And either the same device or a similar one could also shoot large stones a considerable distance. The medieval name for such a device was a ballista, but Uzziah called his a chishabon (rhymes with fishy-bone). It was useful, it was a new invention, and it would be perfected over time. Perhaps when the Babylonians finally overthrew Jerusalem, they didn’t know what to do with these weapons which by that time may have fallen into disrepair; or they merely heard stories about them. It is altogether possible that their accounts got from Babylon to Greece, and this was how Dionysius of Syracuse got at least part of his inspiration.

Uzziah was out to protect his nation. Like a good nurse looking after a patient who has been ill a long time, or like a shortstop who has an eye all over the infield, the king was ready to do whatever he could for his people. In this sense, he was a foreshadowing type of Christ, doing with great energy what needed to be done for the kingdom. Uzziah is not a type we should press too much with every detail, but we appreciate his inventiveness, his dedication, and the way that he took his office to heart. May God give us the wisdom to look after one another, to share the gospel of forgiveness and the story of God’s love. These are the best defenses for the human heart.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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