דברי הימים ב, פרק כ״ח, פסוק ו׳

A severe military defeat strikes the Kingdom of Judah, marking the first stage of its downfall. Pekah son of Remaliah, the King of Israel [ביאור שטיינזלץ], delivers a devastating blow to the Judean army.

This total collapse unfolds in three sequential stages [מלבי ם]. First, a massacre takes place in which one hundred and twenty thousand mighty warriors are killed in a single day. Following this initial slaughter, the king's son is struck down by a warrior from the tribe of Ephraim. Finally, the catastrophe concludes with two hundred thousand people from Judah being taken captive to serve as slaves and maidservants.

The sheer scale of the slaughter among the warriors is not a random tragedy or a mere outcome of war. Rather, this disaster comes as a direct punishment because the people had completely abandoned God [מצודת דוד, מלבי ם].