Abijah
1In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king of Judah 2and reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother was Micaiah, daughter of Uriel, from Giveah. Abijah and Jeroboam were at war. 3Abijah went into battle with an army of brave fighters, four hundred thousand picked men, while Jeroboam drew up his battle line against him with eight hundred thousand picked men, brave soldiers.
4Abijah went up Mount Zemaraim, in the hill country of Ephraim, and cried, “Jeroboam and all Israel, listen to me! 5Do you know that Yahweh the God of Israel has given the kingship of Israel to David forever? It is an unbreakable covenant for him and for his sons. 6Yet Jeroboam son of Nebat, a servant of Solomon son of David, has rebelled against his king; 7worthless men, scoundrels, have rallied to him and opposed Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. Rehoboam, then a young man and timid, was unable to resist them. 8Now you propose to subdue the Kingdom of Yahweh that he gave to David’s descendants. You stand here with a huge army, but you are bringing the golden calves that Jeroboam made you for gods! 9Have you not driven out the priests of Yahweh, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, to make priests of your own like the peoples of foreign countries? Anyone who comes with a bull and seven rams can ask to be consecrated and become priest of what is no god at all! 10As for us, our God is Yahweh, and we have not abandoned him: the sons of Aaron minister to Yahweh, and the Levites as well. 11Every morning, every evening, we burn burnt offerings to Yahweh our God, we have the incense of sweet spices, the loaves set out in rows on the pure table, the golden lampstand with its lamps that burn each evening; for we observe the ritual of Yahweh our God, that you have abandoned. 12See how God is with us, at our head; see his priests with the trumpets, which they will sound against you. People of Israel, do not fight against Yahweh, the God of our ancestors, for you will not succeed.”
13Jeroboam outflanked the Judaeans by setting an ambush behind them; the Judaeans were facing the Israelites with the ambush at their rear. 14The Judaeans, turning about, found themselves attacked from the front and the rear. They called on Yahweh and while the priests sounded the trumpets, 15the men of Judah raised the war cry. And as they raised the war cry, God scattered Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and the people of Judah. 16The Israelites fled before Judah and God delivered them into the power of the Judaeans. 17Abijah and his army inflicted a crushing defeat on them: five hundred thousand of Israel’s chosen men were killed. 18And so the people of Israel were humbled and the people of Judah were victorious because they relied on Yahweh, the God of their ancestors.
19Abijah pursued Jeroboam’s army and captured towns from him: Bethel with its outlying villages, Jeshanah with its outlying villages and Ephron with its outlying villages. 20So in the lifetime of Abijah, Jeroboam could no longer maintain his power. Yahweh struck him down, and he died. 21But Abijah grew in strength; he took fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. 22The rest of the history of Abijah, his conduct and his deeds, is not all this recorded in the commentary of the prophet Iddo? 23Then Abijah rested with his fathers and they buried him in the City of David; his son Asa succeeded him.
In his time the country was at peace for ten years.
