Abijah
1 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king of Judah
2 and reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother was Micaiah, daughter of Uriel, from Giveah. Abijah and Jero boam were at war.
3 Abijah 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.
4 Abijah went up Mount Zemaraim, in the hill country of Ephraim, and cried, “Jeroboam and all Israel, listen to me!
5 Do 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.
6 Yet Jeroboam son of Nebat, a servant of So lomon son of Da vid, has rebelled against his king;
7 worthless men, scoundrels, have rallied to him and opposed Reho boam, the son of Solo mon. Rehoboam, then a young man and timid, was unable to resist them.
8 Now 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 Jero boam made you for gods!
9 Have you not driven out the priests of Yahweh, the sons of Aaron and the Le vites, to make priests of your own like the peoples of foreign coun tries? Anyone who comes with a bull and seven rams can ask to be consecrated and become priest of what is no god at all!
10 As for us, our God is Yahweh, and we have not abandoned him: the sons of Aaron minister to Yahweh, and the Levites as well.
11 Every 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 gold en lampstand with its lamps that burn each evening; for we observe the ritual of Yahweh our God, that you have abandoned.
12 See 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.”
13 Jeroboam outflanked the Juda eans by setting an ambush behind them; the Judaeans were facing the Israelites with the ambush at their rear.
14 The Ju daeans, turning about, found themselves attacked from the front and the rear. They called on Yahweh and while the priests sounded the trumpets,
15 the men of Judah raised the war cry. And as they raised the war cry, God scattered Jero boam and all Israel before Abijah and the people of Judah.
16 The Israelites fled before Judah and God delivered them into the power of the Judaeans.
17 Abijah and his army inflicted a crushing defeat on them: five hundred thousand of Israel’s chosen men were killed.
18 And so the people of Israel were humbled and the people of Judah were victorious because they relied on Yahweh, the God of their ancestors.
19 Abijah 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.
20 So in the lifetime of Abijah, Jeroboam could no longer maintain his power. Yah weh struck him down, and he died.
21 But Abijah grew in strength; he took fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
22 The rest of the history of Abijah, his conduct and his deeds, is not all this recorded in the commentary of the prophet Iddo?
23 Then 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.