2 Chronicles - Chapter 13

¹ In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king of Judah

² and reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Micaiah daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. When war broke out between Abijah and Jeroboam,

³ Abijah took the field with an army of four hundred thousand picked warriors, while Jeroboam took the field against him with eight hundred thousand picked warriors.

⁴ Abijah took position on Mount Zemaraim, in the highlands of Ephraim. 'Jeroboam and all Israel,' he cried, 'listen to me!

⁵ Do you not know that Yahweh, God of Israel, has given eternal sovereignty of Israel to David and his sons by an inviolable covenant?

⁶ Yet Jeroboam son of Nebat, the slave of Solomon son of David, rose in revolt against his master.

⁷ Worthless men, scoundrels, rallied to him, proving too strong for Rehoboam son of Solomon, as Rehoboam was then inexperienced and timid and unable to resist them.

⁸ And now you propose to resist Yahweh's sovereignty as exercised by the sons of David because there is a great number of you and you have the golden calves that Jeroboam made you for gods!

⁹ Have 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 to get himself consecrated can become priest of these gods that are no gods.

¹⁰ But for our part, our God is Yahweh, and we have not abandoned him; our priests are sons of Aaron who minister to Yahweh, and those who serve are Levites;

¹¹ morning after morning, evening after evening, they present burnt offerings and perfumed incense to Yahweh, they put the bread of permanent offering on the clean table and nightly light the lamps on the golden lamp-stand; for we keep the decree of Yahweh our God, although you have abandoned him.

¹² See how God is with us, at our head, and his priests with trumpets to sound the alarm against you! Israelites, do not make war on Yahweh, God of your ancestors, for you will not succeed.'

¹³ Now Jeroboam had sent a party round to ambush them from the rear; thus the main force confronted Judah and the ambush lay to their rear.

¹⁴ And when Judah looked round, they found themselves being attacked from front and rear. They called on Yahweh, the priests sounded the trumpets,

¹⁵ and the men of Judah raised the war cry and, as they raised the cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.

¹⁶ So the Israelites fled before Judah, because God had given Judah the upper hand,

¹⁷ and Abijah and his army inflicted a great slaughter on them: five hundred thousand of Israel's picked men fell, killed.

¹⁸ So the Israelites were humbled on that occasion, while the Judaeans won, since they had relied on Yahweh, God of their ancestors.

¹⁹ Abijah pursued Jeroboam, taking from him the towns of Bethel with its dependencies, Jeshanah with its dependencies and Ephron with its dependencies,

²⁰ nor did Jeroboam regain strength during Abijah's lifetime. Eventually Yahweh struck him and he died,

²¹ but Abijah grew stronger than ever; he married fourteen wives and fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

²² The rest of the history of Abijah, his conduct and his sayings, are recorded in the midrash of the prophet Iddo.

²³ When Abijah fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried in the City of David; his son Asa succeeded him. In his time the country was at peace for ten years.

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