2 Chronicles Chapter 13

Abijah Rules Judah

¹ In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king in Judah. ² He ruled for 3 years in Jerusalem. His mother was Micaiah Bat-Uriel of Gibeah. War arose between Abijah and Jeroboam. ³ Abijah entered the battle with 400,000 trained soldiers; Jeroboam drew up in battle formation against him with 800,000 trained soldiers.                                                        2 Ch 13:1-3

⁴ Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim and shouted,

“Jeroboam and all Israel. ⁵ Don’t you know that Yahveh God of Israel gave the rule over Israel permanently to David and his descendants by a covenant of salt? ⁶ Yet Jeroboam rebelled against him. ⁷ Worthless men gathered around him, scoundrels that proved to be too strong for the son of Solomon when he was young and timid and couldn’t hold his own against them. ⁸ So now you intend to resist the kingdom of Yahveh by the descendants of David because you have a big army and the golden calves Jeroboam made as your gods. ⁹ Haven’t you driven out Yahveh’s priests, the descendants of Aaron and the Levites, and made your own priests like people in other countries? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams, can become a priest for what aren’t gods. ¹⁰ Yahveh is our God. We haven’t left him. The descendants of Aaron are serving him as priests and the Levites are doing their work. ¹¹ Every morning they burn burnt offerings and fragrant incense to him. They set the showbread on the clean table, and the golden lampstand with its lamps is ready to light every evening, because we’re keeping the charge of Yahveh our God. But you’ve left him. ¹² God is at our head and his priests with the signal bugles to sound the alarm against you, Israel. Don’t fight with Yahveh God of your ancestors; you won’t prevail.”     

2 Ch 13:4-12                

¹³ But Jeroboam had set an ambush from the rear, so Israel lay in front of Judah and behind. ¹⁴ When Judah turned around, Israel attacked them from the front and back. Israel cried out to Yahveh, the priests blew the bugles, ¹⁵ and Judah’s soldiers raised the battle cry. When they did, God routed Jeroboam and Israel in front of Abijah and Judah. ¹⁶ When the Israelites fled, God delivered them to Judah. ¹⁷ Abijah and his army defeated them with a massacre of 500,000 elite troops. ¹⁸ Israel was subdued because Judah trusted in Yahveh. ¹⁹ Abijah chased Jeroboam and captured several towns: Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron with their villages. ²⁰ Jeroboam didn’t regain strength during Abijah’s reign. Yahveh struck him, and he died.

²¹ Abijah became more powerful and took 14 wives and became father of 22 sons and 16 daughters. ²² The rest of the acts of Abijah, his ways and words, are recorded in The Account of the Prophet Iddo.                                       2 Ch 13:13-22