2 Chronicles 13:1-22
13 In the year eighteen of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah;
2 he reigned three years at Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Micajah the daughter of Uriel from Gibeah.
3 And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam; and Abijah took the offensive with a force of champion warriors, four hundred thousand picked men, and Jeroboam joined battle with him with eight hundred thousand picked stalwart champions.
4 And Abijah stood up on top of Mount Semaraim in the highland of Ephraim, and said
“Listen, Jeroboam and all Israel!
5 You ought to know that Israel’s God Jehovah gave David kingship over Israel forever, to him and to his sons, in a covenant of salt;
6 but Jeroboam the son of Nebat, a subject of David’s son Solomon, stood up and rebelled against his sovereign,
7 and a set of reprobate riffraff gathered about him and organized a mutiny against Solomon’s son Rehoboam, and Rehoboam was young and irresolute and did not hold his own against them.
8 And now you are expecting to hold your own against Jehovah’s kingship in the hands of David’s sons, you being a great crowd and having with you gold calves that Jeroboam made you for gods!
9 * Haven’t you banished Jehovah’s priests, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and made yourselves priests like those of the peoples of all the countries, everybody that comes to get installed with a steer of horned cattle and seven rams and become a priest to no-gods?
10 But we have Jehovah for our God, and have not left him; and priests officiating to Jehovah, the sons of Aaron and the Levites at work
11 and making burnings to Jehovah, burnt-offerings morning by morning and evening by evening, and aromatic incense, and stacked bread on the clean table, and the gold lampstand and its lamps to be lighted evening by evening, because we are keeping the charge of our God Jehovah; but you have left him.
12 And here we have with us at our head God and his priests and the martial trumpets to sound the forward-march over us. Sons of Israel, do not fight your fathers’ God Jehovah, for you will have no success.”
13 But Jeroboam had sent the ambush around to come in at their rear; and they were in front of Judah, and the ambush at their rear.
14 And Judah faced about and found that they had the attack before and behind; and they cried to Jehovah, and the priests sounded the trumpets,
15 and the men of Judah raised a cheer; and when the men of Judah cheered, God let Jeroboam and all Israel be beaten by Abijah and Judah,
16 and the sons of Israel were routed before Judah, and God gave them into their hands,
17 and Abijah and his people made a great slaughter among them; and there fell, stabbed through, five hundred thousand picked men out of Israel.
18 And the sons of Israel were humbled at that time, and the sons of Judah were nerved up, because they leaned on their fathers’ God Jehovah;
19 and Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took cities from him, Bethel and its dependencies and Jeshanah and its dependencies and ʽEphron and its dependencies.
20 And Jeroboam no longer retained any strength in Abijah’s time; and Jehovah struck him down, and he died.
21 And Abijah consolidated his power, and married fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
22 And the rest of the history of Abijah, and his courses and his words, are recorded in the story of the prophet ʽIddo.
Footnotes
^ 13:9 Lit. of the countries
