2 Chronicles
Chapter 13
1 Abijah began to rule over Judah in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam’s reign.
2 He ruled for three years in Jerusalem. His mother was Michaiah, Uriel of Gibeah’s daughter. Abijah and Jeroboam were at war.
3 Abijah organized his army with four hundred thousand brave soldiers, and Jeroboam arranged his army against him with eight hundred thousand strong warriors.
4 Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim in the region of Ephraim and said, “Listen to me, Jeroboam, and all of Israel.”
5 Shouldn’t you know that God gave David and his descendants the rule over Israel forever through a salt covenant?
6 Jeroboam, Nebat’s son, who served Solomon, David’s son, has risen and rebelled against his master.
7 A group of worthless men, followers of wickedness, joined him. They stood against Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, while he was young and gentle, and he couldn’t stand up to them.
8 Now you believe you can resist God’s kingdom under David’s sons’ control; you are many, and you have golden calves, which Jeroboam created as your gods.
9 Haven’t you thrown out God’s priests, Aaron’s descendants, and the Levites, and chosen your own priests like other countries do? So now anyone who comes with a young bull and seven rams can become a priest of false gods.
10 But for us, God is our God, and we haven’t left him; the priests who serve God are Aaron’s sons, and the Levites do their work.
11 Every morning and evening, they burn burnt offerings and sweet incense to God. They also arrange the bread on the clean table and light the gold lampstand with its lamps in the evening. We follow God’s commands, but you have abandoned Him.
12 Look, God is with us as our leader, and his priests with trumpets will sound the alarm against you. Children of Israel, do not fight against the God of your ancestors; you will not succeed.
13 Jeroboam set up an ambush behind them, so they faced Judah with the ambush behind them.
14 When Judah turned around, they saw the battle was in front and behind them. They cried out to God, and the priests blew the trumpets.
15 The men of Judah shouted, and as they shouted, God defeated Jeroboam and all Israel in front of Abijah and Judah.
16 The Israelites ran away from Judah, and God let Judah capture them.
17 Abijah and his army defeated them heavily: so five hundred thousand of Israel’s best men were killed.
18 At that time, the Israelites were defeated, while the people of Judah were victorious because they trusted in God, the God of their ancestors.
19 Abijah chased Jeroboam and captured his cities: Bethel and its villages, Jeshanah and its villages, and Ephraim and its villages.
20 Jeroboam did not regain power during Abijah’s time; God struck him down, and he died.
21 Abijah became powerful, married fourteen women, had twenty-two sons, and sixteen daughters.
22 The other things Abijah did, his actions, and his words, are in the prophet Iddo’s history book.