1Abijah maketh war against Jeroboam: 4he declareth the right of his cause: 13trusting in God he overcometh Jeroboam. 21The wives and children of Abijah.
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1Now in 1the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah.
2He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also wasaMichaiah the daughter of Uriel of 1Gibeah. And 2there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.
3And Abijah set the battle ain array with an army of valiant men of war, even1four hundred thousand chosen men: Jeroboam also set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men, being mighty men of valour.
4¶ And Abijah stood up upon mount 1Zemaraim, which is in 2mount Ephraim, and said, 3Hear me, thou Jeroboam, and all Israel;
5Ought ye not to know that the Lord God of Israel 1gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by 2a covenant of salt?
6Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, is risen up, and hath 1rebelled against his lord.
7And there are gathered unto him 1vain men, the children of Belial, and have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was 2young and tenderhearted, and 3could not withstand them.
8And now ye think to withstand 1the kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David; and ye be2a great multitude, and there are with you golden calves, which Jeroboam made you for gods.
9Have 1ye not cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and have 2made you priests after the manner of the nations of other lands? so that whosoever cometh ato consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a priest of them that are no gods.
10But as for us, 1the Lordis our God, and we have not forsaken him; and the priests, which minister unto the Lord, are2the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business:
11And 1they burn unto the Lord every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices and sweet incense: the 2shewbread also set they in order upon the pure table; and 3the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof, 4to burn every evening: for we 5keep the charge of the Lord our God; but ye have forsaken him.
12And, behold, God himself is with us 1for our captain, and his priests with 2sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you. O children of Israel, 3fight ye not against the Lord God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper.
13¶ But Jeroboam caused 1an ambushment to come about behind them: so they were before Judah, and the ambushment was behind them.
14And when Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind: and they 1cried unto the Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.
15Then the men of Judah gave a shout: and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass, that God 1smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.
16And the children of Israel fled before Judah: and God delivered them into their hand.
17And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter: so there fell down slain of Israel 1five hundred thousand chosen men.
18Thus the children of Israel were abrought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they 1relied upon the Lord God of their fathers.
19And Abijah 1pursued after Jeroboam, and took cities from him, 2Beth-el with the towns thereof, and Jeshanah with the towns thereof, and Ephrain with the towns thereof.
20Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days of Abijah: and the Lord1struck him, and he died.
21¶ But Abijah waxed mighty, and married 1fourteen wives, and begat twenty and two sons, and sixteen daughters.
22And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his sayings, are written in the astory of the prophet 1Iddo.