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