|
Chapter 13 |
| 1 | Now in the
eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah. |
| 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. |
| 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 valor. |
| 4 | And Abijah stood up upon mount Zemaraim,
which is in mount Ephraim, and said, Hear me, thou Jeroboam, and all
Israel; |
| 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? |
|
6 | Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of
Solomon the son of David, is risen up, and hath rebelled against his
lord. |
| 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.
|
| 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 your golden
calves, which Jeroboam made you for gods. |
|
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. |
| 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:
|
| 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. |
| 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
| But Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind
them: so they were before Judah, and the ambushment was behind them. |
| 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. |
| 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.
|
| 16 | And the children of Israel fled before Judah: and God delivered them
into their hand. |
|
17 | And Abijah and his people slew them with a great
slaughter: so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen
men. |
| 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. |
|
19 | And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam, and took cities
from him, Bethel with the towns thereof, and Jeshanah with the towns thereof,
and Ephraim with the towns thereof. |
| 20 | Neither did Jeroboam recover
strength again in the days of Abijah: and the LORD struck him, and he
died. |
| 21 |
But Abijah waxed mighty, and married fourteen wives, and begat
twenty and two sons, and sixteen daughters. |
|
22 | And the rest of the
acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his sayings, are written in the story of the
prophet Iddo. |
