|
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. |
