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 valor.
13:4 And Abijah stood 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, hath risen up, and hath rebelled against his
lord.
13:7 And there are gathered to him vain men, the children of
Belial, and [they] have strengthened themselves against
Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and
tender-hearted, 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 [are] 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 for you priests after the
manner of the nations of [other] lands? so that whoever 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, who minister to the LORD, [are]
the sons of Aaron, and the Levites [wait] upon [their]
business:
13:11 And they burn to the LORD every morning and every evening
burnt-sacrifices and sweet incense: the show-bread also [they
set in order] upon the pure table; and the candlestick of gold
with its lamps 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 will not prosper.
13:13 But Jeroboam caused an ambush to come about behind them:
so they were before Judah, and the ambush [was] behind them.
13:14 And when Judah looked back, behold, the battle [was]
before and behind: and they cried to 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 Jeroboam, and took cities from him,
Beth-el with its towns, and Jeshanah with its towns, and Ephron
with its towns.
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 became 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.
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