FLOGVIT
.bible

2 ChroniclesChapter 13

+ Secondary textOriginal text← PreviousNext →Contribute
In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah.
He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Micaiah daughter of Uriel, from Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.
Abijah went into battle with an army of seasoned warriors, four hundred thousand chosen men, while Jeroboam drew up his lines against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men, mighty warriors.
Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim, in the hill country of Ephraim, and called out: "Hear me, Jeroboam and all Israel!
Do you not know that the LORD, the God of Israel, gave the kingship over Israel to David forever—to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?
Yet Jeroboam son of Nebat, a servant of Solomon son of David, rose up and rebelled against his master.
Worthless men, scoundrels, gathered around him and defied Rehoboam son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and irresolute and could not stand up to them.
And now you intend to stand up against the kingdom of the LORD, which is in the hands of David's sons. You are a vast horde, and you have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made for you as gods.
Have you not driven out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made your own priests, like the peoples of other lands? Anyone who comes to be ordained with a young bull and seven rams becomes a priest of what are not gods at all.
But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him. The priests who serve the LORD are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites do their appointed work.
Morning after morning and evening after evening they offer burnt offerings and fragrant incense to the LORD; they set out the rows of bread on the pure table and tend the lamps of the golden lampstand every evening. We keep the charge of the LORD our God, but you have forsaken him.
See, God himself is with us at our head, and his priests with their trumpets are ready to sound the battle cry against you. Men of Israel, do not fight against the LORD, the God of your fathers, for you cannot succeed."
Meanwhile Jeroboam had sent troops around to ambush them from the rear, so that his forces were in front of Judah and the ambush behind them.
When Judah turned and saw that they were under attack from both front and rear, they cried out to the LORD, and the priests blew the trumpets.
Then the men of Judah raised the battle cry, and at the sound of their cry God struck down Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.
The Israelites fled before Judah, and God gave them into the hands of Judah.
Abijah and his troops inflicted a crushing defeat on them: five hundred thousand of Israel's chosen men fell slain.
So the Israelites were subdued at that time, and the men of Judah prevailed, because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers.
Abijah pursued Jeroboam and captured from him the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron, with their surrounding villages.
Jeroboam never regained his power during the days of Abijah, and the LORD struck him down, and he died.
But Abijah grew strong. He took fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
The rest of Abijah's acts, his ways and his sayings, are written in the commentary of the prophet Iddo.
Abijah rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David, and his son Asa became king in his place. In Asa's days the land was at peace for ten years.
←→