2 Chronicles 13
1 In the eighteenth year of the reign
of Jeroboam Abia began to reign over Juda.
2 He reigned three years in Jerusalem.
And his mother's name was Maacha, daughter of Uriel
of Gabaon.
And there was war between Abia and Jeroboam.
3 And Abia set the battle in array
with an army, with mighty men of war, even four
hundred thousand mighty men: and Jeroboam set the battle in array against him
with eight hundred thousand, they were mighty
warriors of the host.
4 And Abia rose up from the mount
Somoron, which is in mount Ephraim, and said, Hear ye, Jeroboam, and all
Israel: 5 Is it not for you to know that the Lord God of
Israel has given a king over Israel for ever to David, and to his sons, by a
covenant of salt? 6 But Jeroboam the
son of Nabat, the servant of Solomon
the son of David, is risen up, and has revolted from
his master: 7 and there are gathered
to him pestilent men, transgressors, and he has risen up against Roboam the
son of Solomon, while Roboam was young and fearful in
heart, and he withstood him not. 8 And
now ye profess to resist the kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of
David; and ye are a great multitude, and with you are
golden calves, which Jeroboam made you for gods.
9 Did ye not cast out the priests of
the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and make to yourselves priests
of the people of any other land? whoever came to
consecrate himself with a calf of the herd and seven rams, he forthwith became
a priest to that which is no god.
10 But we have not forsaken the Lord
our God, and his priests, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, minister to the
Lord; and in their daily courses
11 they sacrifice to the Lord
whole-burnt-offering, morning and evening, and compound incense, and
set the shewbread on the pure table; and
there is the golden candlestick, and the lamps for
burning, to light in the evening: for we keep the charge of the Lord God of
our fathers; but ye have forsaken him.
12 And, behold, the Lord and his
priests are with us at our head, and the signal trumpets to sound an alarm
over us. Children of Israel, fight not against the Lord God of our fathers;
for ye shall not prosper.
13 Now Jeroboam had caused an ambush
to come round upon him from behind: and he
himself was before Juda, and the ambush behind.
14 And Juda looked back, and, behold,
the battle was against them before and behind: and
they cried to the Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.
15 And the men of Juda shouted: and
it came to pass, when the men of Juda shouted, that the Lord smote Jeroboam
and Israel before Abia and Juda.
16 And the children of Israel fled
from before Juda; and the Lord delivered them into their hands.
17 And Abia and his people smote them
with a great slaughter: and there fell slain of Israel five hundred thousand
mighty men. 18 So the children of
Israel were brought low in that day, and the children of Juda prevailed,
because they trusted on the Lord God of their fathers.
19 And Abia pursued after Jeroboam,
and he took from him the cities, Bæthel and her towns, and Jesyna and her
towns, and Ephron and her towns.
20 And Jeroboam did not recover
strength again all the days of Abia: and the Lord smote him, and he died.
21 But Abia strengthened himself, and
took to himself fourteen wives, and he begot twenty-two sons, and sixteen
daughters.
22 And the rest of the acts of Abia,
and his deeds, and his sayings, are written in the book of the prophet Addo.
23 And Abia died with his fathers,
and they buried him in the city of David; and Asa his son reigned in his
stead. In the days of Asa the land of Juda had rest ten years.