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2 Chronicles 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 valour.
- 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.
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